According to the Collins Dictionary, a staycation is “a holiday that you spend in your own home or country, relaxing and enjoying leisure activities there”. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Citadines is that girl. Along with a relaxing stay in a plush room, this International Coffee Month in October also brings you coffee-related activities and workshops for all my fellow coffee lovers! We had a preview stay here before you book yours. And we bring you a brutally honest, no-holds-barred review of our stay at Citadines Rochor Singapore!
You may have come across the Citadines name in your adventures overseas, possibly even stayed at one of them, but the brand is prominent here as well. Citadines Rochor Singapore is just one of seven Citadines properties in Singapore, and that’s not even counting the other accommodation options from The Ascott Limited.
But the question remains: Does Citadines Rochor Singapore pass the DANAMIC stay test? Here’s a review of our experience.
Citadines Rochor Singapore is a four-star hotel celebrating the love for coffee that courses in our veins this October. After all, it’s not just a beverage; it’s a ritual, a daily affirmation that Man can conquer whatever life throws at him as long as he’s had that first glorious sip. Coffee is the liquid courage that turns groggy mornings into triumphant starts, the fuel that powers us through afternoon slumps, and the dark elixir that sparks late-night creativity. Ah, coffee, you deserve a celebration grander than a coronation!
From 1 to 31 October, selected Citadines properties (including Citadines Rochor Singapore) will celebrate the love for coffee with the rest of the world for International Coffee Month with exciting additions to complement your stay. The website is ready for your fervour as you unsheathe your credit card and make that booking.
Location
Citadines Rochor Singapore sits in the heart of Little India. It’s located within an ethnic enclave, home to a group of people with fascinating ways of life, delicious food, and vibrant culture. Just living in their midst for a day would enrich you. It’s a part of Tekka Place, an intersection point of contemporary living and 19th-century heritage. This means that all around you, you’ll have easy access to retail, dining, fitness and cultural options spread across four floors. You will never have to worry about where to eat during your stay.
The hotel is located close to Rochor MRT Station and is easily accessible by bus as well, with at least three bus stops near the building. This means you’re connected to all parts of the country, with Bugis being just one stop (or even a 15-minute walk) away. This proximity to Bugis and Bras Basah, an arts, heritage and design precinct, means that your inner arts geek can truly freak!
If I may, my only complaint is that the entrance to Citadines Rochor Singapore is rather inconvenient to find. Once you enter Tekka Place, you’ll have to look for a not-obvious-enough sign to Citadines. You must then exit the Tekka Place building to enter the hotel from outside. Even so, once you enter, you have to take a lift to level 3 to make it to the actual lobby. This makes entry and exit into the hotel a tad troublesome, but I’m sure this is due to the structure of the building. Nonetheless, I wish there were more obvious signs or instructions!
Lobby
And now, we move on to the face of every hotel – its lobby. It’s where guests or non-guests, one and all, greet the hotel and see what it has to offer. As for Citadines Rochor Singapore, the lobby was rather different from what you’d expect from a four-star hotel.
As mentioned earlier, the lobby is already a little more out of reach, sitting on the third floor with only that one lift that can bring you there. Nevertheless, when you arrive at the lobby, it’s a little more casual. The hotel’s front desk or reception is a fort held down by one person at a time. And it is quite literally a desk with two chairs. I couldn’t help but marvel at this somewhat different check-in experience, but I greatly appreciate the seat!
Next to the lounging area in the lobby, a pleasant surprise awaits you – a welcome drink in an adorable stall-style set-up! There are different drinks on different days, but for the whole month of October, in celebration of International Coffee Month, you will see coffee all around! Right here as well, there is also a fancy Starbucks Singapore coffee machine. Pick a drink that’s calling out to you, make your cashless payment, and voila! The machine concocts your drink on the spot and serves it to you. They take the passion for coffee to another level!
Checking Out
One thing I absolutely adored about my stay was how effortless the check-out process was! All I had to do was drop my key card into a box, and with the magic of express check-out, I was done! This box is conveniently located next to the elevator leading you to and from the rooms and reception.
This means that you could literally stay in the room down to the final two minutes before check-out time (some grace time for the lift, in case it takes longer than anticipated!) and reach the third floor to drop your key. And you’re off! No winding long queues after a relaxing stay! This could explain why the hotel reception is a one-man show. But let’s not abuse this system and adhere to the check-out time!
Rooms
And now, the rooms. We got ourselves a Studio Twin room. Admittedly, at 20 sqm, the room was a little snug, but it was cosy. The brown accents, combined with the warm lighting and the poofy appearance of the big, white blanket resting on the bed, ready to engulf you in its warm embrace, make the entire room feel like a warm hug.
The bedroom has two single beds, a study table with a comfortable chair, a sturdy luggage rack for your suitcase, a rod in the wall for you to hang your clothes up, a little kitchenette complete with a sink, dishes, and utensils, a microwave, an ironing board, and a bathroom with a shower (forgive me if I’m missing anything else – the room came packed with convenience!).
Let’s begin with my favourite parts about the room. I cannot shut up about the pillows! I’m rather picky about where my head rests after a battle-like day. I need them to be the perfect height and firmness so that my neck doesn’t ache the next morning. But Citadines Rochor was so generous. Not only were there two pillows and a cushion for all of us pillow huggers and hoggers, but the two pillows were also of different heights! For the first time in a hotel, I slept on a perfect pillow and had plenty more to hug! I had a phenomenal sleep.
I also loved the myriad of power sockets all around the room – next to both beds and also at the study table, where an international power socket sat for all travellers’ convenience.
But oh, I so truly wish there was a little couch or more seating in the room. Except for the chair for the study table, if you don’t like wearing your outside clothes in bed, the only place that’s left for you in a cosy hotel room like this one is the floor, or maybe even the luggage rack (which is a lot more sturdy than you think). But fret not, there are other rooms you can choose from, which should come with a little seating area!
There’s the Studio Executive and Studio Premier, which are exactly the same size as the Studio and Studio Twin (where we stayed), except that it’d be more suitable for longer stays with a fully-equipped kitchen, complete with a stove for some cooking action. As for the Studio Premier, it’s a tad more pricey than the other rooms, but it seems that the only difference between the Executive and Premier is the coffee and tea facilities. But all rooms already come with sachets of coffee and tea, which you can also ask for a restock of. So, who knows?
Moving on! One of the most significant features of Citadines Rochor Singapore is its spotlight on sustainability. It has many features that shed light on its efforts to be more sustainable for a greener Singapore and carbon footprint. But how practical are these new efforts, and how do they impact your stay? Let’s talk about them.
Their most significant effort lies in their water dispensers. Instead of providing water bottles for each room or an in-room water dispenser, there are shared dispensers for each floor located somewhere near the lobby. You see, as sustainable as this is in theory, it’s rather troublesome to keep going to the dispenser every time you want some water. And these dispensers are located in the centre of the floor but could be far from your room, depending on where it is. From our Studio Twin, located at the end of the corridor, it was quite the walk.
While there is a jug and kettle provided in the rooms for you to refill from the dispenser in one go, it’s cumbersome to carry it back and forth. If there were more dispensers per floor that made it less of a hike for water, I wouldn’t have minded it as much. After all, you’re on vacation, and vacation should feel like paradise. And in paradise, everything is at the tip of your fingers. But in the big picture of sustainability, this is a small sacrifice we can make for Mama Nature.
Speaking of everything being at the tip of your fingers, another heavenly feature of hotels is their housekeeping. It’s the magic of returning to a perfectly clean room, blissfully saving you the trouble of doing it yourself. But at Citadines Rochor Singapore, housekeeping is only available three out of seven days a week. If you stay on odd-number floors, your housekeeping is available on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. For even-number floors, your housekeeping is on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
While housekeeping is not available on Sundays, you can still request amenities and towel changes. Let’s face it: we don’t need housekeeping daily, so making it available on alternate days makes this a lovely step towards a greener world.
Another effort that showcases Citadines’ commitment to sustainability is their adorable use of Jenga blocks to tell the housekeeping team what you need. This ensures that you’re receiving only what you need and that resources are being used for those who really need them.
Each room also comes with a kitchenette! The Studio Twin Room had a fully functioning kitchen sink, complete with dishwashing soap and a sponge to wash the dishes in the cupboard. Considering that the hotel has no in-house restaurant of its own, this extra touch was so useful for when you dabao your food; it is a win. It’s very uncommon to find a kitchenette in lower-tier rooms in most hotels, making this heaven-sent a true staycation paradise!
But here’s where my confusion lies: how is it that I have a kitchen sink in my room but not a water dispenser? While this makes sense for a long-term stay, which Citadines Rochor Singapore also focuses on, this contrast might be a little frustrating to stomach for a short and sweet staycation. For a hotel that wants to shine a limelight on sustainability, something about this doesn’t seem very sustainable to me. But hey! I loved that kitchenette for my dapao and GrabFood rendezvous!
Bathroom
A shower in a hotel room means the perfect temperature of water hitting your skin. It means feeling all bougie with the toiletries sitting at your mercy, ready to be wielded. It means feeling like royalty in a pristine bathroom. And boy, did the bathroom deliver.
It was clean and adorned with the classy modernity expected of a four-star hotel in Singapore. Well, it was spick and span until I noticed dust settled on the toiletries and felt my heart drop. While the rest of the bathroom was spotless, this meant that it was not cleaned as thoroughly as we’d have liked, which was a little disappointing.
Speaking of disappointing, I also wish the bathrooms could have been a tad bigger to provide more space for changing clothes after a shower. It wasn’t too cramped, but still just a little tight. I also wish there were more hooks to hang our clothes and towels for a shower. Please, hotels, do not deprive us of our hooks! We need more! There can never be too many!
My dramatic fit aside, I absolutely loved the attention to detail in the flooring in the shower. Don’t you just hate it when the water from when you’re showering seeps over to the outside and the dry part of the bathroom becomes wet, making changing feel like an Olympic sport? Ah, Citadines Rochor Singapore knows. A little slope at the edge of the floor near the door ensures that any water that threatens to escape is discouraged by its own little prison wall. This keeps the bathroom dry and slip-free!
The bathroom served and made the stay supremely pleasant!
Facilities
Pool
A must-have facility in a hotel is always the pool. It’s where the water wraps around you in its chilling embrace under the piercing rays of the sun. It’s where the smell of the water remedies all your pain. It’s an escape. It’s a refuge. And it’s yours to take when you stay at Citadines Rochor Singapore.
The pool is a decent size, but you might want to watch for the crowds during peak periods, which I’d assume are the late evenings and the weekends, just in case. Nonetheless, there’s no such thing as a ‘right’ time to hit a pool, is there? Except when it’s closed to the public from 11pm onwards! Bring along your bathing suit and bask in the comfort of the water washing away all your woes. Clean towels are also provided nearby so that you’re not dripping and freezing all the way to the shower!
Gym
Overlooking the pool is the 24-hour gym! I don’t know why you’d be working out while you’re on holiday (I’m actually bursting with envy for your dedication), but this gym is at your service with everything you need – from treadmills and elliptical machines to weights.
It’s a tad snug, but we don’t know how crowded (or not!). the gym could get. It’s worth checking it out and sneaking an hour or two of exercise, maybe a little dip in the pool, and retiring to the comfy beds that await you after a tough day.
Shared Kitchen
As we mentioned earlier, all rooms come with a semi-kitchenette (the upper-tier rooms even have a mini built-in induction hob). But if you want to get down and dirty and cook up a storm, you’ll need the big guns. And this kitchen will be your best friend!
Equipped with an oven, two induction hobs, a kitchen sink, mega refrigerators and all the utensils, tools, and dishes you need, this kitchen is a dream come true if you’re staying longer! Bake some cupcakes and brownies, cook up a feast, and dine there with your friends and family at the dining table. Outside the kitchen, there’s also a herb garden with useful cooking herbs like rosemary, lemongrass, basil, mint, and more! If you’d like to use them, head to the front desk right outside the kitchen and request for some, and they’ll help you out.
Co-Working Space
Another facility that you wouldn’t want to leave here at Citadines Rochor Singapore is the co-working space across from the lobby. If you need a change of scenery, this amazing space will be perfect for some quiet time. Plenty of power sockets will keep you company as you hustle. Concealed from passers-by, you will have your privacy and serenity as you work.
But what I love is the versatility of this space. It’s more than just a place to come work. It’s yet another place in the hotel that’s waiting for you to make memories with the people you love (including yourself!). In the corner of the space, you’ll find tons of things the hotel keeps for its guests to entertain themselves. Curl up with a classic murder mystery by Agatha Christie. Or gather your army and play a game (which will ensure a battle breaks out; you’ve been warned!) like pick-up sticks, Kopi and the King, Halli Galli, and more!
International Coffee Month with Citadines
Citadines Rochor Singapore is a four-star hotel celebrating the love for coffee that courses in our veins this October. After all, it’s not just a beverage; it’s a ritual, a daily affirmation that Man can conquer whatever life throws at him as long as he’s had that first glorious sip. Coffee is the liquid courage that turns groggy mornings into triumphant starts, the fuel that powers us through afternoon slumps, and the dark elixir that sparks late-night creativity. Ah, coffee, you deserve a celebration grander than a coronation!
From 1 to 31 October, selected Citadines properties (including Citadines Rochor Singapore) will celebrate the love for coffee with the rest of the world for International Coffee Month with exciting additions to complement your stay. During your stay in October, all guests can get an exclusive kopi tour at Kim Guan Guan Coffee Trading Pte Ltd!
Apart from that, you’ll also receive some welcome gifts! First, a welcome drink awaits you – kopi-o kosong (or cold brew coffee) in the lobby. And you’ll receive a Limited Edition ‘For the Love of Coffee’ Welcome Kit, including a trendy jute bag, a ceramic coaster, and a Welcome Card & Coffee Guide!
As part of the experience to truly show you the colour of kopi on the canvas of Singapore culture, you can also catch a display of traditional tools used for kopi-making in the lobby of Citadines Rochor Singapore. Complimentary coffee workshops also await all Citadines hotel guests – whether it’s D.I.Y coffee scrubs or a coffee appreciation class, your love for coffee will magnify tenfold after your stay!
On top of all this, every room in the hotel comes with a selection of the iconic Kim’s Duet’s top coffee and tea sachets that will ensure there’s something for everyone! With Cuppa Tuesdays and Wind Down Thursdays, you also allow coffee to once again become the glue that brings people together. On Tuesday mornings, have a complimentary Kim’s Duet to-go coffee, and on Thursdays, make new buddies over a cuppa Joe by winding down to build meaningful connections with fellow Citazens.
Booking for stays during International Coffee Month in October starts now and ends on 30 September! You can even enjoy an additional 5% off with Rediscover Singapore offers that cut the prices but never the magic.
Booking Citadines Rochor Singapore
🗓️Date: 1 to 31 October 2024
📍Locations: Citadines Balestier Singapore, Citadines Fusionopolis Singapore, Citadines Raffles Place Singapore, Citadines Rochor Singapore, Citadines Science Park Singapore, Citadines Connect Rochester Singapore
Book your stay with Citadines for International Coffee Month this October right now! Check out The Ascott Limited’s official website for all things Citadines. And stay tuned to their Instagram and TikTok socials for more of their cool happenings.
Photos by Brendan Tan and Leo Chia of the DANAMIC Team.
