talesfromjakarta: Equarius Hotel @ Resort World Sentosa, Singapore

On our wedding anniversary, dear hubby booked us into one of the hotels in Resort World Sentosa. Equarius Hotel has impressively large 51 sqm deluxe rooms with a touch of modern luxury decor. The price was rather reasonable, slightly below SG$300 including tax for a 51sqm deluxe room. It was on offer with huge discounts on olotels.com. On any other weekends, the same room with breakfast is going to cost at least SG$500.

The hotel offers free shuttle connecting all other hotels in Resort World, thus it's rather convenient. Hop on and get off at Michael Hotel to go to Universal Studio or get off at Hard Rock Hotel for some boozes and live band at night. The free shuttle operates from 10am till 10pm (extended till 12am for weekends), with every 15 minutes intervals.

The impression was good until we checked in. The front desk staff at the reception was a chinese lady. She wasn't smiling and she was rather harsh in her tone when asking dear hubby for his I.D. Since it was only 5 minutes to 11 in the morning but the hotel standard check-in time is at 3pm, we left our luggage at the concierge and wandered off to Universal Studio.

When we returned to the hotel (close to 6pm) to collect the room keys and our luggage, the reception couldn't find our room that we have checked in earlier. And she wasn't apologetic at all. We waited about 15 minutes throughout the process of 'finding us a room' and there wasn't a single apology from the staff. Coincidentally, another hotel guest who was checking-in at the next counter, was also facing the same problem. Apparently, she had checked in earlier in the morning, and she has been allocated 2 rooms right next to each other as per her request. When she returned to the hotel to collect the rooms keys, the reception gave her 2 different rooms located on different floors, separating her room from her family's. The last sentence I heard from her to the hotel staff was "This is the beginning of my holiday and you sure know how to ruin it!"

The next morning, we went for the complimentary breakfast and I found that the restaurant staff wasn't well trained. I was having my first serving of toasts halfway when I decided to get myself some juice. Upon returning to the table, everything on my table was cleared, including the cutlery! I went over to get more food and asked the staff for another set of cutlery. The staff, who was a middle aged chinese lady, replied me in Singlish (Singaporean English), "Your table don't have knife and fork ar? Where you sit??"
I pointed at my table and upon seeing the empty table, she continued, "Wait, wait... I take for you." It was kind of funny to hear it coming from a 5 star hotel staff. I wasn't feeling mad or anything but unfortunately, the few incidents are telling me that Equarius Hotel is not up to the 5 stars standard in terms of service level.