Stayed here on a Singapore Stopover from Singapore Airlines as part of our honeymoon, and it was wonderful. Impeccable Singaporean service, a lovely hotel, a a truly spectacular swimming pool. We stayed their twice and the first room we stayed in had a shower so big I could lie across it on the floor. (The second room had a normal-sized shower!) The rooms are comfortable and a reasonable size and very clean. But it's the Balinese style swimming pool that is really spectacular. Outside on the 6th floor, it is surrounded by tropical foliage. Fountains spurt into one side of the pool. Swimming at night is lovely.

The concierges at the hotel were the most helpful I've even encountered, particularly the evening concierge. His advice on places to eat, where to get genuine electronics bargains, what was happening on any particular night really made our stay great. Instead of directing us to the hotel's restaurant, or another venue paying him a commission to send tourists there, he told us about a street closed off that night for satay stalls and a firewalking event at an Indian temple.

Our stay at the Amara really couldn't have been better.

I have stayed at the Amara Hotel about 5 to 6 times already during 2004-2006, each stay spanning 2 nights or more. I used to get rates of S$99 per night as the hotel had special weekend rates for Singaporeans - this was pretty good value for money given its good location (near MRT station and Chinatown shops) and its reasonably new pleasant room interiors. I understand these rates have increased substantially now. Staff is generally also polite and nice, especially waiting staff at the ground floor cafe. However, I have at one time met rather inexperienced and clueless staff (a young short and plump Chinese lady with short hair) at the reception, and I can definitely identify with the posted comments about bad housekeeping. In particular, I was woken up by a telephone call from housekeeping one Sunday morning asking if I wanted the room cleaned. After I gave a time for the room to be cleaned, I arranged my activities so that I would be out of the room before that time. But when I returned in the evening, the room had not been attended to. The non-cleaning of rooms has happened more than twice. Also, many times, I find the "tin" that contains the toiletries to be wet or otherwise rusty. I have come to the conclusion that it is the inexperience of the staff and the at times bad housekeeping that would tarnish an otherwise pleasant stay at this hotel.

My wife and I stayed in the Amara Hotel for three nights in February 2006. This was at the end of a 5-week round-the-world trip taking in the USA, Australia and Singapore, and the Amara was the best hotel we stayed in, as well as the cheapest! We had purchased a "Singapore Stopover" package through Singapore Airlines and the Amara was amazing value at only £38/night. The room was on the 15th floor and was spacious and quiet. Nicely decorated and furnished too. The hotel has five or six restaurants, and we always ate in the hotel restaurants rather than using local restaurants, which was unusual for us. There is a swimming pool, although we were too busy to use it. The location was fine - in Chinatown and with a subway station less than 5 minutes walk away. All the staff were very polite, attentive and helpful, and we don't understand some of the comments made by other TrypAdvisor users!

5 night stay at the Amara Singapore Hotel.

1. On entering our room, there was a sticky substance on the floorboards under the curtains, and there was no price list for the minibar items which was very deceptive.

2. Housekeeping staff called our room to see when we wanted our room cleaned on the 29th Dec 2005. After a time was agreed upon, we were very upset when we returned at 11pm that night to see our room had not been attended to.

3. On the night of the 30th dec 2005 after asking a man at the reception desk could we have a newspaper delivered in the mornings, again we were disappointed that the next moring a newspaper was not delivered, and we had to ask again. Also on this day our room access card failed to work, and had to be corrected, and when our room was cleaned, no toilet paper was left.

4. Our biggest disappointment would have to be when we checked out early the morning of the 2nd January 2006. When we went to finalise our bill and were told we had to pay for 3 lots of breakfasts we had had during our stay. We were told on check-in that room and breakfast were included in the rate. We didn't think we chose the breakfast option, so both myself and my partner asked the woman at check-in again if this was correct and breakfast was included and she said yes. We were told at check-out that correspondence from our travel agent stating breakfast was NOT included had been recieved early november 2005 as dated by the Amara, but had not been looked at until 2-3 days into our stay late december. Even after the fax stating the correction was noticed by your staff we were not told about this and continued to have breakfast unaware. We would have expected a message stating the change from reception, or even been told at breakfast by the staff there. We found this to be either very poor communication and organisation within your hotel, or highly deceptive in getting more money out of tourists. We were then told by the manager at check-out he would only charge us for 2 of the breakfasts, and not the 3rd. We found this unacceptable, as we checked and checked again about the inclusion of breakfast, and were never informed of any change. Finally after refusing to pay the bill and some heated words we were told we wouldn't be charged then, but may be charged when someone more senior and responsble can make the decision. We found your hotel staff to be rude and disrespectful, with know acknowledgement from them that they had done anything wrong.

This has tarnished an otherwise wonderful stay we had in Singapore for 10 nights and its a shame it was the last impression we had of Singapore. The first 5 nights was at the Traders Hotel, and i can assure you these incidences would have never occurred there.