Budget Hotels in Singapore - the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!

By Donn Richard
October 2008
Singapore

With Singapore striving to become a major global magnet for tourists of different budgets, it is now offering a variety of accommodation choices. There have been over a hundred or so 3-4? Star hotels catering to the affluent, big spenders and/or package tourists. But what about the normal folks or the “budget?tourists? What is it Singapore offers them in terms of reasonably priced accommodation?

Firstly, there are well over 25 privately run youth hostels. Most offer a bed in a dorm for around SG $20 a night and SG $40 for a single room; bathroom outside and shared.

Alright this is all fine and interesting. But where are these hostels located? Well, the majority are located in Little India and China Town. A number of them can be found in different areas e.g. Bugis ?a lovely area in central Singapore. Most are located within a row of shop houses and some of them are even located near busy roads and intersections.

Some offer the typical backpacker atmosphere where one can exchange the latest travel tips with fellow backpackers, while others are quite small and offer a more cozy and family-like atmosphere with the owners offering precious local information on what to see & do, where to get something into the belly at a reasonable price and where to find an inexpensive Internet Shop.

As with most cities, there are hostels which are extremely clean and well run whereas others are dirty, not so well run, and don’t offer value for money. Some are outright and shockingly run down, and double as short time cheap meeting places for prostitutes and their clients. A good example is a certain hostel on Bencoolen street. There is even a pimp outside watching over business. I am convinced that if the authorities knew about this, this hostel/love hotel would be closed down immediately. The good news is; these types of hostels are in the minority. The majority are good enough cribs for backpackers to spend a night or two before moving on to their new travel destination.

For the budget conscious traveler, price is always a factor in deciding where to stay. Is SG $20 for a bed in a dorm expensive? It is and it isn’t. Let’s not forget that Singapore is the fifth most expensive city in Asia. But if for example, you compare what you can get for SG $20 in a country like Thailand; well, the same SG $20 will get you a nice room with cable TV and bathroom and aircon to boot. But, then again, Singapore is not Thailand.

Singapore has well over a hundred budget hotels. By budget hotels, we mean the hotels that advertise rooms for under SG $100 per night.

Some offer value for money and some don’t. Some offer great accommodation that will want you to come back, but some quite frankly are so run down that you will wish that you had never pre-booked, not to mention pre-paid for that very room you find yourself stuck in.

Some budget hotel owners are quite deceitful in the way they attract their guests. One example of this is advertising a SG $79 per night room only for the hapless tourist to discover upon checking in that there are hidden charges. This doesn’t even begin to take into account the highly deceitful advertising methods used by these unscrupulous hotel owners.

That said, by enlarge, the majority of budget hotel owners are honest in their dealings with their guests and will go out of their way to make their stay as pleasurable as can be. A good example of this is the The New 7th Storey Hotel on Rochor Road, (see www.nsshotel.com). This is the birthplace of the Lonely Planet Corporation. That’s right, the very hotel where Tony and Maureen Wheeler started writing their very first successful Lonely Planet guide book some 35 years ago.

Unfortunately, to make way for a new subway station and in the name of progress, this iconic hotel is due to go under the hammer sometime in January or February 2009. This is very sad. This hotel has seen it all. Several renovations included.

Built in 1953 by the late Wee Thiam Siew, this once 5-star hotel also once housed the hottest nightclub in town ?a place where you wanted to see and be seen.

Today it is the only hotel in Singapore with a real cage lift still in operation and one of the very few buildings with a beautiful outdoors spiral staircase. The hotel is run by Mr. David Wee, grandson of the late Mr. Wee Thiam Siew.

Aware that this hotel is due for demolition; aware of its history and having previously contributed material to the Lonely Planet guides but never having actually stayed there, I decided to stay in this hotel before it closed down.

This hotel is so popular that it is booked up months in advance. I was over-awed. This was an experience of a lifetime. From the helpful staff to the cleanliness of the rooms and corridors. From my couch to my color TV to my amazingly, never seen before CLEAN remote control. In fact, it was cleaner and better run than the mighty ***** *****, a five star hotel in Singapore where I had spent a few nights in the past. It was quiet, nice, comfortable, safe, and above all, it offered value for money. No prostitutes or pimps to be seen at the New 7-Storey Hotel either! By far the region’s best budget hotel.

Having heard and read a lot about the two other big Singapore budget hotel chains, I decided to check myself into one of them just to compare. I checked myself out of the 7 Storey and into my new budget hotel located near Lavender MRT station. What a contrast! What an unpleasant experience!

Upon my arrival at “this?hotel, the receptionist tried to talk me into booking for 3 nights right there and then under the pretext of “probably no rooms? available if I didn’t book and pay for 3 nights immediately. Yes, this hotel chain is in fierce competition against its competitor to attract visitors to their hotels. Nevertheless, I don’t believe that hard-sales techniques are appropriate in the hospitality business. Listen up hotel owners: The key word is hospitality, not hostility. If you don’t have the personality for it, find another business!

To add insult to injury, I was made to wait for the room to be cleaned. How odd ?at this time of the day? A gentleman in his sixties with not one but two lovely looking ladies in their early twenties with a scent of perfume you could smell from as far as Bangkok had still not checked out. After a 30-min wait and after paying SG $124 and not the advertised SG $79 on their website I was keen to see the room.

SG $124? Rather steep for a budget hotel I thought; and more than double than what I had paid for my room at the 7-storey. But in all fairness to “this? hotel, it had a private bathroom whereas my beautiful and spacious room costing SG $64 a night at the 7 Storey did not.

Upon entering the room I was surprised by the fact that the floor was still wet and that the bed was still letting off plumes of steam. The detective in me quickly surmised that some sort of a special “aerobics?session had taken place there just 5 minutes before I had entered the room. Well, may Dashing Donn have that kind of energy when he enters his golden years.

This room was incredibly tiny, 2m by 2m if my memory serves me right. After a bit of TV I proceeded to the bathroom. It wasn’t well cleaned. Never mind. Turned off the TV and?I couldn’t believe the noise just outside my room. “Oh well,?thinks I, in thirty minutes or so all noise will stop and everyone will be fast asleep. Wrong. The cleaners were having what appeared to be a contest of who could laugh longest and loudest. Needless to say, I phoned the reception and asked them to ask the cleaners to quiet it down. They did.

Later in the night I was awoken by some noise, not from the cleaners but from my next door neighbors busily practicing?well, you get the picture. Some thicker walls are definitely in order. As none were available, I put on some trusty but uncomfortable earplugs and made a mental note to never stay in this joint again.

How bizarre. What were the cleaners doing there around midnight? Hasn’t anyone taught them that rooms should be cleaned around noon? And what was all that screaming coming from my neighbor’s room in the middle of the night? It was obvious. This hotel also doubled as a short time love-making hotel. Interesting, as I had always thought that this type of activity takes places in and around the Joo Chiat and Gaylang areas?but Lavender?

I checked out early the next morning horrified by the experience of staying in what I thought was a quality budget hotel. Indeed, part of one the biggest budget hotel chains in Singapore.

How would some unsuspecting family with children have felt had they checked into this hotel that very same night? Would the proprietors have even cared? I wonder.

And what is “budget?about paying 124 SG dollars? With the closure of Singapore’s only REAL budget hotel, The New 7-Storey, Singapore must now face the reality that there aren’t any authentic budget hotels in town that offer value for money, free of prostitutes.

I am no prude. However, prostitution should, in my opinion, remain limited to the Gaylang area. This is no longer the case. It is now in many popular tourist areas in Singapore. This is a very sordid stain on Singapore’s image.

I don’t mean to belabor the point but feel I must offer another example. I was approached by two foreign prostitutes inside the Mc Donald’s in China Town while outside that same McDonald’s men could be seen happily chatting away to their new found girlfriends. This in popular tourist areas? Frankly speaking, the situation is getting out of control!

Prostitutes need to work, it’s a job like any job. But this is what “red light? areas are for. Families do not wish to stumble over them in popular tourist places. Let's take the area just a little further out from the Thai Embassy on the world famous Orchard Road for example. Wouldn’t it be better to close down the infamous Orchard ****** and its numerous seedy night clubs, or how about simply keeping the “girls?INSIDE and thus away from foreign tourists enjoying a stroll on Orchard?

Whew! Sorry about that, but sometimes Donn just has to tell it like it is.

Back to the original topic. Yes, Singapore is fast becoming a world renowned tourist destination, and especially after the opening of the two Integrated Resorts and Universal Studios Singapore in 2010. Yes, Singapore is a magnet for MICE events held here due to its business friendly environment. Still, not every tourist can afford top end accommodation.

Particularly during these trying economic times, most people look after their wallets and look into “alternative?travel destinations before making their final decisions, especially the budget-conscious tourist. Does Singapore want to lose out in the growing budget traveler market? These people have long ago stopped being the dirty, unwashed “hippy?stereotype. They are usually hard-working couples, people with families, people who want to experience and spend their money in interesting but affordable destinations.

Unfortunately, by the end of this year, the only REAL budget hotel in Singapore will close its doors. Will some intrepid developer jump into this profitable gap? Let’s certainly hope so.