Singapore: Fragrance Hotel Ruby Review

During the two nights that we were in Singapore, we stayed at Fragrance Hotel Ruby in Lorong 20, Geylang. I insisted to be the one in charge of searching for our accommodation and searched various hotel booking websites to search for the cheapest accommodation that pass our minimum requirements: privacy and accessibility to the MRT. During my initial search, I found cheap hostels (around P700-P800/night) but these mostly are backpacker hostels, room sharing for 6 people, and have no private CR and bath - a typical bedspace sort of accommodation. I came across numerous of these hostels before I found what I wanted - a cheap, twin sharing accommodation with private CR and bath, and accessible to the MRT.

Fragrance Hotel Ruby was accessible not only to the MRT (according to the source, a 5-minute walk) but to the airport as well (5 stations or 20 minutes away from Tanah Merah in the East-West line). According to the internet advertisements, it is actually a hotel (a 3-star at that one) and not a hostel - another wow factor, and we got it for just 58SGD/night (P1914, so each of us just had to pay P957/night, just a small difference from the backpacker hostels which have no private bath).

Of course it was another achievement for a super spendthrift me. However, after Boots got our room reserved, the ever inquisitive me searched the internet for hotel reviews and I was unhappy about the things that I read. Previous guests shared photos of unkempt rooms, and they pinpointed that it is situated in Singapore's red light district and girls need the accompaniment of guys if they want to stay there. I became quite uneasy with my choice but decided to stay there though, because I had experiences in the past wherein people were just so picky or demanding causing them to write negative reviews. I just had to see for myself.

And see for myself I did. The day finally came, and we walked there hurriedly because we were to catch a train to Kuala Lumpur (see related post). And these are what I found out for myself:

1. 5-minute walk from the MRT?

False. Except if the person who said that had enormously long legs and brisk walked faster than we did. It took us around 15 minutes to get there from the MRT in our super hurried pace with some running involved.

2. Unkempt rooms?

True. A bug in my towel welcomed me there, he's small though. But I became super uneasy after that because of paranoia from bed bugs and even more, paranoia from Boots getting mad because I selected a hotel with bedbugs.

The room had a television set, but it was not working.

3. Girls are not advised to stay without accompaniment of guys?

True. It IS a red light district, and the prosperous Singapore's "ugly side" (in my opinion). At every street post, there was a girl standing, waiting and searching for "customers". I thought it was "normal" occurrence at night, but alas, when we checked out of the hotel at 12:00 noon, there were still those girls around. Boots' friend later told us that Geylang was known for that "industry", and there had been an unwritten rule regarding territories, say, one street is a territory of Chinese girls, the other, of Indians. Lorong 20 by the way, is a Chinese territory.

Whenever we walked outside, I made sure to have Boots by my side and held his hand. I did not want to be mistaken for such.

I never bothered to take photos because there was nothing special about the hotel itself, and about the streets of Geylang, well I never even wanted to take a look after I saw the happenings that welcomed us. To be fair, I would not single Fragrance Hotel Ruby out but I would recommend avoiding to stay at any hotel in that area in general. However, these are the details if you are still interested:

Fragrance Hotel Ruby
Address: 10 Lorong 20 Geylang
How to get there: 15 minutes walk from the Aljunied station
Check-in time: 2:00 pm
Check-out time: 12:00 pm
Details: 1 double bed, private CR and bath, aircon, TV, water and coffee for 2 (replenished daily)

Other tips:

Online booking is for reservation only. You will only pay the full amount upon check-in.
They lend a universal adaptor, but you will pay 5SGD upon check-in, and this is refundable upon check-out.
No free wi-fi (other hotels offer free wi-fi). You have to pay 18SGD for a 24-hour connection.
Because there was no free wi-fi, I relied on my research that all McDonald's outlets in Singapore offer free wi-fi. Before going to Singapore, I researched the net for the nearest McDonald's outlet to Fragrance Hotel Ruby. On site, we found it after a 20-minute walk but to our disappointment, the said outlet does not offer free wi-fi.
There are many dining options nearby but if you are like us who are not adventurous eaters, the only safe option nearby is 7-11 (a minute away from the hotel). As I have mentioned, the nearest McDonald's outlet is a 20-minute walk away, and you have to familiarize with the directions via research prior to going there.