Klapsons Hotel, Singapore

“Top Boutique Hotel in Singapore”

Klapsons is a cool and funky boutique hotel located in a quiet part of Singapore CBD. The hotel occupies the ground to third story of an office building.

The hotel is very exclusive—- there are only 17 rooms. There are deluxe room and suites. The hotel has a takeaway sandwich corner, a restaurant which serves as the breakfast venue as well as a funky bar.

Klapsons’s neighbours include many un-airconditioned eateries where you can get very affordable food. Round the corner from the Klapsons is a shopping mall where you can find cafes, hair salons, a supermarket and other stuff. In short, it is a very typical mall. Opposite the mall, you can find another supermarket, a local dessert shop, as well as an un-airconditioned hawker centre where you can find more affordable local food.

To walk from Klapsons to the nearest subway station (Tanjong Pagar station) is just 10 mins. With the subway, it is very easy to travel to Orchard Road where most of tbe shopping is. It is also very easy to go to Universal Studios, Resorts World Sentosa or Marina Bay Sands. They are all just a 10-minute taxi ride away.

Klapsons is a cool and surprisingly intelligent hotel. The lobby is a really funky mod design and the reception is in a metallic round pod. The ceiling colour morphs every few seconds, from fuchsia, to red to cyan and back again.

There are design magazines and books in the lobby for the perusal of guests.

 

What I like about the room:

• The room is spacious. In an age where hotel rooms are getting smaller and smaller, my Oasis room was a generous 45 sqm, and that does not include the spacious garden that comes with the room. That is unbelievable value for money!

• The Chopard toiletries in the bathroom come in a classy, elegant bottle. Moreover, the bottles are generously-sized. They smell luxurious.

• There is a free mini bar with two cans of soft drinks and a bottle of beer.
• Their bedroom slipper are black in colour (classy) and quite thick and fluffy. Nice.
• There are LED lights in the shower stall. You can change the colour of the light according to your mood. You can also listen to the radio while in the shower; there is a speaker above you.

• There are 2 wash basins—– this is heaven-sent, especially in the morning when 2 people are trying to get ready. It just makes the morning routine so much faster.

• The toilet is separate from the bathroom. It is just logical and practical—- one person can take a shower while the other uses the toilet. There is no need to wait.
• I love the big couch correctly placed right in front of the TV. You won’t believe how illogical and unpractical some hotels’ layout can be—- the couch can have its back to the TV. I just love how sensible Klapsons is.

• There is a Nespresso machine in the room with decaf capsules.
• Klapsons is really thoughtful and intelligent. My key card has been automatically programmed so that when I enter the lift and I tap my key card, the lift automatically selects my level. I don’t need to press any button. I thought that was great use of intuitive technology.
• You can select various mood lighting simply by pressing a button beside your bed. The various lighting moods are carefully designed and they really help you to relax.
• The service here is remarkable. When I asked for a kettle, they delivered it in 5 mins. When I asked for a bottle opener for my bottle of beer, they delivered it in 5 mins too. No attitude at all from all the staff.

Breakfast is a pretty simple affair—- toast, pastries, cereal, juices, for ash fruit and yoghurt. Hot food items include sausages, mushrooms and bacon. You can also request eggs done to your liking: scrambled, sunny side up, or omelette. I requested an egg white only omelete, and they helped with that too.

The breakfast restaurant has more than enough space to cater to 17 rooms. I hate hotels where there are too many rooms and the breakfast restaurant does not match the number of rooms and there are queues in the morning, food runs out fast. I hate hotels like that.

The Sleeping Rhino is the Klapsons’s lobby restaurant. Guests of the hotel have breakfast at this restaurant. After the breakfast buffet ends at 10.30am, The Sleeping Rhino is an all-day dining restaurant open to the public. The Sleeping Rhino is an overlooked gem in Singapore city.

I tried various dishes.

Roasted Mushroom Soup with Cream and Truffle Oil

Hot, woody, rich, fragrant. Great start to a meal.

Baby Pork Ribs

The ribs, while not exceptional nor ground-breaking, are sweet and tender. The pork ribs come with a generous amount of truffle fries. The fries are excellent—— piping hot, reasonably thick, golden and beautiful. Sprinkled with a dash of Cajun spice, it adds an additive zing. They also sell the fries on their own. It’s so tempting to come in, order a big bowl of fries and just eat and eat and eat. I really liked that the ribs, fries and sauteed vegetables all arrived at my table warm. They bothered to pay attention to details.

Wagyu Beef Open-Faced Burger

The beef patty of the beef burger is huge and thick. In fact, all the portions here are generous. This restaurant is great value for money.

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My experience and impression of boutique hotels has been rather abysmal thus far:

They don’t provide good value for money—– boutique hotels often lack of economy of scale to achieve low operating costs. The prices they charge often far outweigh the value they provide. That is just not good value for money.

The rooms in most boutique hotels are very small.
There is an over-emphasis on design—no resources and attention given to training. Very poor service results.
Fuzzy, poorly thought-out concepts.
In summary, “boutique” seems to be a blanket excuse for hoteliers to skimp and offer mediocre product.

Klapsons confounds all of the above.

In most small hotels, they don’t have enough guest volume to have staff dedicated for a purpose eg dedicated check-in staff, dedicated waitress for the lobby cafe etc. Though there are only 17 rooms, Klapsons has dedicated staff for every purpose. Thankfully, as mentioned above, when I called for stuff, they brought it up in 5 mins.

With a great location, especially for business travellers, fantastic service and a funky look, Klapsons is a blue chip hotel worth staying in.