Recently I had a short overnight stay at The Standard Singapore. This was the first time I stayed at a ‘The Standard’ hotel. To be honest, I only heard about ‘The Standard’ hotels after the Hyatt chain purchased Standard International back in October 2024. I was interested to find out what The Standard hotels were all about. And what about that upside down logo? Please read below my review of The Standard Singapore to find out if it’s worth staying there.
History The Standard
The first Standard Hotel opened in Hollywood in 1999. Original investors were, among other people, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, and Benicio del Toro. The founder, Andre Balasz had some interesting ideas. Balasz used low room rates, but made up for the low room rates by making the other spaces more profitable. Non guests revenue would fill up the gap. This worked brilliantly at the Standard Hollywood; the pool deck would become a popular party venue. The lobby would host art shows and DJ sets. Live models posed in glass boxes behind the front desk.
The Standard logo was put upside down because it turned hospitality upside down. The hotels were meant for the city and opened up to the community. Guests who stayed at The Standard, stayed there to be part of the action of the city.
This all sounds great. So what it’s like 25 years later? Is the upside logo now just a gimmick reminding guests of past glory or are you still part of the action of the city when you stay there?
Front Desk and Bar Area
I arrived at 7PM at The Standard Singapore. The lobby area was quite small. A small front desk, and a little bar area (Cafe Standard) with a few seats. And the place was completely deserted. Not the vibe I was expecting, and I certainly didn’t feel the Singapore Action in the lobby area…
The interior design certainly wasn’t standard and did look attractive. But again, it was relatively small and the fact that nobody was there, didn’t make it very inviting.
Check-in was smooth though and I got an upgrade to a Standard King room. This was kind of an upgrade since I originally booked a standard twin room with one bed.
The Room
The first thing I noticed when I entered the Standard King Room, wasn’t the use of the crazy colors, but the actual size of the room. It was small! For one night , for one person, this room was perfectly fine. But when you need to stay here for a couple of nights with 2 persons, this room will feel very cramped. There wasn’t even a decent space for your suitcase.
The colors in the bathroom were certainly out there… But again, the space was very small and didn’t give you a luxury feeling. Tiles with crazy colors don’t hide the fact that a bathroom with tiles everywhere, still looks very cheap…
Having absorbed the interior design of the room, I focused my attention to finding a charge port for my IPhone, IPad, and headphones; all needed urgent charging!
Even though The Standard hotel is very new (it opened in 2024), there are no universal charge plugs, nor USB C-plugs. There are only 2 USB A-plugs and the power socket type G – used in Singapore. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring any of these. Luckily the front desk came to the rescue and they were able to provide me with a conversion plug. Saved! But for a modern hotel, you would expect a universal plug in the room and/or USB C plugs…
Kaya The Restaurant
Since Cafe Standard wasn’t really an attractive option to have a bite to eat – since it was absolutely deserted – I decided to check out the Kaya Restaurant. The Kaya is ‘a sultry jewel box in the city. Kaya reinvents the classic Japanese izakaya experience. Prepared for those who appreciate the art of flavor layering, Kaya serves up a curated selection of dishes that celebrate umami in every bite.‘
This is what Kaya promised. Certainly the interior looked nice and there were even some people in the restaurant. I ordered the ‘Nikujaga’; tender beef in a soy-mirin broth.
Unfortunately, this dish was the worst dish I had in a restaurant in a long time. The beef was horrible. It wasn’t tender at all. It was very chewy and I couldn’t even eat the majority of the meat. After I complained about the quality of the beef, the waiter took the beef from the bill and asked if I wanted a different dish instead. But I had enough of my Kaya experience and decided to check out if there were some other areas of The Standard I might have missed. After all, shouldn’t The Standard bring the action of Singapore into the hotel?
Fitness & Pool Area
The pool actually looked very nice. The pool is open till 10PM, but at 8:30PM is was deserted. I guess I missed all the action already. There was also a pool bar which is open till 8PM so it just closed when I got there. Close to the pool is the fitness area… Well, this fitness area seemed more like an after thought. As if the designers realized – after allocating a function to every space – that they forgot to allocate a dedicated (air conditioned) room for the fitness area. So they just put some fitness machines outside. Needless to say, there was nobody there either.
Conclusion
I started my review of The Standard Singapore with the history of The Standard. An anti-hotel that turned hospitality upside down. A place for ‘A-list Attention’ and the city’s hottest party venue.
The Standard Singapore is nothing like that. The upside down logo can be turned around again. The Standard Singapore is just a regular hotel and not a particularly good one in my opinion. It’s just too pretentious and doesn’t live up the a reputation the brand may have had 25 years ago. My room was small and didn’t feel luxurious. The meal I had in the restaurant was awful and the bar area was deserted and didn’t feel inviting.
On the positive side; the room was quiet and the hotel is located in a very quiet neighborhood. Which is great if you like to escape from the fuzz and buzz of the city, but isn’t that in contrast to what The Standard promises?
Also have a look at the my Youtube review of the flight I took out of Singapore to London with Singapore Airlines’ A380 in Business Class. Not a standard flight at all!
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