#2 in Top 20 Singapore for Business · ★★★★★
Raffles Singapore
The all-suite colonial landmark, restored and reopened: the address for prestige entertaining, the Long Bar Singapore Sling and butler-served heritage in the Civic District.
The all-suite colonial landmark, restored and reopened: the address for prestige entertaining, the Long Bar Singapore Sling and butler-served heritage in the Civic District.
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Because no other hotel in Singapore turns a work trip into an occasion the way Raffles does. Opened on 1 December 1887 by the Sarkies brothers, declared a National Monument in 1987 and reopened on 1 August 2019 after a restoration that ran from early 2017, Raffles is Southeast Asia's most storied hotel: a low-rise palace of colonnaded verandas, planted courtyards and white neo-Renaissance facades in the Civic District.
For the traveller whose agenda is as much about hosting clients as ticking off meetings, that heritage is the asset. Dinner at Raffles, a Singapore Sling at the Long Bar and a butler who quietly handles every logistic carry a weight that a glass tower cannot buy. The restoration, with interiors by Champalimaud Design and architecture by Aedas, lifted the suite count from 103 to 115 without diluting the landmark character. Raffles suits the senior traveller entertaining an international clientele, where the address itself is part of the pitch.
Book a Courtyard Suite for a first stay; it is the sensible entry point and still delivers the full veranda-and-parlour experience. Every room at Raffles is a suite with 24-hour Raffles Butler service, and the ladder runs from State Room and Courtyard Suites through Palm Court, Personality, Residence and Promenade Suites to the Grand Hotel and Presidential Suites at the top of the house.
The twelve Personality Suites, at 58 to 79 square metres, are the characterful mid-upper tier, each named for a famous past guest: writers such as Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad alongside Elizabeth Taylor, Charlie Chaplin and Ava Gardner. For a milestone trip or serious client entertaining, a Personality or Grand Hotel Suite adds space, story and standing. All suites share high ceilings, hardwood floors and a separate parlour, and the butlers are genuinely hands-on rather than nominal. Layouts vary across the historic wings, so confirm the category and aspect at booking.
Do the Long Bar early in your stay, on a weekday before the afternoon crowds peak, and let your butler book dinner: 1887 by André for a marquee client night, the Tiffin Room for a relaxed heritage curry. Have the butler schedule car transfers to Marina Bay meetings so you are never watching the clock.
Still one of the strongest hotel dining benches in the city, though the roster has changed, so ignore older write-ups. La Dame de Pic closed on 31 May 2024 and Osteria BBR by Alain Ducasse closed earlier that same year. The marquee arrival is 1887 by André, opened in March 2026 in the Main Building's historic dining room with interiors by Bill Bensley: a 42-seat heritage gastronomy restaurant from André Chiang, the chef whose two-Michelin-starred Restaurant André defined modern fine dining in Singapore before he famously returned the stars and closed it in 2018.
Around it sit yì by Jereme Leung for inventive contemporary Chinese, Butcher's Block for wood-fire cooking, and the Tiffin Room, the hotel's long-running North Indian restaurant. The Grand Lobby handles afternoon tea, Raffles Courtyard serves Southeast Asian plates outdoors, and the Writers Bar pours quieter cocktails than the Long Bar, where the Singapore Sling was created by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon in 1915 and peanut shells still hit the floor. You can host a statement dinner, a casual curry lunch and a legendary cocktail hour without leaving the property.
Close, but not inside it, and that distinction should drive your decision. Raffles sits at 1 Beach Road in the Civic District, roughly a five minute walk from both City Hall and Esplanade MRT stations, which puts Raffles Place, the Marina Bay towers and the Suntec and Marina Bay Sands convention venues a short train hop or a ten minute taxi away.
For meetings spread across the city, that is a fine base, and the Civic District setting adds the National Gallery, the Esplanade and the Padang for downtime between commitments. If your schedule is wall-to-wall inside the financial district and every minute counts, a bayfront hotel will shave transit time; if you value a calmer, more characterful base a few minutes out, Raffles is ideal. Compare it directly in our Raffles vs Fullerton Bay head-to-head if location is your deciding factor.
The pattern across recent verified reviews is consistent: superb service, crowded public spaces. Raffles holds a 4.7 out of 5 rating across more than 6,300 TripAdvisor reviews, and recent guests repeatedly single out butlers who remember names and preferences, immaculate gardens, a strong breakfast and the resident historian's heritage tours.
The recurring complaints are just as specific. Daytime visitor traffic through the arcade, the Grand Lobby and the Long Bar makes parts of the ground floor feel public rather than private; one recent guest described feeling like they were in a goldfish bowl, and independent 2026 reviews note the same daytime congestion while pointing out that the property turns improbably quiet at night. Guests also flag afternoon tea pricing as steep and pool service as inconsistent. Nobody credible disputes the suites or the butlers; the friction is almost entirely in the shared spaces during visiting hours.
Price is the first. Entry suites generally start a little above S$1,000 a night and climb steeply from there, so a value-focused traveller will struggle to justify it over an excellent Marina Bay five-star at two-thirds the rate. Second, the heritage that makes it special makes it busy: the Long Bar, the arcade and the lobby draw steady day visitors, so the ground floor rarely feels like a private retreat, even though the courtyards and suites stay calm.
Third, a preserved low-rise landmark offers none of the high-floor skyline views that define the bayfront hotels, which some business guests specifically want. And it is a train hop or taxi ride, not a lobby elevator, from the densest cluster of CBD towers. Skip Raffles if views and door-to-desk speed are the brief, and book Marina Bay Sands or The Fullerton Bay Hotel instead. For heritage, service and entertaining, Raffles is unmatched.
Raffles sits at #2 on our Top 20 Singapore for Business list with an aggregate editorial score of 9.7 out of 10, ranked on service, suites and prestige rather than raw CBD convenience, which is why it trails only the location-driven Marina Bay leader. Against The Fullerton Hotel, another heritage conversion but one closer to Raffles Place, Raffles counters with an all-suite product, butlers and a deeper dining bench. Choose Raffles when the hotel is part of the pitch; choose a bayfront tower when transit time and skyline win.
| Hotel | Best for | Character | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raffles Singapore | Prestige entertaining, heritage, butler service | 1887 all-suite National Monument | Top-of-market rates, busy public areas |
| Marina Bay Sands | Convention access, scale, skyline | Iconic three-tower bayfront resort | Enormous and impersonal by comparison |
| The Fullerton Hotel | Heritage steps from Raffles Place | Restored 1928 former General Post Office | Standard rooms, no butler standard |
| The Fullerton Bay Hotel | Bayfront views, intimacy | Contemporary glass waterfront hotel | Far smaller dining and facilities bench |
Yes. Raffles Singapore has 115 suites and no standard rooms, and every suite comes with 24-hour Raffles Butler service. Categories run from the entry State Room and Courtyard Suites through Palm Court, Personality, Residence and Promenade Suites up to the Grand Hotel and Presidential Suites at the top of the house.
Raffles Singapore reopened on 1 August 2019 after a restoration that began in early 2017. Interiors were led by Champalimaud Design with architecture by Aedas, and the suite count rose from 103 to 115 while the 1887 building, a Singapore National Monument since 1987, was preserved.
The current line-up is 1887 by André, chef André Chiang's heritage gastronomy restaurant that opened in March 2026, plus yì by Jereme Leung for contemporary Chinese, Butcher's Block for wood-fire cooking, the Tiffin Room for North Indian cuisine, the Grand Lobby for afternoon tea, Raffles Courtyard, the Writers Bar and the Long Bar. Note that La Dame de Pic and Osteria BBR by Alain Ducasse both closed in 2024.
At the Long Bar of Raffles Singapore, where bartender Ngiam Tong Boon created the Singapore Sling in 1915 by the hotel's account. The bar still serves the cocktail today, along with its tradition of tossing peanut shells onto the floor, and it is open to the public as well as hotel guests.
No. Raffles Singapore is the original 1887 all-suite landmark at 1 Beach Road in the Civic District. Raffles Sentosa Singapore is a separate all-villa resort on Sentosa Island that opened in 2025. For a business trip, the Beach Road original is the far more practical base.
Entry suites generally start a little above S$1,000 per night, and rates climb steeply through the Personality, Grand Hotel and Presidential categories. Every rate includes butler service, and pricing peaks around major conference and Grand Prix dates, so book several weeks ahead for those windows.
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