Raffles is still the most beautiful hotel in Singapore, and our suite, with its parlour and verandah over the palms, was a joy. The butlers and the breakfast team were lovely too. The front desk wasn't. Emails went unanswered, check-in was clumsy, and on a busy afternoon the lobby feels like a museum. See pictures ↓
Service
How you feel about the service depends on who you deal with. Every suite has a butler, and ours was brilliant. He sorted out our dinner bookings, found us a sewing kit at ten at night, and on our last day let us keep our key cards after check-out so we could use the gym showers before a late flight. The breakfast staff were just as warm. By the second morning they knew our coffee order and had it on the table before we sat down.
The front desk is a different story. Before the trip we emailed twice about our booking and heard nothing for over a week, until our travel agent chased them. Check-in meant being handed an iPad to fill in details they already had, and nobody explained the extras that came with our booking, so we missed a couple of them.
The thing that bothered me most was being treated like a gate-crasher. The hotel works hard to keep day visitors out of the guest wings, which is good, but it means staff sometimes stop actual guests too. We were asked if we were staying in the hotel on our way back to the suite one evening, and plenty of people dressed casually say it happens to them more than once. When the hotel hosts a big event, the lobby can close and there's no one around to tell you where to go.
Rooms
There are no ordinary rooms at Raffles, only suites. We had a Courtyard Suite, about 58 square metres, and walking in felt like stepping back a hundred years. The parlour comes first, with a sofa, rattan chairs and tall windows onto the shared verandah, and then a bedroom with a big dark four-poster and blue-and-white lamps.
The bathroom is all white marble, with a clawfoot tub, two basins and wooden shutters you can fold back for the light. The restoration in 2019 was done beautifully, and the suites feel fresh without losing any of the old character.
If you can stretch to it, book a Palm Court Suite. They look straight over the palm garden and can be a little bigger, and the cheaper suites sit closer to the parts of the hotel the public walks through. Ours was perfectly quiet, but people who know the hotel well swear by Palm Court.
Food and drink
The big news is 1887 by André. André Chiang has come home to Singapore and taken over the old formal dining room, and it opened in March 2026 with two Michelin stars straight away. There are only 42 seats and the menu borrows from the hotel's archives, so you get things like a turtle soup from an 1887 recipe and a bak kut teh done as a French blanquette. Book it before you book your flights.
Breakfast is in the Tiffin Room, under walls of blue-and-white plates, and it's one of the best hotel breakfasts in Asia. The buffet has lovely pastries and fresh coconuts, and the Singaporean dishes on the menu are excellent. The eggs Benedict were spot on too. I wouldn't come back for dinner, though. The Tiffin Room turns into a North Indian restaurant at night, and the curries didn't live up to the room.
The Long Bar is where the Singapore Sling was invented, and you'll want one. It's sweet, it's touristy, and you throw your peanut shells on the floor. The queue can be long, but ring your butler and he'll walk you straight in. Have one, then go to the Writers Bar for a proper drink, which is much calmer.
Setting
Nothing in Singapore looks like Raffles. It's a big white colonial building from 1887 with verandahs, courtyards full of palms and a lobby that rises three storeys to a huge glass chandelier. Even the corridors have treasures, like the old grandfather clock standing between two white doors.
The lobby, the Long Bar and the shopping arcade get busy with day visitors, and some afternoons it can feel like a museum. Once you're through to the courtyards where the suites are, though, the crowds are kept out and it goes completely quiet.
The location is the best of any hotel in town. You can walk to the National Gallery, Chijmes and the museums, the MRT is round the corner, and Marina Bay is a short taxi ride away. What you don't get is a view. If you want to look at the bay from your bed, you'll need a hotel on the water.
Value
Raffles is expensive, and the Palm Court Suites cost noticeably more again. You're paying for history, a butler and the best address in the city, and for the most part you get them. But at this price the welcome should be faultless, and it isn't. For a first trip to Singapore or a big occasion I'd still book it, and go in knowing the front desk may let you down. For a short stopover, I'd stay somewhere easier and come here for a Sling and dinner at 1887.
Who it suits
It's the one I'd book for a first visit to Singapore or for anyone who loves old hotels, as long as you can shrug off a clumsy check-in. If polished service matters more to you than history, the newly renovated Mandarin Oriental runs a tighter ship and has a view of the bay. If you'd rather have a pool and a garden than a city on your doorstep, look at Capella on Sentosa. And for something cheaper with big rooms near the shops, there's the Four Seasons on Orchard.
