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Hotel Survey of the "Hidden" hotel charges in Singapore Hotels

For our look at Hidden Hotel Costs in Singapore, we discovered that thanks to the Governments' strict control, telephone calls are all at the standard rate of Sin$ 0.10 cts per three minutes and IDD (long distance calls) are also at the standard rates. Hotels are not allowed, by law, to apply surcharges to any telephone calls made whether local or long distance. This is a very refreshing welcome, especially for business travellers who need the telephone to be able to conduct business, and can can make calls in the knowledge  that they are not, in any way, being ripped off. Of course hotels can if they wish make them free of charge (perhaps for executive floor guests) but as you can see below, few do.

Some interesting surprises come out of this survey, hotels that charge for incoming faxes and one thing that differs from other countries is the television channels that the hotels provide. Most TV comes through SCV (Singapore Cable Vision) and there are high charges placed on the hotels for certain programmes. HBO the highly respected International movie channel only appears in certain hotels, as does the BBC, CNN, Discovery Channel and others. For those travelling on business it can be very important to select a hotel that can offer in room entertainment after a hard day at work, even if it only to be used for a few minutes a day. We have only featured the channels that the hotels have if they are on every guest floor of the hotel.

Therefore this survey will give you an idea of the hotels mentality towards the service of its' guests. The conclusion can be found at the bottom of the page here. 

Of course such prices and in room policies are constantly changing and we will update the survey from time to time. We cannot be held responsible for any inaccuracies. All information was    

All the hotels have local TV channels so we have not included them below, the coke price is the mini bar price, the shirt through laundry (not dry cleaning), club sandwich is room service, the telephone is on the normal floors and executive floors, and incoming fax means does the hotel charge you if you receive a fax. All prices are in Singapore $.

Our other Hidden Hotel Costs can be seen for Manila, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong Mainland.

Conclusion

What we thought was going to be a relatively boring survey has turned out some interesting results. Firstly however our hats go off to the following hotels for going out of their way to make their guests experience as easy and hassle free as possible. The Royal Plaza on Scotts, that offers a mini bar with 8 items (non alcoholic - but does have two beers) free of charge. The Rendezvous Hotel that has pretty much every sports channel you could ever wish for in its rooms. The Allson Hotel, Westin Plaza and Westin Stamford that offer free of charge local telephone calls in every room (the only three such hotels in Singapore).

Some quite worrying results came out though, such as the fact that the Grand Copthorne Hotel charges Sin$ 1 per page of incoming fax, and the Mandarin Orchard Hotel and the Mandarin Marina Hotel both charge Sin $ 4 per minute of incoming fax if if you receive the fax on the fax machine that is in your room, but free of charge if you receive the same fax in the business centre.

The cheapest club sandwich can be found at the Albert Hotel @ Sin $ 8 +++, and the most expensive at the Shangri-La @ Sin $ 21 +++ with the Raffles Hotel (which offers one of the highest quality club sandwiches in the world) @ Sin $ 15 +++.

The cheapest laundry price for a gents long sleeve dress shirt is at the Asia Hotel @ Sin $ 3.50 ++ and the most expensive at the Conrad Hotel and Four Seasons Hotel @ Sin $ 12 +++.

As for the mini bar, many hotels in Singapore have now started emptying the mini bar in some of their rooms such as the Standard and Superior rooms, and installing vending machines on these floors with the price of a coke around Sin $ 1 - 1.50. This means that it can actually be cheaper if you are staying on a higher quality floor to ask whether the hotel has a vending machine. As one hotel we surveyed charges Sin $ 5.50 ++ for a coke in the mini bar yet has a vending machine only a few floors down with cokes at Sin $ 1.20 !!! Overall though the cheapest coke from the mini bar is the Royal Plaza on Scotts which is free and the most expensive is at the Ritz Carlton @ SIn $ 7 ++. If the hotel does not have coke then we asked for the price of the Pepsi.

Our other Hidden Hotel Costs can be seen for Manila, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong Mainland.