Hobnob at the Club — Executive Hotel

Lounges
 

 The Straits Club Lounge (The Fullerton Singapore)

   
The Fullerton Singapore                                                                                       The Oriental Club
 

Perhaps the dreariest part of any hotel experience is joining the line at the reception after a muscle-numbing plane ride, eyes glazed over and laptop slung over a lopsided shoulder. All in the name of trying to check in. (Yes, marginally worse than paying the bill.)

Such moments dim the allure of large hotels with their many amenities and grand scale of things.

The boutique hotel cleverly sidesteps this problem by working on the simple equation of fewer rooms plus fewer guests equal personalised service and no queues. Few things are as precious as being assured that ‘we’ve been expecting you’ upon approaching the frontdesk and then being whisked to your room immediately after. Check-in takes place in the guestroom of course.

The larger hotel’s take on this concept has been to create executive clubs — a hotel-within-the-hotel. Club floor guests are entitled to check in at a private reception located on a separate floor. This is part of a club setting with private meeting rooms, workstations, library and a host of other perks.

Today, practically all hotels offer a version of the club floor, either with a fancy label (such as Horizon Club at Shangri-La) or a deadly dull name (for instance, Executive Club at Conrad Centennial Hotel). Standards vary widely — some club floors are so spartan one shudders to think what the regular non-club service and rooms are like.

So how good are hotel club floors?  SLG investigates the fuss and checks out two of the market leaders.

Straitlaced No More

One of the boldest hotel designs to have emerged in recent years, the Fullerton puts the traditional next to the modern, with attitude and an absence of apology.

Gasp if you must when you survey the traditional porte cocheres and then step into a thoroughly modern lobby that reins in its grand proportions with bamboo groves and a subdued sand-brown and yellow colour theme. And even feel intimidated by the Doric columns rising next to the infinity pool overlooking the Singapore River.

In the end, the hotel’s sheer functionality and unconventional beauty make converts out of the most unyielding purists — really, who cares about preserving 70-year-old beams and supporting walls when one is lounging in style by the pool? In fact, who even notices the preserved 1928 wall motifs and original coffered ceiling of the Post Bar (the hotel bar), when one is swamped by its excruciatingly hip atmosphere, lychee martini coolly in one hand?

In contrast with the hive of activity in the lobby, the Straits Club (the hotel executive club lounge) on the fourth floor, counterbalances with a whitewashed colonial style and is open only to the club floor guests. One steps into a drawing-room styled reception (for private check-in), which leads to a split-level library and dining room.

Here, oriental rugs and Peranakan artefacts lend that touch of Asian tradition to a more stately setting. The food service stations serving breakfast, cocktails and tea are cleverly tucked away in a corner to maximise quiet and privacy. White window frames give a river view, flanked by fluted columns. Afternoon tea here is a delight.

Competent and friendly service complete the experience.

The Fullerton has been amazing in getting its act together in a mere five years. Actually, in its first year of operation, where teething problems usually abound, it was already making 
an impact.

An evening walk along the hotel perimeter shows its potential. The river glistens with colour and activity by the pergola terrace of the Town Restaurant and the Palladian hotel architecture is lit up in incandescence. The atmosphere is utterly magic.

With further fine-tuning, the Fullerton has every chance of becoming one of the world’s top ten business hotels.

The Straits Club

Eastern Splendour
 

A few years ago, the Oriental was, frankly speaking, looking very much frayed at the edges and very dated. After a recent extremely expensive makeover, the hotel has emerged as one of the strongest contenders for Singapore’s top business hotel.

The hotel is of course noted for its atrium design that gives a dramatic vertical sweep of a rising shaft attenuating to the skylight.

Ironically, the architecture has made the revamp job the more challenging. Columns (along which bullet elevators travel) rise through the middle of the atrium, blocking the perspective. The resulting smaller lobby is deprived of the chance to make a grand statement.

So what do you do with such limitations?

Go cool and dark, seems to be the answer. In black marble set off by dark wood, with Chinese and South East Asian motifs. Occasional deep red accents in the form of drapes are an exquisite counterpoint. Subtle lighting enhances the mystique and emphasises the intimacy instead of its smaller proportions.

The resulting flavour is that of a 50s grand hotel with discreet nods to the 70s. Buttoned-down sofas are paired with beaded curtains and wooden strip panelling juxtaposed with bluish mosaic. This theme continues through to the second and third floors where Axis Bar, Melt Café and Cherry Garden are located.

The Oriental Club Lounge on the 19th floor expands this concept magnificently. In Singapore’s largest executive club, a birdcage-like entrance welcomes the guest. Extending on either side is a series of rooms partitioned with standing and pendant screens in telescopic fashion. High ceilings add a touch of style, being the legacy from two converted duplex presidential suites.

Décor aside, what I adored particularly was the close to seamless service at the club — from check-in to breakfast service to check-out, everything was effortlessly executed.

This is no mean accomplishment as the complex hotel machinery provides plenty of opportunities for slip-ups. (Trust me, I have seen plenty in some top hotels.) As a point of comparison, Thai hotel service is extremely genial but occasionally forgetful, while American service, though professional, sometimes impresses a tad carelessly on the need to tip.

The Oriental club service rises above amnesia and moneyed-anticipation, to deliver assured, prompt and genuinely friendly service sans pourboire.

Many luxurious hotels are opulent but few achieve that integrated sense of style and proportion. Even fewer startle with their beauty. The Oriental Singapore is one of the rare few.

The Oriental Club

Jeffrey Lee