Staycations might as well be Singapore’s national hobby now that we can’t travel. While I never quite saw the appeal of spending money to stay in a hotel in Singapore (I barely even stay in hotels overseas unless it’s sponsored #hostellifeFTW). Since I paid S$100+ for the staycation at YOTEL Orchard, you bet I’ll create content from it to make the most out of my money LOL.
Check in experience
I was utterly confused when I arrived at YOTEL Orchard at 2pm to check in because the entrance was packed like sardines with almost no social distancing. Yikes (⚆_⚆ )
Most of the guests had a a large amount of luggage with them; when I checked with YOTEL Orchard, the staff told me the hotel is not a designated Stay Home Notice (SHN) facility. In her words, “It’s just a big group checking in.”
Their explanation seemed iffy to me considering big groups of middle-aged men don’t quite fit the profile of usual staycation guests (ಠ_ಠ)
YOTEL reached out to me after I posted IG Stories of the above images to clarify that the large groups were essential workers affected by Malaysia’s Movement Control Order (MCO).
To the staff’s credit, they were patient and tried their best to speed up the process despite YOTEL Orchard being visibly short-handed.
I scurried to a self-service kiosk technology-embracing Millennial that I am.
YOTEL touts their SmartStay operation as the new norm in the hotel and hospitality industry. Unfortunately, the self-service check-in kiosk didn’t work for me, presumably because I bought my tickets via Trip.com instead of directly from YOTEL’s website.
After the staff took my IC and checked me in manually, I was finally sent to my room.
YOTEL Orchard Premium Queen Room
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| What greeted me when I opened the door |
While the room was no doubt small, it has almost everything you need — from a folding chair to a tiny fridge — neatly tucked away.
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| Magnetic cabinets that clicked open |
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| Complimentary mineral water |
We requested for another two bottles later that night, which were brought to us by a staff and not YOTEL’s famed guest service robots, regrettably. That wasn’t the first and won’t be the last time technology in the futuristic didn’t deliver — a recurring theme in YOTEL, as I would later discover.
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| Hairdryer and iron |
The hand sanitiser and alcohol wipe were nice touches in the time of Covid-19.
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| View of the bed from the other side |
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| Entering the toilet |
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| Admire the view while you ascend the throne |
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| A large shower area at YOTEL Orchard |
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| Shampoo, conditioner and shower gel |
I settled in, and tried connecting my phone to the SmartTV to stream my Netflix movies. Alas, my bad experience at YOTEL wouldn’t relinquish its tight grip on me, and I failed to connect my phone to the SmartTV despite trying several times.
We fiddled around a bit more but were met with error messages stating that no media was detected in my phone (I have 27,000 photos lollll), before giving up and calling YOTEL’s tech support again.
I lost it. It wasn’t my proudest moment, but I was exasperated beyond belief.
“You mean your SmartTV cannot be connected to a smartphone?” I asked incredulously.
“Um, this is not a SmartTV.”
I was befuddled. If I could surf the internet on the TV, if the TV could supposedly connect to a mobile phone, if the pairing app is named "Smart View", how is that not a smart TV?
How were the staff and tech support so confused by the iPhone situation?
Was iPhone problem not brought up before? Aren’t iPhone users common in Singapore? Why would the TV show an option for iOS users if it couldn’t be paired with iPhones?
It was maddeningly frustrating but oh well, there was nothing we could do.
I felt foolish watching my shows on a laptop, propped up by a pillow, with a big screen mocking me from behind. To be fair, YOTEL Orchard offered us an HDMI cable but we still needed an adapter for it to work with Macbooks.
According to Milelion’s review, YOTEL Changi has a built-in Chromecast feature which took only minutes to set up. If you’re an iPhone user, you might wish to consider YOTEL Changi instead of YOTEL Orchard.
Food
My booking via Trip.com entitled me to a set meal for two at KOMYUNITI, a restaurant on the tenth floor of YOTEL. Since this wasn’t mentioned during check in, I approached YOTEL later in the day to enquire about the redemption mechanics.
I assumed that he confused my set meal with complimentary breakfast YOTEL was offering and, despite my insistence that he look at my email with details on the KOMYUNITI set meal, they elaborated on the breakfast mechanics anyway.
I was annoyed that he wasn’t listening to me and, on their end, I’m pretty sure they thought I was being a Karen at this point wtf.
We skipped breakfast to sleep in but after checking out, we marched straight into KOMYUNITI at lunch to try our luck. Once we mentioned the Trip.com deal, the KOMYUNITI staff immediately knew what we were referring to, and listed the items relevant to our staycation package.
The set meal comprised of:
- Mushroom soup OR salad
- Teriyaki chicken rice
- Coffee OR tea
The meal was nothing to shout about and I wouldn’t return on a normal day but there and then, I was just happy that something worked out smoothly for once that weekend.
