We stayed for two nights and were impressed by everything we encountered. From the moment we stepped out of the cab from the airport, the staff were courteous and efficient. Our deluxe room was $220 booked through my work's travel agent. It was well appointed but smallish, as others have mentioned, but not out of the ordinary for high priced real estate cities. Our room was clean and well serviced by housekeeping. The bed was one of the most comfortable I've ever slept in. Our room was at the end of the corridor and quite quiet.

The food at the breakfast buffet was excellent as was the room service spaghetti and meat balls that we ordered for our toddler. The hotel is connected to a good mall with an excellent grocery store in the basement. We found it very convenient to the Gleneagles Hospital complex, to which we were able to walk. We were just around the corner from Orchard Road but off the beaten path enough that we didn't have any traffic noise. All the staff we encountered were courteous, friendly, and efficient (even when they were delivering some most unwelcome news, described below).

The free Wi-Fi in the common areas of the hotel was speedy and reliable.

Our one sour note was on check-out. On arrival, the front desk clerk told us that breakfast was included. Our reservation had not made any mention of this added bonus, so we were pleasantly surprised. On check-out however, the same clerk informed that our wonderful buffet breakfasts were not, in fact, complimentary but S$138 for two people for two days. She claimed she had never told us the buffet was complimentary.

The hotel management responded to my email of concern quickly but have been slow in rectifying the problem. In the end they gave one of us a 50% credit for the breakfast charges, so their error--which I'm sure was an innocent mistake--ended up costing us S$69. It was an unpleasant way to finish our stay, but it was otherwise a wonderful hotel with great service.

I stayed at the Traders April 2008. My room was 1424, if I remember correctly. The view was the condos on the other side of the road.

Traders is Shangri-la's lower-end brand so I'd not been expecting the same things I would typically expect from a Shang.

With that out of the way, while the room size (a little bit in between tiny and sufficient for one person, if you're two people, forget about it) betrays the lower-end focus, the Traders is still, overall, a very good hotel. The little touches you expect from a Shangri-la are still there: the slippers, the daily newspaper, the comfy beds, the warm blanket sandwiched in between two white sheets, the in-room safe, cable TV, even the strategically placed pin light that makes sure an area of the bathroom mirror does not fog up after your shower.

I did not eat at the hotel and, hence, have no advice to give on that front.

It was also expensive, sort of, since I'm finding out that hotels in Singapore. even the lower-end ones, are still priced above USD150 per night during the summer season.

We booked the Traders Singapore assuming that it would have the similarly high standards of the Shangri-la and other Traders hotels that we stayed at (Beijing). It didn't.

We paid around S$280, without breakfast. For this, we got a tiny room somewhere in the depths of the building. Our room was next to the service lift, which meant we were woken up every morning at 0600. The decor had seen better days - there were old sheets on the corridor carpet floor to prevent marks - which didnt reassure me about the cleanliness of my own sheets! The bathroom was fine - although it sounded like there was an open drain in my room.

Service was also mediocre - although one of the receptionists could hardly speak English, and even walked off in the middle of a conversation.

Never again. Overpriced and under-delivered.

The first thing you will notice about the standard room is that it is rather compact. You almost feel claustrophobic in some cases. The room was small by most standards. However, if you can get past the size of the room, everything else is quite good.

The room was clean, comfortable and the bathroom was well stocked and presented.

The bed was presented with nice white, crisp clean sheets and it was pretty much a typical room for the business traveller. There was a desk and internet cable for connectivity.

The buffett at the lobby was average and expected of a 4 star hotel. The check in staff were polite and courteous and the lobby was quite welcoming.

The location of the hotel is also handy being near the Orchard Road strip which is within a 10-15 minute walk away.