Swissotel Merchant Court, Singapore

I’ve been to Singapore a heap of times. I’ve mostly stayed over the east side of the river at the Swissotel Stamford or on Orchard Road but this time I stayed on the west side of the river near Singapore’s China Town at the Swissotel Merchant Court.

Swissotel Merchant Court, Singapore

The Swissotel Merchant Court seems to be the elder of the two Swissotels in Singapore (don’t know how true that is) but it just seemed more tired that the Stamford.

The location is splendid. You literally walk out the front door of the hotel and 20 meters to the left you have the restaurant and bar area of Clarke Quay (along with the associated people trying to rip you off – but they’re easy to brush off). Right across the road is The Central complex with its associated shops and restaurants and hawker centre food downstairs.

For the first time while overseas I really needed to use the Concierge service at a hotel. I had a tooth filling fall out one afternoon and the concierge was magnificent in finding me an appointment at a local dentist and following up after my appointment to make sure I was ok. That was splendid service!

I spent a couple of late afternoons at the sQue Alehouse overlooking the river drinking some quite reasonably priced (for Singapore!) beers. Just a short stagger back to the hotel.

One thing that pissed me off a little was that on a couple of occasions I got back to my room in the late afternoon and it still had not been serviced. At a 5 star hotel you expect your room to be serviced by early afternoon at the latest.

I decided that there’s alot more of Singapore to explore near the Swissotel Merchant Court so will use it as a base for my next trip to Singapore.