Istana

We had a very comfortable stay at the Grand Pacific for 5 nights. The location is very convenient to get around in Singapore by public transport as well as walking. There’s bus stops right outside the hotel and within 250m from the hotel, you can practically get a bus to anywhere in Singapore. I would rate this property a 5 star, except for a few reasons. We arrived at 5am and while I totally understand check-in is at 3pm, I would expect from a service perspective that you atleast offer your guests (who have already completed check-in formalities) waiting in your lobby a bottle of water as a courtesy. We had shifts change from the night to the early morning staff, but felt overlooked for more than 3 hours as we headed out at 8am. The room telephone wasn’t working, which we discovered the next day. The staff were prompt to send maintenance crew to have a look, but it seemed the line was dead and needed external contractors to attend. We opted for the issue to not be looked at, but ideally one would expect this to be picked up in checks while the room is prepared. Our 3 year old’s bath towel was mistakenly collected by the housekeeping staff while changing towels on Day2, and I had to keep following up the issue. However, Lee and Christine were better than other staff who took the trouble to look into it and help redress. Christine helper reimburse me while checking out, which I appreciated. It was hard to explain to a toddler why their towel disappeared.

no air condition at sky lounge

The property is centrally located near the beaches, monorail and Resort World (Universal Studios, Adventure Cove water park and the Aquarium). The rooms were smaller than I expected from the photos but very functional and thought out. We had a family room which was two connected rooms. Good to have two bathrooms. To be more eco, the hotel should use large pump bottles of shampoo in the rooms rather than small one time use tubes. The pool area is pretty but needs more umbrellas and lounge chairs. Most of the day it has direct sun and there is nowhere to sit by the pool without burning. Movie night was a nice touch.