This is the hotel I'd choose for waking up on Marina Bay, with the Esplanade domes and the whole skyline in the window, and its club lounge, HAUS 65, turned out to be the best part of our stay. Our Club Marina Bay Room was fresh and pretty after the 2023 refit, but at 34 square metres it's compact, and a building site full of tower cranes now sits between the hotel and the water, lit up at night. Book the Club room, because the lounge comes with it and makes up for the small room. Entry rooms cost about what the Ritz-Carlton Millenia charges and about half the price of Raffles and Capella, though at the Four Seasons on Orchard you get a far bigger room for less. See pictures ↓
Service
By our second evening in HAUS 65, the club lounge on the 21st floor, the team knew our names and had a glass of Ruinart on the table almost as we sat down. That lounge is where I felt most looked after. The staff up there are quick and warm without ever hovering, and they run a car with a driver on weekdays between 10 and 6, which we used to save ourselves a walk in the heat. It only goes one way, no further than two kilometres, and it's first come, first served, so don't build your day around it.
Downstairs it's a 510-room hotel, and some afternoons it feels like one. The lobby was crowded when we arrived, with a line at the front desk. On a full day, rooms can still be getting ready late in the afternoon, so if you land early, leave your bags and go for a walk round the bay.
Housekeeping kept our room spotless, and I noticed it always smelled fresh when we came back at night. If you're celebrating something, tell the hotel ahead of time. They like to mark it with a cake and a card.
Rooms
Open the door and you look straight down the length of the room to a wall of glass and the bay. Ours was a Club Marina Bay Room on the bay side of the tower, with the TV set into a wooden panel on the left, a teal velvet chair at the marble ledge and a dark carved lattice cabinet with a little swivel mirror. On the right, the bed stands against a blue-grey wall with a raised batik pattern, under a blue channel-tufted headboard and two ribbed-glass pendant lamps. On the round glass table by the window our welcome was laid out, a Pandan Dream chiffon cake under a glass dome, a bowl of oranges and apples, and two little bottles of Tapping Tapir pineapple and calamansi sparkling juice beside our key cards in a folder printed with pink and purple fans. The cake was light and tasted of coconut and gula melaka, and it was gone before we'd unpacked.
The tower opened in 1987 and the rooms were refreshed in 2023, so the furnishings and fittings are all new, but the space is tight. Entry rooms are 33 to 34 square metres, against 49 at the Four Seasons, and two big suitcases fill the floor fast. The bathroom makes up for a lot, with a freestanding white tub, a glass shower with a rain head in the ceiling, two basins on brown-veined marble and a ceiling panel that glows like a skylight, and Natura Bisse in the shower pumps. The bed is huge and soft, and with the blinds down I didn't hear a thing all night, though the pillows are feather, so pick from the pillow menu if you like them firmer.
Then there's the view. Between the hotel and the water sits a building site, a huge round excavation with red-and-white tower cranes and a crane on a barge, and by day it fills the bottom of the window. At night the cranes are lit and the work lights stay on below Marina Bay Sands, and I still spent a long time sitting there looking at the skyline, but it's not the clean view the room is sold on. For more space, the Marina Bay Suite with Balcony gives you 62 square metres and the lounge as well, and I'd pass on the plain Marina Bay View Room, which is the same size as ours with only a partial view and no lounge.
Food and drink
From five to seven the evening spread goes out in HAUS 65, under a spiral of crystal rings and a pale green mural of birds and blossom, and on most nights it was our dinner. It's far more than canapés, with hot dishes that leaned on Indian curries and nasi lemak, Ruinart poured all evening and drinks until 11. Afternoon tea from 2 to 4 brings fresh scones and little sandwiches, and the desserts are generous. By the third evening the curries felt familiar, though, so I'd still book a couple of dinners out.
Breakfast in the lounge runs from half past six to half past ten, with champagne, a short buffet and a menu of hot dishes made for you, and the eggs Benedict is the one to get. Still, go down to embu for one morning. It's a green room under a tree-shaped ceiling, with a chef at an open station beside a trunk of wooden slats hung with plants, and the spread is far bigger. I had a bowl of spicy prawn noodles, roti with curry and a couple of siew mai, then went back for kaya toast. Between half past eight and half past nine it's packed and loud with children, so go before eight or after ten.
For one proper dinner, book Cherry Garden. It's the Cantonese and Teochew restaurant, done up like a courtyard house with stone walls and wooden trellises, and under Chef Fei it holds a Michelin star in the 2026 guide. Afterwards I'd go along to MO BAR on level 3, which is adults only and looks out at the skyline. The current menu was put together with local collaborators, and the Pine-Dustry comes with a little pineapple tart on the side, which I loved.
Setting
The hour I liked best was in the pool after dark, swimming lengths of the 25-metre pool on level 5 with the Singapore Flyer lit up on one side and Marina Bay Sands glowing across the water. The water's cool, which feels wonderful in this heat, and a waiter brought iced water out while I swam. By day it's a different place. Mid-afternoon the loungers are full and there's little shade, the cranes are in full view, and you can hear the building work from the deck, though we never heard it in our room. It opens at 7, and that's when I'd go.
The tower is a John Portman design built round a tall atrium with a ribbed ceiling, and the refit brightened the lobby. Where a fountain used to stand, the Lobby Lounge now sits under crystal spheres of Vanda Miss Joaquim orchids, Singapore's national flower. The fan from the hotel's logo turns up everywhere, from the lift lobby to a Hans Tan ceramic fan in a glass case, and the cake shop beside the lobby sells fans to take home. Even so, with this many rooms it can feel like a big business hotel, and I was always happier up in the lounge and out by the pool.
The location is the hotel's other big strength. The Esplanade is across the road, Marina Square mall is next door, and the walk along the water and over the Helix Bridge to the shops at Marina Bay Sands takes five to ten minutes. It's about ten minutes on foot to the Merlion. There's no station under the hotel like the one at the Fairmont, so we walked most places and took taxis for the rest. Back at the hotel, the gym is open round the clock, and in-house guests get free classes on the Wellness Terrace.
Value
In an ordinary week you'll pay about $400 to $500 a night for an entry room, and in F1 week in September and over New Year it can pass $1,000. That's level with the Ritz-Carlton Millenia, a little under the Fullerton Bay, well under Marina Bay Sands and about half what Raffles and Capella charge. The Four Seasons and the Fairmont cost less, and at the Four Seasons even the entry room is 49 square metres. The cheapest rooms here are the 33-square-metre Deluxe and Sea View rooms, which face the city and the sea, and the sea side looks onto the building work too.
The room I'd book again is the Club Marina Bay Room, the bay-view room with HAUS 65 included. It's the same 34 square metres as the plain Marina Bay View Room, and the lounge comes with its higher rate, with nothing else to pay. That gets you breakfast, afternoon tea, the evening spread, two pieces of laundry a day and the car. Ask what the step up costs on your dates. For us the lounge replaced most dinners, and it's what made a small room feel like a treat.
If you join Fans of M.O., the brand's free programme, and book a flexible rate on the hotel's own site, you can choose up to two extras, such as a midday check-in and a 4pm check-out. At peak prices the cranes would put me off, because on Marina Bay you're paying for the view. At ordinary rates, in a Club room, I'd happily come back.
Who it suits
Couples and first-time visitors who want to be on Marina Bay and walk to most things will like it, and so will anyone who'll make proper use of a club lounge. Skip it if you want a big room or a view with no cranes in it. Families should know the lounge is for over-12s and the family suites don't include it, though children 12 and under eat free at embu with a paying adult. For far more space at a lower price, I'd book the Four Seasons on Orchard. For history, Raffles, and for a smaller hotel on the water across the bay, the Fullerton Bay.
