The Island country state of Singapore hosts millions of tourists and visitors in a normal year, thanks to a combination of geopolitical positioning, a welcoming stance towards tourism and business and its constantly warm and tropical climate. Singapore has all the main hotel brands, but it hasn’t had a lot of new properties to stay at that have been very attractive. We took in the brand new Westin Singapore on our last visit to the country and found a property that had almost everything we were looking for.

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Review: The Westin Singapore, Marina Bay Area, Singapore

“An brand new Westin Hotel with likely the nicest outdoor rooftop pool in Downtown Singapore “

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Booking and Getting There:

After getting off a Singapore Airlines Business Class Ho Chi Minh – Singapore flight, we had a twenty three hour connection in Singapore. We were arriving and departing at odd times. As a result, we opted for the convenience of a hotel for this brief stay, instead of staying at my family relatives’ house. 

We booked in at the almost new Westin Singapore. I checked the rates at the time and as a new property that hadn’t yet found it’s rate footing, the rates were over $360 SGD ($270 USD) a night. As a member of Starwood Preferred Guest at the time, the hotel had Cash and Points availability at 6000 SPG points + $110 USD a night. It was a no-brainer to use Cash and Points with regular room rates in Singapore were over $360 SGD. Under the old Starwood Preferred Guest program, the hotel was a category 5, making regular room redemptions were 12,000 points. 

Today, the hotel operates under the Marriott Bonvoy Program and remains a Category 5 hotel. The daily rates have softened to around $320 – $350 SGD ($240 – $270 USD) per night. If you’re booking on Marriott Bonvoy Points, the hotel offers free reward rooms at 30,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points per night (or 18,700 + $187 SGD / $140 USD) if you are lucky enough to find Reward Cash and Points availability. If you value Marriott Bonvoy Reward points at $0.005 per points like I do, you’d likely be better off redeeming Marriott Bonvoy points at this property if your rate was above SGD/USD $200 /$150; which is likely to be the case.

We took an Uber Black car from Changi Airport to the Westin Singapore. Our driver turned up at Changi Airport in a clean black Mercedes E200 and offered us some bottled water for our trip. It was an easy and quick twenty minute drive down the East Coast Parkway to the Westin Singapore and there were no issues with the driver locating the newer property. 

Arriving to the Westin Singapore:

The Westin Singapore

12 Marina View, Asia Square Tower 2, Singapore  018961 

We arrived to the property. The property is in the top part of the Asia Square Tower Two in a combined apartment office complex. The Westin Singapore features a small welcome lobby on the ground floor. The hotel itself is on higher floors of the building, starting at floor thirty two.

The welcome entranceway at the ground level also featured a café and a small arrival podium.

We took the elevator up to the 32nd floor check in. The check in was deserted at 11:30 PM at night. As Starwood Preferred Guest Gold level elites, we were upgraded from our base level Deluxe Room One King, to a Sea View Facing King, and were assigned Room #4113. The check in desk indicated that they were at fairly low occupancy tonight, which I thought was unusual for a Tuesday evening in the middle of the business week during prime travel time.

The next morning, we had a better opportunity to take a look at the lobby and lobby lounge bar. It’s a grand space, despite being on the 32nd floor of a sky scraper.

The Lobby Lounge also featured a grand circular bar in the middle of the space. I would imagine that this space can be used for meeting, working and some great receptions.

The Room: a Sea Facing King

After our check in, we led ourselves up to our assigned room at #4113. The room was nicely appointed but was slightly compact for two. Some hotel properties ooze space with rooms that you can run around in. Being a newer construction and build, this isn’t one of those properties.

The bedding was of very high quality. Much more so than my last few stays at Westin (with less wear and tear). The room was also nicely appointed in a modern, contemporary theme. 

An compact space rounded out the seating area of the bedroom, along with a small coffee table.

The Washroom:

The washroom featured a single vanity sink, along with a soaker tub. The soaker tub was still compact, but they do take up a lot of real estate when you don’t have a lot to work with in the bathroom itself. The bathroom also featured a stand up shower. The bathroom was outfitted with Westin Robes, and the usual Westin White Tea Aloe toiletries, as is customary.

A Room with A View:

The views made up for any small space shortfalls with the room Our view from the forty first floor was of a large container facility in the Singapore port.

Around the Hotel:

Outdoor Pool and Recreation Center:

One of the best features of this hotel was the outdoor pool. The Westin Singapore featured a beautiful infinity pool. The pool is south facing, and gets a lot of sun given that Singapore is almost completely on the equator. We took a swim in the morning prior to heading out for the day. 

MrsWT73 enjoyed a few laps, endorsing the outdoor space. It wasn’t quite the infinity pool at the Marina Bay Sands, but it was a pretty decent alternative at about a quarter of the price. 

The deck space on the harbour deck was pretty comprehensive. There was enough seating to allow for a variety of places to sit, whether you wanted to work or play.

The Heavenly Spa by Westin:

There was also a gym and spa. Although we didn’t make use of either on this visit. It is always very convenient having a hotel spa in the middle of a hotel on longer stays. The Westin Singapore version of the Heavenly Spa by Westin was located on the thirty fifth floor and offered the usual massages, wraps and other services.

The Fitness Center Westin Workout Fitness Studio:

The fitness centre had lots of treadmills available, with great views to be had. This gym had a much better view than the basement gym I experienced at the Westin Melbourne. Like many other Westin gyms, it was properly outfitted with weights, kettle bells and strength bands. The gym was open twenty four hours a day, which was perfect for jet lagged travellers.

Around the Hotel:

Immediately outside the hotel entrance, the office tower lobby coffee shop styled restaurants of the Asia Square Tower One (the other tower) are located on the opposite corner next door to the entrance to the Westin Hotel. This was our convenient stop for a quick breakfast the next morning. 

The Telok Ayer Hawker Center is also less than 5 minutes walk away (about two blocks), for those looking for some traditional hawker center food. It’s open twenty four hours, making it a reasonable choice for food at almost every hour.

The iconic Marina Bay Sands Casino and Resort (or a view of it anyway) also happened to be almost right outside the front door, near the Downtown MRT entrance. 

Getting Around to and from the hotel by MRT Subway:

The hotel is well situated in the Central Business District of Singapore in the Marina Bay Sands neighbourhood. While it is very convenient to get to Changi Airport via the East Coast Parkway by car, Uber or taxi, it’s not so convenient for sightseeing as the property is a little ways out of the way from some of the major sightseeing areas of Singapore.

The hotel is a five minute walk to the Downtown Mass Regional Transit (MRT) subway station, which is situated on the Downtown Line (Blue). I generally find that I use the red “North South” MRT Line or the Green “East West” MRT line to do most sightseeing in Singapore. If you end up staying at The Westin Singapore, you;’ll likely end up changing subway lines at some point on your journey to get to your destination. This may or may not be to your liking. Although you could probably take the subway to and from Changi Airport, you’ll have to change lines (like everywhere else) and taxis’ are pretty inexpensive in Singapore, outweighing most of the savings.

Our stay experience with The Westin Singapore :

Overall, The Westin Singapore is a nice addition to the Singapore hotel scene. Singapore has some older properties that have been reflagged and upgraded a few times. The Westin Singapore is one of the first of the few brand new properties. The main drawback was that the hotel was not conveniently located for shopping, requiring two to three changes on the MRT subway to get to MRT Orchard. But, it was really convenient and quick to get to and from the airport since the East Coast Parkway ends almost right outside the hotel door, making access by car extremely easy. If you’re someone that flies into Singapore for a short visit for business, use a chauffeur or limo to get too and from Changi Airport, prefer to have an all inclusive experience with an outdoor pool and spa on site, and don’t mind a smaller room, then this is your ideal place to stay.

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If you’ve stayed at The Westin Singapore, did enjoy your stay and use the Outdoor Pool ?

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