Singapore hotels pull out the stops with facelifts, rebrandings and staycation offers – including for pets – to survive two years of Covid restrictions
- As the pandemic drags on, Singapore’s hotel scene is adapting to survive, with ever more imaginative staycation promotions and dining deals
- The Mandarin Orchard is closing, the Hilton is moving, and among those to open or rebrand are the Dusit Thani Laguna, Clan Hotel and Oasia Resort Sentosa
The Mandarin Orchard is bowing out of Singapore’s hotel scene.
Many Singaporeans over 35 will be familiar with the 51-year-old hotel (which is unconnected to the Mandarin Oriental chain), as it was favoured for weddings and other family celebrations in the 1980s and ’90s. The Mandarin Orchard was also popular with Indonesian visitors, particularly medical tourists, because of its proximity to the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre.
The hotel, which will be rebranded as a Hilton, had lost some of its shine as an increasing number of international hospitality brands arrived in Singapore over the past three decades.
Even so, the timing of the announcement, in March 2021 – more than a year after the pandemic’s onset dealt a crushing blow to hotels used to being full of overseas tourists – has left many in the industry believing that the dearth of customers was one of the reasons for the Mandarin Orchard’s closure.
The Hilton Singapore will start operations on March 1 at the premises on Orchard Road, less than 2km away from the building in which it had operated since 1970, which was itself taken over by another hotel, the voco Orchard, on January 1.
