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Park Hotel Clarke Quay, Singapore
The Park Hotel Group has ‘soft opened’ their latest property – Park Hotel Clarke Quay – in Singapore. Distinctive by its striking red-tiled roof and towers with spires, the 10-storey hotel can be found on the historic Singapore River, exuding classic colonial architecture reminiscent of Singapore in the early 1800s.
Its 336 rooms and suites are designed with a view of the Singapore River, offering the comforts of modern living. For dining and entertainment, Brizo Restaurant & Bar raises the bar with its seafood offerings cooked in both Western and Asian styles. The hotel also has a swimming pool complete with pool bar, gym facilities and Spa Park Asia, offering an outdoor spa experience.
Paul Johnson
Paul Johnson is Editor of A Luxury Travel Blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is Winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Best Travel Influencer’ Award from WIRED magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the world’s best travel blogs” and “best for luxury” by The Daily Telegraph.
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I have rarely had good experiences with “soft openings.” My rule of thumb is to wait to read some reviews before I go now, as usually soft openings for me translate to untrained staff, and too many flaws.
I kinda disagree that soft openings are rarely good. If there are teething troubles – which there may well be – they’re much easier to deal with if it’s not at a huge whizz-bang-look-at-us event.
That said, I do agree to some extent that soft openings imply that the new venture isn’t quite ready to jump in at the deep end. But perhaps it’s not a bad thing that they recognise that.
For a luxury hotel, a soft opening should not exist. Open when you are ready to provice luxury, 100% consistent service. Staff should be well experienced at other hotels, so that they can transition and provide the same experience for a guest on opening day, as on day 800. This is merely luxury speaking, but a guest should not have to be the learning experience for the hotel.
Oh, I dunno. They often do special offers during soft openings so the customer can be a bit more forgiving if small things go wrong. The hotel’s reputation could fall on the failure of a grand opening, so why risk it and cause all that stress for the staff?
I’ve seen well-established hotels do soft openings for new ventures they start. Perhaps its a new theme for a dinner buffet or whatever. They’re testing the consumer demand and preferences as well as staff performance. I’ve never yet been disappointed.
with so much that could go wrong i think a soft opening is the wise choice to iron out any operational flaws that often only present themselves when things are up and running – from a marketing perspective it is easier and safer to pr and grand open when the product is consistent and of the quality expected!
A friends who lives in Dubai told me that seemingly the Atlantis at the Palm in Dubai did their own soft opening and had many issues but they ironed most of them out before the very spectacular and very public opening with Kylie et al!
Suppose the had to get everything sorted out as the world was most definitely watching!