Saturday, October 30, 2021

Staycation at SG Hotel on Wheels

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It has been a very long time since we slept in anywhere else other than our bedroom, where we, 2 adults + 5 children + our Maltipoo bunk in together! So naturally we were all really excited when we were booked for a one-night stay over at the latest talk of the town, the SGHotelonWheels recently. So to the East we travelled! 



I did wonder to myself on how our family of 7 would fare in a 40ft container but then again, we are so used to squeezing into small hotel / apartment rooms whenever we travel, that I think we would have absolutely no problem at all! In any case, we were booked into 2 containers, a 20-footer Retro Mambo and 40-footer Pop Art SHOWrooms for our staycation lor so all was good! Children above 12 are considered adults and there is a maximum capacity of 4A1C, 3A2C, 2A3C, or 1A4C for the 40-footer and 2A1C for the 20-footer SHOWrooms.



Front porch of our 40-footer SHOWroom.

We were ushered to our rooms upon the standard check-in at their front desk and it was really quite an experience to check into a container room lah. The small porch at the front with the fake grass turf, fake tree and beach chairs was a nice touch, adding to the vacay feel. No keys to hold too, because the room is secured with an electronic lock and you just need to key in your 4-digit password to unlock the door. The older kiddos were also free to go anywhere on their own after getting the hang of it.


This is our 20-footer SHOWroom.

Looks like your typical hotel room layout.

Very bright and cheerful!

Toilet and bathroom with rain shower.


Ok I shall address the cons first. The one biggie for us, would have to be the cost of the SHOWrooms, which ranges from $188 for a 20-footer on a weekday up to $358 for a 40-footer on a weekend (I checked from the website), may not be cheap for us lah! However, this is obviously not a problem for many, because the SHOWrooms were already fully-booked on many days liao, so you better hurry if you wanna try this unique experience! There are only 10 such rooms available and NTUC Members do get $30 off per night as well. 


Quite a lot of goodies!

Another thing that's missed (I cheapo lah), would have to be the inclusive hotel breakfasts. Even though we always sleep in late and miss our intercontinental breakfasts, it somehow still feels more complete with breakfast thrown in hor? But the rooms do come with quite a few free gifts from the sponsors lah, such as facial mask + ampoule from Allureskins Potions, disinfectant spray from Efil, corn snack from SHNACK, E.A mask + Bion spray from Ecom and even Vitamin-C tablets from Holistic Way.


A fully-functional kitchenette I would say in our 40-footer.

Very spacious toilet / bathroom too!

The booking of the containers does not come with any meals but our 40-footer does have a rather well-equipment kitchenette, with utensils and all. And the best thing would be Don Don Donki just within a short walking distance away to pack all our meals! There are of course lots of other eateries located at Downtown East and you will never go hungry for sure.


Kiddos enjoying their snacks while watching Netflix in our 40-footer. Protected by a giant ECOM 030+ air purifier too!

Your kiddos like the pool? But there's no swimming pool at the carpark lah. However all guest do get complimentary tickets to Wild Wild Wet nearby, which is a great thing IF you are booked over the weekend as the park is only open from Fridays - Sundays. Otherwise you can always utilize your tickets on another day lor which gives you more time to enjoy the comfort of the SHOWrooms lol.


Pardon the mess. But this is the view from our 40-footer bedroom.

There are your usual hairdryers and even an LED face mask for your beauty rest!

I would have honestly preferred waking up to nature, perhaps really just by the beach or in some forested area if I were to stay in the "portable" container SHOWroom again. But it is not as easy as plonking the container anywhere lah, considering the sanitation and utilities required. Plus, I would like to be able to buy all the food and stuff whenever I need lah. As of now, some fringe activities one get to try out after waking up in the carpark, would be complimentary bike rentals and discounted art classes by Fara Design Art Studio.



So was it still fun and enjoyable for us? Well according the the kiddos and wife, it was an overwhelming YES! The kiddos enjoyed the stay and loved how awesome our SHOWrooms looked and the wife even remarked that with Don Don Donki it felt as if we were in Japan, where we would just walk over to the nearest convenience store for our meal / snack fix whenever we felt like it! 

As for me, it was truly an unique experience, sleeping in the carpark while feeling as if I was on a cruise, but yet free to get onto land at any time. With the many fun amenities and F&B options over at Downtown East, a stay here can really be D’Ultimate XCape lor! With all the sanitizers and air-purifiers, I think it may even be cleaner than my house.

Go check them out at https://sghotelonwheels.com/ before end of Mar 22!