For the travel section of this blog, I probably won't do hotel reviews unless it was unique enough to mention. I felt the Yotel Hotel on Orchard Road in Singapore was pretty unique.
On my first trip to Singapore back in 2020, I did stay at the Yotel at the Jewel next to the Chiangi Airport, but that is mostly considered a transit hotel mainly for long layovers. You can book stays at that particular hotel by the hour, which I did at the time. For that trip, my flight arrived at 1am and my hotel didn't have 24 hour check-in. I booked that Yotel for about 4 hours so I could take a nap and explore the Jewel before heading to my hotel to see if I could check in earlier than dthe 3pm checkin time. This room was somewhat similar in design and aesthetics, but this one is a bit smaller and more cramped than the one on Orchard Road. And one main different is that there are no windows at all, mainly because it is built inside a mall.
You'll notice with all Yotel properties, purple is the recurring color, especially with the Yotel at the Airport/Jewel
Pictured: The room at the Yotel at Chiangi Airport / The Jewel in Jan 2020
It almost gave a porn set / Japanese Love Hotel vibe.
Anyway, onto the Yotel at Orchard Road. Since I was returning to Singapore after a couple of days in Malaysia, I wanted to stay in a different part of Singapore. The Orchard Road area is a part of downtown with a bunch of shopping malls, including ION Orchard, some with high-end shops. This area can get packed as there are alot of eateries and Asians love to shop. I'm not particularly fond of shopping malls any more, but we've found that they have become salvation from the oppressive heat.
The lobby for the Yotel is pretty small but efficient. There are manned desks with actual humans to help you but it seems that they would like you to use the check-in terminals to check in a generate the keys (which can also be used to check out).
I was standing in the lobby trying to find my Reservation Confirmation number when a helpful girl came up to me and asked me if I needed any help which I took her up on the offer. She helped guide me through the terminal which was actually pretty easy. Just needed to scan my passport and it found my reservation information. The terminal was touch screen and most of the pages were confirmation details of the stay and cost breakdown. They had a stack of keycards which you place on a pad and it will write your keys right then and there. It was a simple process
By the manned desk is a high tech vending machine with a large touchscreen. Standard snacks (chips and drinks). The soda cans are the smaller, skinnier cans found in Asia. The machine is card only
Right next to the vending machine (if they are not busy) are the two helper robots: Yolanda and Yoshi. They are completely autonomous and can navigate all around the hotel. Their task is to deliver items to guests (ie. bottles of water, towels, etc). They were pretty busy when I check in. They do talk and play music while they are roaming around and if you are in the way, it will say something funny to get you to move out of the way. More on the robots later
The halls predominantly have a purple hue
As far as the room itself, it was uniquely designed. It was relatively small compared to most common chain hotels in Singapore and US. It reminds me of the rooms in Japan. Everything in the room was pretty much designed to maximize space efficiently.
Pictured: Bed in reclined position, TV, and bed in flat position
The bed reclines into a fairly upright position which is great for watching TV in the bed. At this location, when the bed lays flat, you still have ample clearance in front of the bed for which you can still walk in front of. At the Airport/Jewel location, if I remember correctly, when you lay the bed flat, there was little to no room to walk in front of the bed. The bed was pretty comfortable and you get lots of pillows. There are is a panel near the bed for USB charging, type-G power outlets, HDMI input, and a button to pair your Bluetooth device to your TV (for music and other stuff). I didn't watch much TV in there but there were a handful of channels (CNN, FOX, and a couple of HBO channels).
Next to the TV are some small storage compartments, for the ironing board. Underneath the TV is another panel that has HMDI imputs and charging
Pictured: Hidden compartments which store the ironing board, iron and an umbrella
Now the shower and toilet is a unique design (at least for people from the US). Both are in a combined area, with drains on both the shower and the toilet side. Theoretically you can probably multitask if you want to 😂. The toilet has a nozzle-type bidet. The shower side has both a standard shower and a rainfall-type faucet on the ceiling.
As mentioned earlier, the Jewel/Airport Yotel location has no windows, so some people may feel claustrophobic with that tyope if room. The Orchard Road location goes completely opposite where one wall is ALL window, and that is on the bathroom / shower side. Great for exhibitionist if that's your thing. People on the outside can pretty much get a clear view at night if you're not careful. There are two sets of blinds, one that is half-opaque and lets light through and another that completely blocks the view.
Pictured: Combined shower and bathroom. Poop with the world of you'd like
Now the robots. They are a fun addition. If you need something brought up to your room, like bottled water or more towels, just dial 30 and ask for that item to be brought up. One of the robots will take it up to your room and ring your phone when it's at ytour front door. I called for two bottles of water (even if I didn't really need it at the time) just to see it working.
An amusing moment with a robot is when I was checking out. When I got in the elevator, there were quite a few people also checking out at the same time and so the elevator was pretty full. As the elevator went down, it would stop at some floors were other guests were calling for the elevator. The door would open up but they would see how many people were already in it and just choose to take the next one. Then it stopped at another floor and one of the robots was waiting outside. This is a downside with their programming but it could not tell how full the elevator was and was insisting that we move aside and make room. There was no way to bypass it's programming and we wewre at a stalemate. We somehow made enough room for the robot to come in and we were finally on our way.
Pictured: Robot taking over an elevator, next the entire humanity
Overall, I enjoyed my stay at Yotel Orchard Road. It's in a pretty good location within walking distance to the malls and alot of eateries. Even if malls aren't your thing, they can provide shelter from the sometime oppressive heat in Singapore. It is fairly close to the MRT (Transit/Subway). The only downside with navigating the underground tunnels is that it is fairly confusing sometimes. It is a bunch of confusing paths much like an anthill, and you can take the wrong path and have to backtrack (usually you've gone on too long before you realize it). There were times where I struggled to find the exit to the street. And I found the MRT system more confusing to navigate and find the correct platform due to it's anthill type maze. In the early morning, a Chinese girl came up to me for directions for a MRT platform she was looking for. I had noticed she just left an MRT turnstile but I had to point her back and she had to re-enter the same turnstile.
There is a restaurant in the hotel but I didn't go to it. They offer a buffet-style breakfast but you have to pay for it. If you forgo daily cleaning of your room (if you're staying for a few days), you get an $8 credit each day for the restaurant.
So if you are looking to stay at the Orchard Road area, among the vast shopping malls, Yotel is a good option. Just don't expect for much space (it didn't bother me much). It may be a little hip and maybe a tad too high-tech for some people but it's a really nice, unique hotel.
YOTEL Singapore Orchard Road
Address: 366 Orchard Rd, Singapore 238904
Comments