Hotel Indigo is a cute boutique hotel in Katong which is an area in Singapore famous for it’s heritage shophouses and Peranakan culture. Opened last year, Hotel Indigo is housed in the former Joo Chiat police station and infuses Peranakan style into the design of it’s 131 rooms and common areas of the hotel.
I went there for a 1 night staycation with the hubby on Christmas Eve for a short Christmas break and also as a late anniversary celebration.
Check-in
We arrived at the hotel just after 12pm, the reception wasn’t busy at this time so we were served immediately by a very polite lady. Although check-in time is usually at 3pm she allowed us to check-in early at no extra cost since a room was available (the hotel staff had contacted us a few days beforehand to ask for our expected time of arrival so that they could try their best to accommodate us). After checking us in, giving us a keycard for our room as well as a Hotel Indigo postcard and confirming our Christmas Day Brunch that we had pre-booked in their restaurant, she escorted us to the lift as well as showed us a touch-screen information board near the lift where we could find information on the Katong neighbourhood.
The Room
We booked a room called the King Bed Premier View Room with Bath (S$261.65 – advance purchase price) which is actually their nicest room and comes with a deep soaking tub in the room. We stayed in room 1201 on the 12th floor which was unfortunately right next to the lift (we had requested a room that was away from the lift) but luckily it wasn’t too noisy. The room was definitely very Peranakan in design from the art murals on the walls depicting the local coffee shops to Peranakan style objects and furnishings in the room.
The deep soaking tub was heaven to relax in and big enough for 2 people for a romantic night in. There’s also a shower room (entrance is opposite the bathtub) and separate toilet near the entrance of the room.
There’s a well stocked minibar in the room as well as complimentary TWG tea, Kaffa Kaldi instant coffee, mineral water and a Nespresso machine with Nespresso capsules that you can help yourself to. There’s also a selection of complimentary sweets including a couple of flavours of Hudson’s cough drops and Chinese White Rabbit candy, all of which are childhood favourites of Singaporeans.
There’s free Wi-Fi available in the room and also a smartphone which you can use to make free local calls and access the internet. It also allows you to make free international calls to certain countries including the US and Australia but sadly not the UK so I was unable to ring home.
We were given a selection of Biology toiletries from Australia in the bath area, shower and toilet, they all smelled great and are environmentally friendly.
There are pairs of soft and comfy disposable slippers in the room which you can use. Not the Chinese clogs below though as they’re just for display 🙂
There’s even a Carrom table in the room which you can use to play. Carrom is a game that is popular in the east and is similar to billiards.
As it was Christmas when we were there, we were given a gingerbread snowman in the room which was a nice little touch.
The bed was very comfortable and I got a pretty good night’s sleep although the walls in the room are quite thin so you can practically hear everything next door and unfortunately there was a noisy family staying next to us but nothing that earplugs can’t solve 😉 I also found the room to be quite cold even though the air-conditioning was off the whole time.
There’s supposed to be turn-down service but as we were in the room at the time, the housekeeping staff just gave us some extra bottles of mineral water and a small box of yummy chocolates.
View from our room was of the Katong neighbourhood. It was a bit of a dismal day when we were there and rained heavily later on in the afternoon but there’s a huge umbrella in the room which came in very handy.
Facilities
The hotel has a lovely rooftop swimming pool, it was nice and quiet when we went there mid-afternoon and there were only a couple of people lounging around. There’s also a 24 hour gym with a couple of treadmills, cross trainer, stationary bike, free weights and resistance machines. The gym was empty when we went so we had the whole gym to ourselves. They provide bottles of mineral water and towels there too so you don’t have to bring them.
The hotel has their own restaurant called Baba Chews Bar and Eatery located near the lobby area. We pre-booked a Christmas Day Brunch and got a discount of 10% for paying in advance. Unfortunately we didn’t have a very good experience there (please see my review of Baba Chews Bar and Eatery).
Check-out
We checked out of our room just before midday (check-out time is 12pm), it was quite busy at this time so we had to wait for quite a while but the staff were very apologetic about this. It also took them a while to bring up my details and check that there were no charges (we didn’t actually make use of the minibar) but generally the two members of staff that were dealing with my check-out were very polite.
Conclusion
Overall I had a pleasant stay in Hotel Indigo. The room was nicely decorated, new and comfortable and I liked the additional touches such as the Carram table in the room. The room however was a little too cold for my liking and also a bit noisy because of the thin walls. Service at the hotel was very polite and the staff did their best to accommodate us. However there were a few service mishaps that I have to mention. Firstly when we first got to our room, one of the staff knocked on our door and when I opened the door, the lady said “oh you’re already here” and then without explanation left. Secondly there was no turn-down service as expected and we weren’t asked if we would like it since we were in the room at the time. Lastly I was very disappointed to realise only recently after our stay that our room rate included breakfast as well as late check-out. I only just realised this as I was going to make another room reservation for a friend on their website. This information strangely enough is only mentioned in the small description of the room on the website at the time of booking but it was not mentioned at all in the reservation confirmation email that I received below and it even says that the check-out time is 12pm which is the usual check-out time and not 3pm like it should be for that room. Unfortunately the lady that checked us in also failed to mention breakfast and the late check-out time and only mentioned our Christmas Day Brunch that we had pre-booked. In fact I probably wouldn’t have booked the Christmas Day Brunch if I had known about breakfast and this was also not communicated to me when the hotel had contacted us to find out our estimated time of arrival and if we’d like to pre-book a Christmas meal at Baba Chews. So if you are staying in the King Bed Premier View Room with Bath make sure you go for your breakfast! Also not to be picky but we had pre-selected our stay preferences beforehand and requested a room away from the lift and stated that we were there celebrating our anniversary, both of these were ignored and there was no mention at check-in about the location of our room and the hotel seems to have inconsistent polices about anniversary stays as a friend of mine who had stayed in Hotel Indigo for her anniversary had received a welcome cake. Anyway I just wanted to share my honest opinion about my stay there and I think that with better staff training this will prevent similar situations in the future from occurring. Apart from that I enjoyed my stay there and using the facilities.
To find out more about Hotel Indigo Singapore or to make a booking, visit the Intercontinental Hotels Group Singapore website.
Hope you’ve enjoyed reading my Hotel Indigo Singapore review and found it informative, please feel free to leave a comment below with your own review of the hotel or if you have any questions!
