Review: M Social Singapore Staycation

When you think about a hotel that offers loft rooms for your #gram needs, or a robot making you an omelette for breakfast, M Social Singapore will probably spring to mind. Opened back in June 2016, the 293-room M Social Singapore was designed by the renowned Phillippe Starck, who also had a hand in designing the interior of the JW Marriott Singapore. 

M Social Singapore is in a cluster of several other hotels and condominiums in the Havelock/Robertson Quay area and is just a stone’s throw away from famous cafes such as Toby’s Estate and Common Man Coffee Roasters. 

M Social is part of the Millennium Hotels and Resorts group, which includes the likes of Grand Copthorne, Copthorne King, Orchard Hotel, M Hotel, and Studio M (which also offers loft rooms). M Social also participates in the My Millennium program, which eliminated elite tiers back in March 2019 and is now a single-tier membership program.

As Aaron wasn’t millennial enough, I was arrowed gladly took on the task to head down for a media stay (and several food tastings) at the invitation of Millennium Hotels and Resorts at the M Social Singapore.

Booking an M Social Singapore Staycation

This stay was a media fam stay from the Millennium Hotels & Resorts team, and I was booked into the Loft Premier Room at the M Social Singapore. M Social has the following room categories:

• Alcove Cosy (19 sqm)
• Alcove Terrace (19 sqm + 4 sqm terrace)
• Loft Gallery (22 sqm)
• Loft Premier (22 sqm)
• Loft Terrace(22 sqm + 4 sqm terrace) 

There are only 36 Loft Gallery rooms, 36 Loft Premier rooms, and 8 Loft Terrace rooms in M Social Singapore and during peak periods these tend to sell like hotcakes.

If you have booked yourself in an Alcove Terrace or Loft Terrace room, you will get to enjoy a little patio for some fresh air. The main difference between the Loft Gallery and Loft Premier rooms are the location of the beds. In Loft Gallery rooms, the beds are on ground level whereas in Loft Premier rooms they are on the loft level. Being in a Loft Premier room, I had the fun experience of groping my way down the stairs to relieve myself in the middle of the night. 

In this media stay, I was given the opportunity to experience several offerings from M Social’s new staycation packages.

If all you need  is just a room and breakfast, Trip.com is offering a great rate that covers weekend stays for a staycation at M Social Singapore:

Arrival and Check-in

Getting to M Social wasn’t very tough, even by public transport. I took the bus there and the nearest bus stop would be the one just outside Four Points by Sheraton. The nearest MRT would be that at Chinatown, Outram Park, or Tiong Bahru where you’ll need to transfer to a bus to get to M Social.

After alighting along Havelock Road, simply walk back towards the rear of the Grand Copthorne hotel to find yourself next to the Robertson Bridge. Cross it and you will be right outside Beast and Butterflies, M Social’s restaurant. 

If you’re driving, do note that there is no complimentary parking available for hotel guests and you will be charged at these rates:

When you arrive at the porch of M Social Singapore, you’re greeted with murals of parrots and vibrant tiles. The usual practices of SafeEntry check-in, health declaration, as well as temperature screenings are done before you enter the lobby proper.

M Social has also placed a check-in desk outside the lobby to process guest check-ins even before they enter the lobby for when it gets too crowded inside the main lobby.   

Guests also have the option to perform a self-check-in/check-out. Do remember to sanitize your hands before and after you used these kiosks though. 

The lobby of M Social itself is trippy. It was rather dark even though there were full-length windows surrounding the lobby. The purplish-pink acrylic backed shelves are a good contrast to the brown walls of the front desk.

The shelves are stocked with M Social products that are available for purchase. These include bathrobes, towels, coffee mugs, and other products like cocktail mixers and perfumes from Maison 21G from the staycation packages.

Guests who wish to do an express check-out can do so by dropping their room card sleeve into the box. 

M Social has 10 floors in total and I was initially assigned to a Loft Premier room on the 7th floor of the hotel. 

Access to other levels of the hotel requires a tap of the keycard so credits to M Social for having this system in place. I’ve been to 5-star hotels where access to guest rooms do not require keycards and that really worries me. 

M Social Singapore: Loft Premier Room

The room I was assigned to was located at the far end of the corridor. The corridors of M Social are tight and rather dim and if you’re walking two abreast, you’ve taken up the whole width of the corridor. No, it’s not because I’m fat. 

Room numbers are carved on the wall and bathed in light which makes them highly visible. 

Unlike most hotels I’ve been to, the keycard reader looks like it’s built into the door itself and a small green light will light up when the door has been unlocked.

First impressions of the Loft Premier room were good. The high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows flood the room with natural light with the blinds fully open. Although it’s not really a great idea to do that as most rooms face the condominiums surrounding the hotel. 

To the left of the entrance was an area to hang your clothes along with the sink and Nespresso machine. While to the right of the entrance was the bathroom. 

Nespresso branded coffee capsules were available along with teabags from Raffles Lighthouse. No crappy freeze-dried coffee here thankfully. Note that the 4 capsules are refillable at a supplement of $10++.

A proper work desk was thankfully available (whoever that says millennials don’t like a proper working desk should be shot) and a sofa can be found in the room. Power sockets can be found under the desk but these are not universal sockets. As the room is rather small, the work desk in Loft Premier rooms are located right next to the bathroom and if you’re staying with a friend who forgot to close the blinds while answering nature’s call…

The power outlets in my room under the work desk had very bad wear and tear and one of the faceplates even fell out when I was trying to plug in my laptop charger.

The in-room phone was cordless and it had USB-A ports for charging which strangely wasn’t working for me.

The bathroom wasn’t as cramped as I thought it to be and you had enough room to soap yourself without accidentally making contact with the glass. 

Bath towels were embossed with the M Social brand and are thick and fluffy too.

The rain shower had decent water pressure but I’ve had better in my travels. The fittings were high quality but only Alcove and Loft Terrace rooms are advertised to enjoy full hansgrohe fittings in the bathroom.

In my Loft Premier room, the sink, soap holder, and bathroom clothes hooks were Axor by hansgrohe, the shower mixer was Toto, and the toilet flush was of another brand. Talk about diversity.

One design flaw with the shower mixer was that the shower knobs are almost impossible to operate once your hands are full of soap. There simply is no grip and it required lots of elbow grease to turn the water back on after you’ve soaped yourself. 

Toiletries were generic Millennium Hotel Group toiletries which were alright. On the M Social website, it is advertised that Loft Rooms do enjoy “Luxury Toiletries” and I read that C.O. Bigelow toiletries/ STORM toiletries were used previously. 

I’ve reached out to the team and they informed me that the shipment of C.O. Bigelow toiletries was delayed and will be arriving soon. All guests staying in Loft Rooms will enjoy C.O Bigelow bath toiletries in the near future. To those who are planning a stay in the future, lucky you!

The showers are see-through but thankfully you can close the blinds from inside the bathroom by turning a knob. It did feel a little claustrophobic with the blinds closed though.

The sink is located outside of the bathroom due to obvious space constraints. Next to the sink are your standard set of toiletries sans shaver. I’m not sure if it’s just me noticing it but more and more hotels are excluding shavers from the basic set of toiletries that are available in the room.

Thankfully, M Social doesn’t scrimp on toothpaste and uses Colgate. +1. 

A care package consisting of hand sanitiser, masks, and anti-bacterial wipes is also available in every room as part of Millennium’s “We Clean, We Care, We Welcome” commitment.

The one found in the initial room I was given was very different from the one in the other room I was reassigned later on. My guess would be that the latter would be the ones that all guests receive.

Below the Nespresso machine/sink was a mini-fridge stocked with 2 bottles of water. Tap water in the room is highlighted as being safe to drink but you could always request for more bottles if you wished.

Drawers containing the hairdryer and in-room safe can be found below the fridge. Also, just know that there isn’t an ironing board or an iron in the room. 

In the Loft rooms, the television is not near the bed. The television for Loft Premier rooms is on the first floor where the sofa is. If you’re staying in a Loft Gallery room, where the beds are on the first floor, the television is on the loft level instead. Whereas in the Loft Terrace room where beds can either be on top or below, the television will not be together with the bed.

The team at the hotel also mentioned that many guests have provided feedback that the television should be close to the bed and hopefully, we’ll see some changes soon. 
(p.s Millenials like Netflix and chilling on the bed)

The content was sharp and there was a good range of television channels and digital radio channels to choose from. These televisions supposedly support AirPlay and Chromecast screen mirroring, but neither myself nor the other media who were staying there could get it to work. 

Moving upstairs, the bed is a queen-sized bed and there are non-universal power sockets located on both sides of the bed. A full-length mirror is also available for uh, bed selfies. 

Wi-Fi speeds at the M Social were blazing fast and is free for all guests, no password is required. Doing a Speedtest, it clocked a whopping 45.67 Mbps download and 49.23 Mbps upload, placing it just behind Mandarin Orchard in the Wi-Fi staycation rankings. Speeds were definitely good enough for Netflix without lag.

I really love the Loft Rooms at M Social. Having stayed in many suites and larger rooms, I honestly like this compact layout of the M Social. (Read: no need walk that far to pee)

Sadly, there were some issues where cleanliness was concerned with both the rooms I was assigned to.

Cleanliness Issues

Earlier I mentioned that I had to change rooms and this was because of a very…hairy issue in my first pre-assigned room. 

When I first entered the room, I could already spot the long hair under the sink near the bathrobes. When I was checking out the sink fittings, I spotted little curly hairs in the sink which was quite an uncomfortable sight to see. Only God knows how those curly bois got there.

There was also a long strand of hair just lying on the sofa and also a weird stain on the pillowcase.

I highlighted these to the front desk and they assured me they’d reclean the room, and invited me to take a look with them after the media lunch. Strangely, when I returned, I was told I have been reassigned to another room on a lower level. The new room was spotless (and hairless), well almost spotless. Everything was well until after my evening shower. 

I needed some cotton buds which can be found in the vanity kit. However, I discovered that the vanity kit containing the cotton buds and cotton pads were used. When my partner picked up the pack and opened it, she thought it strange that the glue seal wasn’t tight and highlighted it to me and to both our horrors, the packet was already open and exposed with a missing cotton bud.

Here’s a picture comparing a new and unused pack that I got and the used pack in the room. New sealed packs come with 3 pieces of cotton buds.

As it was already 11 p.m and I was exhausted from a day’s work (read: eating), I went to bed and only remembered that this happened after getting home. But it’s something that shouldn’t have happened. 

M Social Singapore: Facilities

M Social has a pool and a gym and both are on the 5th floor of the hotel with keycard access required. 

Swimming Pool

The swimming pool is opened from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily and there is a maximum of 20 guests allowed at the pool area at any time. No booking is required and access is on a first-come-first-served basis. 

There is no staff member to regulate the number of people at the pool and I was told that they monitor the pool through CCTV and if it exceeds 20 people, a member of staff will come up to the pool to inform guests to leave. 

Deckchairs are in abundance on the pool deck and are quite clean. No poolside bar/restaurant is available. The pool at its deepest was 1.2m but it should be enough if you want to do a few laps. 

Thankfully, during the few times that I popped over to the pool to try and take a clean pool shot. there was always no more than 5 people inside the pool.

If you are at the edge of the pool, you’ll be greeted with views of Robertson Quay. Although bear in mind that people from below have a good clear view of you as well. 

Towels are self-service and the ice machine and water cooler have been shut, so remember to bring your own water bottles with water if you’re heading to the gym. A self-service coin-operated washing machine and dryer is also available by the pool if you urgently require laundry facilities. These appear to cost S$1 to operate.

Gym

The small but functional gym is located next to the pool and is open from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Pre-booking is required and can be done at the front desk. However, there was no one on hand at the gym to police who goes in and out of the gym. 

Usage of the gym is an hour per room with a maximum of 2 people from the same room allowed inside the gym at any one-time. Each 1-hour block begins by the hour from opening to closing (i.e blocks are from 1000-1100 etc). 

The gym was well equipped with a good variety of weights, treadmills, and bikes.

No disinfectant wipes were present to wipe down equipment after use but there was a bottle of hand sanitizer available in the gym next to the dumbbells. 

M Social Singapore: Breakfast

Breakfast is at Beast & Butterflies on the ground floor of M Social. Breakfast is from 6.30 a.m to 10 a.m daily and you can view the breakfast menu here. There is no capacity restriction/pre-booking required for breakfast.

These pictures of Beast and Butterflies were taken during dinner the day before but even in the day, it’s very dark inside the restaurant and I do apologize for the sub-par breakfast photos. 

If you’ve opted for breakfast at the time of booking and at the front desk the night before, breakfast will cost you S$20++ per adult. Walk-ins for breakfast will be charged S$25++ per adult for the a la carte buffet.

Breakfast is done in an a la carte buffet style with unlimited orders but honestly, the food was quite underwhelming and there were not many choices you can choose from. 

Coffee was from a coffee machine that tasted alright and juices were packaged juices. No fresh juices were on offer during breakfast. The worst part was that the orange juice had a very strong chemical aftertaste to it and I left it untouched after taking a sip. The apple juice was thankfully slightly more palatable albeit too sweet.

Here’s what I ordered:

Pastries were rock hard, which I believe should never be the case for a croissant or a Danish. The kaya toast was alright but not the best I’ve had and the eggs were perfectly soft boiled so thank God for that. The fruit platter was one of the highlights of breakfast for me.

The Nasi Lemak was mediocre in my books, with the rice lacking in coconut milk. There was a hint of it, but it wasn’t enough in my opinion. The Ikan Bilis (anchovies) and peanuts were too salty, although it had a good crunch to them. The sambal did have a slight kick to it. At least the otah was alright and the fried chicken winglets were nice too.

Next up, the omelette and its side dishes which, spoiler alert, was slightly disappointing too. 

The mushroom omelette that I ordered tasted alright but the rest of the dishes were subpar. The veal and chicken sausages were literally tasteless. The bacon was too hard and chewy although I think there might be some people who like their bacon hard.

The other side dishes were passable although the hashbrowns had a slightly bitter aftertaste. I absolutely loved the Lyonnaise potatoes that were served. The side salad that was supposed to come with the omelette never arrived. 

It’s honestly a real shame that breakfast was subpar as I had dinner at Beast and Butterflies the night before and the food was so darn good. In this day where staycations are gaining traction, a hotel’s breakfast offerings should really shine. Moreover, they are only offering the same dishes daily so it’s surprising that it’s not been fine tuned yet given that M Social was one of the first few hotels that reopened for staycations. 

Other Dining Options

Beast and Butterflies is the only restaurant at M Social and is open daily from 6.30 a.m. until 10.30 p.m. If you’re staying at M Social, you can always hop across the Robertson Bridge to the Grand Copthorne where more options are available and I highly recommend heading there for the food too. 

Menus are available via QR codes affixed to tables at the restaurants and no paper-menus are available. I’ve added the links to the menus for each restaurant where available in the table above.

Tempo is currently closed and the area where Food Capital/Tempo used to be has been converted into a co-working space.  

As part of the media stay, I got to sample food from all three restaurants that are currently open. First off I had lunch at Grissini, an Italian grill restaurant which just reopened its doors to welcome diners back at the Grand Copthorne.

I got to try several of their signature dishes and I was honestly blown away by the tomahawk steak. The desserts were amazing as well with the highlight being the chocolate mousse. 

Next up, dinner at Beast and Butterflies. We were served favorites such as the Kurobuta Pork Chops, Barramundi Papillote, and a very interesting San Bei Lobster which was excellent. Although I personally dislike shellfish, the broth was amazing. Desserts were amazing and the Orh Nee Brulee was something I liked a lot. The Thai Milk Tea Pudding served with a sugar lattice was also a very nice dish.

We were also given a taste of their molten chocolate cake served with a mini Magnum stuck in the middle and I will highly recommend that as well.

Lunch the next day was held at Grand Shanghai and we were served an amazing 8-course meal which included a taste of their seasonal hairy crab dish.

All the dishes were of excellent taste although the braised noodles were rather salty. The drunken chicken cold dish appetiser packed a punch, especially with the Shaoxing Wine jelly cubes punching you in the mouth when you sink your teeth into it. 

Overall, all three restaurants had great quality food. If I had to pick one to return to, it’ll be Grissini. 

Mixology and Perfume Workshops

I also experienced the mixology workshop conducted at Beast & Butterflies as well as a perfume making workshop by Maison 21G held in the hotel itself. These workshops were very fun and I liked it a lot- it’s a good inclusion to have to make your staycation a little more exciting.

If you have booked a “Mix and Stay” or a “Bottled Up Happiness” staycation package, be sure to drop the hotel an email prior to your stay to make a reservation for the workshop. The time slots are as follows:

Vlad the bartender was great at engaging us and you could see the passion he had for his job. I made for myself a cocktail of which I could not remember what I put inside. At the end of the workshop, you’ll receive an M Social cocktail shaker to bring home.

Beast and Butterflies has a machine that can print your photo onto the cocktail itself, and we were each surprised with a cocktail with our faces after dinner. 

In the perfume workshop, my nose was accosted by close to 30 different scents. We were first told to scan a QR code to fill in our personality profile, and then a recommended perfume mix will appear. However, all of us just started being Walter Whites and came up with a scent that we liked.

You will get to customize your own perfume and bottle it with the bottle of perfume valued at around S$80, and when you have finished using your creation from this workshop, the staff member informed us that you can bring it back to the Maison 21G retail shop to have it refilled for around S$60. 

M Social Service

Most of my interactions with the staff were pleasant, with the occasional hiccup (e.g coffee orders forgotten at breakfast). Also for those who need extra amenities at night, the housekeeping team isn’t available past a certain hour and when I called to request a new pack of vanity kit at 11 p.m., I was asked to go down to the front desk to get it myself.

Sadly, AURA the robot which would normally bring these amenities to the room is no longer in operation as it’s considered a high touchpoint object in this Covid-19 world and has been temporarily retired. 

Grand Copthorne Co-working Space

As part of the media stay, we were given a tour of the co-working space at the Grand Copthorne Hotel. As the Grand Copthorne is still currently a designated Government Quarantine Facility/Stay Home Notice facility, leisure stays are not allowed there yet.

Thus, they have converted a part of Food Haven and Tempo into a co-working space. You can find more details on the package and other co-working packages here.

There is a cap of 40 users per day, and you have to make a booking via email/phone/WhatsApp before coming down. I was told no walk-in guests are allowed.

The hotel is currently expanding the co-working space and soon the 2nd level of the Grand Copthorne will also be a co-working area. 

Initial impressions were good. The hotel has ensured that all tables have access to power sockets and high tables have USB-A chargers built-in. The area was bathed in natural light which I love. Soft music was played here. When we were there, I’d say the area was at half capacity with people of all ages working/studying there. 

For those who have bought the Millennium II package or wish to purchase some snacks or meals, here’s the menu which you can choose your bento set/snacks from:

Concluding Thoughts

I really loved the loft rooms on offer at M Social- even though the room was small, the space was efficiently used. It’s a shame that breakfast was subpar and the cleanliness of the room wasn’t great this time. 

Overall, I’ll personally return to M Social in the future for a staycation and will definitely book a Loft Room – even if it means climbing down a flight of stairs to pee at 3 a.m.