Hotel Review – Crowne Plaza Changi Airport
The rate for a regular room on the night I stayed was $313 SGD ($248 USD). After finding a slightly lower rate on a competing site, I was able to successfully make an IHG Best Price Guarantee claim. This meant that my one night stay at the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport was free. (I have written all about the IHG Best Price Guarantee here and here.)
Overview
I arrived in Singapore on a flight from Beijing at around 9PM local time. With such a late arrival, I decided that staying close to the airport would be a good idea. As far as airport hotels in Singapore get, none are more convenient than the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport given its location attached to the terminal.
Location
The Crowne Plaza Changi has one of the best locations of any airport hotel. It is located inside of the airport, attached to Terminal 3. If you land at either Terminal 1 or Terminal 2 then you must take the Skytrain to Terminal 3 where it is accessed by a bridge. I was off of my plane and in the hotel within twenty minutes thanks to Singapore’s amazing immigration.
I think it is also worth mentioning that the entrance to the Singapore MRT (Subway) is right outside of the hotel’s door. This makes it incredibly easy to get into the city and back for a day of sightseeing.
Facilities
While I didn’t spend enough time at the Crowne Plaza Changi to use most of the facilities, I was able to poke around to see what was available. The first thing I noticed while walking around the hotel was just how beautiful it is. This is certainly not something that I expected given its location in the middle of an airport. The entire property is full of gardens and tropical plants that almost make you forget where you are.
Speaking of beauty, the hotel’s pool is nothing short of incredible. While most airport hotel’s pools are an afterthought, the pool area at the Crowne Plaza Changi was the centerpiece of the outdoor space. I was sad that I didn’t have the time to enjoy it, because it looked to be a pool that I could lounge around in for at least a few hours.
As for the other facilities, the hotel has a well equipped gym and a business center. This hotel does also have a club level including an executive lounge. While I wasn’t given lounge access on this stay, I did manage to get inside to look around and it is both spacious and well stocked. While some IHG hotels do upgrade Platinum members to club rooms with lounge access, it doesn’t happen very often.
Room
As an IHG Rewards Club Platinum Member, I was given an upgrade to a suite. I was surprised when I emailed the property a couple of days before my stay, because they told me up front that I would be given a suite if one was available.
Keeping in line with the design of the hotel, the room is very modern and heavily uses earth tones. Between the browns from various woods used throughout the room and the green in the carpet, I really fell in love with the feel of the room. It felt like a place that you wanted to spend some time in.
Upon walking in the suite, the first room was a living room. This living room had a large couch and its own flat screen television along with a 1/2 bathroom. Behind the living room was the modest sized bedroom which had a king sized bed and an attached full bathroom. I would estimate the suite was around 600-700 square feet, although I can’t find a published size on their website.
Like I mentioned before, the room was incredibly comfortable. The bed was soft by Asian standards and I was able to get a good amount of sleep which was much needed after a whole day of touring Beijing and dealing with China’s Capital Airport. (And getting felt up by several airport security screeners!)
Food/Beverage
The hotel has two bars along with two restaurants. When I arrived at hotel, everything was packed. I was surprised to see just how busy the bars and restaurants were given the location and time, but it is well known that Singaporeans are late night people. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to eat at the hotel, but the food quality looked surprisingly good. As for the prices, they were high as is typical in airport hotels.
I was given a free drink voucher to use because of my Platinum status, but I opted to give it away since I spent most of my time in the city. With that said, I did do some work and spend some time in the Lobby Lounge. The chairs were incredibly comfortable and it seemed like a very nice place to sit back and have a drink.
Everything Else
Like I mentioned before, the hotel grounds are amazing. While I had only planned to do a quick walk around the property to take pictures, I spent a lot of time admiring the tropical beauty of the hotel’s gardens. It was a nice break and unexpected considering the concrete ugliness that you usually see at an airport.
While there isn’t a children’s playground at the hotel, Terminal 3 has an amazing slide which is located just steps outside of the hotel’s doors. If you have children, I would say the slide is a must do as even I wanted to go on it! (Ok I am like a big kid so that doesn’t say much.)
I also want to briefly mention the hotel’s staff. At every turn I was greeted with a smile by the staff who looked genuinely happy to be there. When finding out that I would be going into the city, the front desk staff proactively offered me a late checkout. While normally a late checkout has to be completed by 4pm, they were able to extend that to 5pm for me. This meant that I was able to leave my things in the room while in the city and return to take a shower before leaving for my flight.
Conclusion
If you are planning a long holiday in Singapore, then this hotel is obviously not for you. There is no reason to commute into and out of the city, even though the MRT station is conveniently close. This hotel is for someone like me who arrives late into Singapore on a long layover. I was able to get some sleep and then spend a whole day in the city before returning to the airport to fly on to India.
The Crowne Plaza Changi could easily stand on its own in any location. In fact, I think it is one of the finest Crowne Plaza hotels that I have stayed in. There is simply not a thing I didn’t like about it. The grounds were beautiful, it has an amazing pool and the room was modern and comfortable. While the price of $250 USD a night is steep, if you are coming through Singapore on business or simply have a long layover and are looking for comfort, then I highly recommend the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport.
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[…] I start, I want to mention how much I enjoyed my stay at the Crowne Plaza Changi. (Full review.) Even though I was there for free on an IHG Best Rate Guarantee, I was still given all of the […]
[…] brands site’s to see what properties they have in each city. Immediately I saw that the Crowne Plaza Changi Airport is located inside the terminal. With my late arrival this hotel was […]