Perfect For the Urban Explorer: Yotel Review Singapore Orchard
Drawn to the spanking new staycation venue in town? This Yotel review Singapore Orchard will show you everything you can expect, to pamper you and your partner silly.
The affordable hotel that just opened its doors in Oct 2017 may come across as many things – co-working space, poké bowl restaurant, compact luxury hotel. But those are really the bells and whistles of a staycation venue, because you’ll need to know how it fares where it really matters… And that is the comfort level of the room itself.
Your staycation venue may come with a 3om swimming pool, a 24-hour gym facility, over 40 channels on mio TV including an in-house yoga instructional. And Yotel does come with all that, for a price tag that can hardly get you a basic room at Garden Terrace Hotel.
The focus here though is how the stay in the room over a weekend feels, so you can recharge yourself in preparation of another week at work. Let’s review the quality in terms of comfort, service and environment.
Delight In The Comfort Of A Spick-And-Span Studio Apartment
For the Premium Queen cabin, 14 sq metres is actually not too shabby. Considering the amount of things packed into the room, it doesn’t feel squeezy at all. There is a clever system of hiding away things that you don’t need, like under-bed storage for your bag so you don’t need a rack or stand like most hotels have.
Watch the walkabout video to see hidden hooks and panels that make the feature wall flush and look very clean.
The mattress is easily one of the more memorable beds you’ll sleep on. While it’s still new and therefore you’ll enjoy first dibs of course. If you’re a fan of memory foam, you’ll love lying on the mattress and feel yourself slowly sinking into its warm embrace… till you drift off into blissful slumber.
In fact, you may not find yourself using the upright function of the bed very much, because you may just prefer to remain in the horizontal position most the time. Being able to prop yourself up while watching TV in air-con comfort under the sheets sounds like the perfect Netflix and chill setting, but you’ll see that there’s more to life after a while.
Like, actually catching up on beauty sleep especially if the week has been brutal for your mental well-being.
Robot Shows Humans How It’s Done By Demonstrating The Future Of Service
It’s hard to find fault with a robot that plays snippets from the Sound of Music after a successful delivery.
Especially when you’re thirsty and the robot brings you just what you need after a sweaty workout.
When it’s actually working, the robot waits for you to open the door, then dispenses your requested items before heading off chirpily. Without the lingering doubt of whether you should tip. I say when it’s actually working because on day 1 we didn’t get to catch it in action.
Upon calling mission control labelled on the hotel phone, which should be a playful term for concierge, there was no answer. It was by calling cabin crew / housekeeping that I got my request through.
On day 1, human intervention stepped in because the robots were on strike. Minor disappointment.
And on day 2, they finally sent the robot. Again not through mission control but by calling cabin crew.
To see how the robot heads back to base, you can watch the stalker video below that details the path of its return.
You may start worrying about losing your jobs to robots just about… now.
On another note about service, humans do play a big part in making us feel welcome at Yotel.
From helping us check in, to actually sending the robot on its way, the crew is prompt and ready to prove that robots take the backseat when it comes to making guests feel at home.
Environment Lets You Unwind Using Technology That Does The Work For You
Unlike 90% of the hotels out there, you do not need to fumble in the dark to dock the key card in order to activate electricity. Motion sensors in Yotel’s room will turn on the air-con and lights when you enter.
Little things like this make the staycation a joyful one.
Geeks may like the panel beside the kettle.
It’s got an HDMI input and 2 USB ports to charge your devices. And audiophiles remember to bring your 3.5mm cable to use the overhead speakers and fill the air with your musical drug.
But the panel is getting outpaced by screen mirroring that the wall-mounted TV supports. Android users can already share their movies from the phone to the TV directly, without using the HDMI port.
Other than the ecosystem for your gadgets that is largely a novelty, the physical environment that Yotel provides is of high quality.
From the 21st floor window, you can glimpse into the past and present of Singapore, far and wide. It is most relaxing, if your usual abode is that of typical government housing where the view is your car park. Or a peek at what your neighbour’s cooking for dinner.
If you ever fantasized about peeing down a tall building and watching people below you suffer… then you should book an appointment with your shrink.
But it does feel like that if you trust that no one is watching from nearby buildings, because they have better things to do on a weekend.
Otherwise there are 2 varying layers of shades you can pull down for increasing levels of privacy.
The room with no activity going on is very quiet, and it affords you reflection time, recharging time, relaxing time… Like the hotel proposes, Yo! time.
Conclusion
Is Yotel worth its price tag?
Hell yeah!
Will the small cabins turn you off if you prefer a spacious room?
Not really, nowadays it’s all about maximizing available space rather than just hoarding loads of raw space. Unless you’re a die-hard zen minimalistic millionaire who wants no worldly possessions but a 100 sq metre bedroom to put your tatami in.
Does Yotel neglect the people who are not tech savvy?
Hell naw, human interaction is just one phone call away. The cabin crew/ housekeeping one in my case.
Will I return to stay there again?
I’ll have fond memories of the mattress they use over there, because the ability to KO someone is deadly… But probably not so soon as there’s so much more to explore.
You however, if you’re coming from out of town to stay a night or two, then it doesn’t get any better than this no frills hotel built for the upwardly mobile crowd in mind.
Even if you don’t eat at Grains & Hops on the 10th floor, you’ll find plenty of good food at nearby Far East Plaza.
