Review: Fairmont Singapore (ft. renovated South Tower)

Situated above Raffles City Shopping Centre and City Hall MRT, Fairmont Singapore offers 778 rooms across its North and South Towers. The Raffles City complex also houses Fairmont's sister hotel, the much taller Swissôtel The Stamford (with 73 floors and more than 1,200 rooms), a convention centre, and an office tower.

Refurbished deluxe room

North vs South Tower

The new South Tower was unveiled in end-2019 and offers 403 rooms. It was renovated extensively and houses most of the premium suites. However, in the pandemic it was soon designated a Stay Home Notice facility to serve guests under quarantine, thus leaving staycation guests with the North Tower to choose from. The South Tower has since reopened. 

The North Tower is older and room types include the Fairmont Room and Signature Suite. Guests travelling under the Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL), Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL), and Air Travel Pass (ATP) are currently served in the North Tower.

Fairmont hotel exterior

Fairmont is known to offer several themed staycation packages, including a Pokémon-themed experience that offers complientary mechardise, activities, and Nintendo Switch consoles for loan. So at the time of my stay, Pokémon decorations can be found around the public areas, including this Mewtwo at the main entrance.

Pokémon Mewtwo greets guests at the hotel entrance

Behind the counters stands quite a spectacular 4.5-metre tall mural "Diversity" by Swiss textile designer and artist Claudia Caviezel.

Reception counters and textile mural behind

Fairmont lobby

Rooms

Both towers combined, the hotel carries a wide range of room categories in its inventory:

• Fairmont Room, North Tower, 45 sqm
• Deluxe Room, South Tower, 45 sqm
• Deluxe Harbour View Room, South Tower, 45 sqm
• Fairmont Gold Room, South Tower, 45 sqm
• Fairmont Gold Harbour View Room, South Tower, 45 sqm
• Signature Suite, North Tower, 56 sqm
• Signature Salon Suite, South Tower, 56 sqm
• Signature Gold King Suite, North and South Towers, 56 sqm
• Ambassador Suite, South Tower, 90 sqm
• Governor Suite, North Tower, 135 sqm
• Royal Suite, South Tower, 152 sqm
• Presidential Suite, South Tower, 270 sqm

The corridor adorned with sculptures 

Deluxe rooms are located in the South Tower. At 45 sqm, they are available in king and doubles. They feature dark wooden panels and whisky/cognac tones for an elegant and perhaps slightly serious feel.

Entrance to deluxe room

Deluxe room in doubles configuration

Seating area

Lights can be controlled on switch panels at the entrance and bedside, and curtains are motorised.

Switch panel at entrance

As with all rooms in this hotel, a small private balcony with standing space is available. The air-conditioning switches off when the balcony doors are opened. There was a little bit of noise leakage from the busy road junction below.

Sliding doors leading to balcony

Balcony overlooking the intersection between Beach Road and Bras Basah Road

A unique feature of the room is the SwissPro filtered tap inside the Maxi Bar, where a Nespresso machine and minibar can be found. The tap provides portable hot and cold water which is really convenient (even though the tap runs slow). A reusable water bottle is also provided inside the room for this purpose. With this, the hotel no longer provides bottled water which cuts down on single-use plastics, which I very much support.

Fairmont Maxi Bar and SwissPro filtered tap (centre-right)

The bathroom is much brighter with marbled floors and walls and a large mirror lighted around its rim. It comes with a deep soak bathtub (but no bath salts) and a separate rain shower. Bathroom amenities are provided by Rose 31.

Bathroom mirror with lighted rim

Bathroom interior

Deep soak bathtub

Facilities

The fitness centre, as I understand, used to be 24 hours but is no longer so due to safe distancing regulations. Advance booking is required via the online system. There is are also two circular swimming pools and an outdoor area on level 8. Access is via the Willow Stream Spa on Level 6.

Fitness centre

Willow Stream Spa

Breakfast at Prego

Breakfast is available from Prego (Italian restaurant) and Asian Market Cafe (Halal-certified local and regional favourites). They are available à la carte buffet style. Prego is open for breakfast from 7am to 10.30am and advance booking online is recommended.

Fairmont's Italian restaurant, Prego

Restaurant interior

Eggs ben (forgot to cut the yolk before this photo)

Overall impressions

The refurbished rooms were modern and make for a comfortable stay. However, the hotel's service was rather inconsistent. The staff gladly accommodated requests to send an ice bucket and HDMI cable to the room, but a bottle of champagne that was ordered at night never arrived despite a reminder. Unfortunately, it only reached the next morning after a third request.

Champagne took a whole night to arrive

If the hotel sorts out this inconsistency, it could stand to be a promising choice among travellers and staycationers, especially given its recent renovation and the availability of themed staycations. Its central location and the underground connectivity to surrounding malls beyond Raffles City—such as Marina Square, Suntec City, Capitol and recently Funan—is also a good plus. (Hotels within walking distance that I've reviewed include the JW Marriott South Beach and lyf Funan) 

Tips

Tip 1: book your stays via ShopBack here (new users get $5) and checkout via Accor Live Limitless or other travel websites like Booking.com or Trip.com to get cashback on your bookings

Tip 2: if you're considering several stays at Accor properties like Fairmont, Swissôtel, Sofitel, Novotel and Mercure, you can consider the paid Accor Plus membership especially when the annual fee is on promotional discount

Fairmont Singapore is located at 80 Bras Basah Rd, Singapore 189560. Telephone: (65) 6339 7777