Since the last time I told you guys that I was going for a staycay, I've already gone on three staycations but just haven't got the time to blog about it. Today I'll be sharing a review of my staycation at Hotel Michael, Resorts World Sentosa!

This was actually my second time staying at Hotel Michael; the first time was some time last year in March. I actually had quite a good time during the first staycation and it's important to note that I got both stays for free - courtesy of my boyfriend's aunt who often gets free stays from RWS.

This staycation was obviously during the Covid period, so there were some differences between the last stay and this recent stay. I won't get into any spoilers now, so let's just dive right into the hotel rooms and how it looks like!

Hotel Michael rooms are pretty simple. Of course we got just a deluxe room since it was a free stay, so there was nothing much in it except a bed, a few chairs, a long-ass desk, TV and a couple of drawers and cupboards.

Looks quite nice hor.

The room also had a safe and a fridge as well as some coffee and tea bags, paper cups and two cartons of water. The lighting is the room is rather dim and yellowish, so it really isn't an ideal place to do work especially at night. And of course there's that issue with the WiFi too, but we'll get to that later.

Upon entering the room, we also saw a little care kit placed on our bed. The care kit was quite useful as it had masks, wet wipes and a hand sanitiser.

Everything else about the room was okay - Hotel Michael is SG Clean certified so you could see everything was properly sanitised and wrapped up. I would say the nicest part of the entire room was the bathroom, which decked marble-white walls and Instagrammable lighting. Sadly the bathroom amenities were rather lacking as there were no bathrobes, shaving kits or hair conditioner. But honestly I'm okay with that lah - free stay don't want to complain so much.

While the room we previously stayed in had a better view, the one we got this time was next to the Sentosa Express and faced a bunch of noisy construction. Not really romantic if you ask me.

Hotel Michael does have a swimming pool and gym, but you'll have to make a booking prior to going down because well, #covidthings. Guests are only allowed to book 1-hour slots each day per room, so it is absolutely important that you just take whichever time is available.

The swimming pool has a jacuzzi, but it's hogged by kids all the time so you're lucky if you get to try it! My boyfriend and I booked the pool during off-peak hours so we did get to soak in it for a bit. On the other hand, the gym is empty most of the time so you can probably just walk in.

The booking system for Hotel Michael is an absolute hassle, so it's important that you book in advance and be familiar with your booking details. For some reason the staff are really adamant that you book only through the system (which is so buggy, unintuitive and mafan) and they were only willing to book on our behalf when we showed them that we just couldn't do it - and they did it in 30 seconds! I mean if it's that easy, might as well take bookings over the counter too right?

And even after they successfully booked the pool for us and we told them that we wanted to book the gym too, they were like, "Oh for the gym you must go through the system because we can't do it for you", so thank goodness the gym is always empty because the system just couldn't load!

Moving on to other issues...

There aren't any cutlery in the rooms so you have to personally go down to the lobby to collect it yourself. The staff won't do it for you because they aren't allowed to touch the cutlery, but weirdly enough they are allowed to bring up water and other stuff. I guess I can see where they're coming from because you don't want the cutlery to be contaminated...but how about water then? They may get contaminated too right? IDGI.

Also, just a warning that the internet here is pretty bad. It's alright for surfing Google or playing short YouTube videos, but NOT for Zoom meetings or Netflix. I think the connection there is just quite bad because our hotspot was very choppy too, unless your network provider is Singtel.

Moving on to a few more issues...

On the second day my boyfriend and I realised that our sheets smelt really bad and musky, as if it was dirtied and just left to dry on its own. The smell was only from one side of the bed and we didn't smell it anymore after room service, but it was kinda gross regardless. The walls of the room are also very thin - so yes, take note all you couples on your 'romantic getaway' - and you can hear the conversations of people in the connecting room. The clientele here are usually aunties and kids, so there were a lot of screaming kids on top of our neighbours ranting all night in Hokkien about Covid.

Seriously sia, when I heard them shouting and rambling till 4am, for awhile I thought I was back in Hall.

But of course the staycation wasn't all that bad and there were some plus points. First, Hotel Michael is really near convenience stores, ATM machines and food sources. It's also really near the Sentosa Express which is free for everyone riding it now until 31 December 2020.

If you don't know where to eat, you can check out this ramen restaurant we chanced upon called Keisuke Tokyo - they have 10/10 ramen which is affordable too!

While this staycation wasn't the best I've experienced, I'll give chance because this happened during Covid which may explain the can-be-improved service and mini inconveniences. Since my first stay at Hotel Michael was rather pleasant, I won't be quick to bash them too. If you're just looking for a simple stay and don't have much expectations, Hotel Michael is good enough.

Address: 8 Sentosa Gateway, S098269