I had flown to Singapore with Air France in their A380 (review will be up shortly) and was slightly annoyed to have to queue for a cab into town; clearly Emirates have spoiled me (they have a complimentary chauffeur service for business and first passengers).

I was in Singapore to pilot a key element of a project that lasted three days.  EDI – CDG – SIN is a long way to go for a three days.  Anyway, the taxi took about 25 minutes and I was surprised to find that the infamous Raffles Hotel (and Long Bar) was situated directly across the road from The Carlton. Continue Reading…

I was staying in Singapore for 11 nights on business as part of a project.  There were some 21 global colleagues staying in the same hotel; alas I had no choice in the brand.

I had never heard of Park Royal hotels before I received the reservation confirmation from my client.  They seem to have a number of hotels in Asia that target the higher end of mid-range clientèle.  They do not have their own loyalty programme, however they are part of GHA (Global Hotel Alliance), which is at least something.

A chauffeur car was included with my Emirates flight and less than 20 minutes after leaving the airport, we were pulling into the hotel.  The first thing I noticed was that there was a huge building site right next to the hotel – more on this later.

There are 7 floors here but from the outside, the building looks a lot bigger.  There are many rooms here – indeed walking from one end of the corridor, passed the elevators and down the other end is a task that I don’t want to repeat.

Continue Reading…