The Pod Boutique Capsule Hotel - 289 Beach Rd

Nice capsule hotel to stay in Bugis Area. Close to Arab st and Haji Lane

The pod itself is a bit average. The curtain does little to stop light coming in and the pod gets very warm. Bring an eye mask and earplugs if you want some sleep.

Staying in “Single Pod Suite” To avoid crowded and noise but seems like to be “private pod bed in the share room again” Still noisy to hear other pod slam their door and main room door. Overall is good

Unclear on rules of staying, small terms and conditions on website dictate that you are unable to stay here if its a leisure booking. Fair enough, happy to find somewhere else, but they are unwilling to refund any of the 5 night stay purchased. Do not risk it, their terms and conditions could turn you away at the door and offer no refund. Avoid at all costs

* This is from a perspective of first time staying at a Capsule/budget hotel. So.. not sure how it usually is. * Stayed for 1 week. - STAFF/FRONT DESK - Most are really nice, friendly, helpful. But just like any hotel, there's always good & bad ones. Just luck. - There's this temp malay girl. Can't really see her name tag but it's something like Dani? Or starts with D. She's very nice and helpful. Since it was my first experience, there's a lot of things I'm not familiar with. Thus, many questions. There's also this Chinese night shift guy that was really sweet. When he saw me at the common areas, he tried to check with me if the request I made was done by the other staff. - ROOM: Single Pod Suite - SIZE - Since it's a Capsule Hotel, I suppose it's straightforward that the room is really minimal? Simply the size of 2 single bed, side by side. So the room has just 1 small bed and a small table. Can't leave your luggage opened around . Once done, you'll have to close it for space to walk. Sitting on the bed may be challenging for those that are quite tall. I'm less than 160cm, it's fine. - CLEANLINESS - Room/Bed: OK Toilets: Bearable. Time to time, there's pee on the floors. - Wi-Fi : OK - Charging Point: Only 1 - If you have more devices, need to take turn to charge. - LIGHTING - Just as the photos online. Most areas are more dimlit. Which is something I love. - SOUND - If lucky, your neighbours are quiet. Just sounds of doors closing can be loud. If not, you'll clearly hear every conversation in the neighbouring rooms, as though you are in the same room with them. Some will talk on their phone in the hallways & you can hear it from your room. - The room I was in.. The guy next door talks on the phone every evening/night. And watches videos. Without earphones. Worst of all.. Every morning at 5+am his alarm will go off loudly and wake me every day. Then open and close the doors loudly - AIRCON - If the outside aircon is facing your room, it can be very cold. If it isn't, then you might not feel wind flow or much ventilation. - INCLUDED - Pretty much bring all your own. Just all the toilet has toilet paper & common dining area has tissue. You have to bring... Toothbrush, toothpaste, cup, shampoo, shower gel, etc. * Towel: Can get 1 from them. However, theirs has a weird smell, doesn't feel clean. - ENVIRONMENT - Think there is a... Mosque Or some religion place nearby. Often you'll hear like... Prayers or chanting? - Probably due to COVID, they have lots of long term staying foreign workers. Typically, you'll see them from evening till night (when back from work). May want to avoid the crowd (at bathrooms / common dining area). Dining area has around 4 tables. It can get pretty noisy during that time. Be it talking or watching shows from their phones etc. They doesn't seem clean/neat. Sometimes even the sofa has food on it. There's always chunks of food left in the sink. However, the staff mentioned that they do clean and disinfect the dining area. Not sure how often though. One thing that really bothered me is there's 1 fan there. and oh my.. It looks like it haven't been washed for.....a very long time! The dust on it is shocking.... And... For their bath time, you'll see them half naked on top, and bottom just wearing that one piece wrapped cloth (not sure what is it called) and without mask. Then there's the sounds of like.. old men clearing their phlegm etc. - FOOD & DRINKS - Water Dispenser: They have that in the lobby for Hot/Cold water. Lots of stalls nearby. Ranges from Indian prata shop to Japanese/Thai restaurants etc. But for late night.. (till 3am) Mostly left with Indian prata shops. Or 7-11 (There's more than 1, But only 1 is 24h). Quite small. - SHOES - Once reached your floor/level, you need to put your shoes in their lockers & go barefoot or wear clean Slippers. But.. The smell in the lockers.. It's real bad. My shoe end up with a smell that is hard to get off.

I was really skeptical at first bcs this is my 1st time staying at a capsule hotel. But, it turned out, it wasn't as bad as i thought. It was actually a great exp! The bedroom and bathroom area are clean bcs u cant use your shoes in those area. The bedroom design is nice and neat. The locker for our bags is quite big, fit for 1 cabin suitcase and 2 backpacks. However, the room is not soundproof so you have to be very thoughtful when talking or packing as u have others sleeping in the same room. The bathroom is nice, exactly like in the pictures. There are about 6-7 bathrooms each floor. The cleanliness depends on the last person who used it. But i think they clean it daily bcs it is never too dirty. They provide towel, tissue and bath soap too. They also have a hair dryer that we can use.. Bus stop is literally in front of the place, while the nearest MRT station is Bugis, which takes around 12-15 minutes walk. Near the place, u'll find some good food to eat such as House of Kebab, Overrice, Golden Mile Hawker Centre, etc.

Honestly just get a real hotel for the price. The building is way too hot, people are loud and it wasn’t a great time. There was nowhere to get water unless you brought your own bottle, since the vending machine was sold out. The bathrooms had the annoying delayed button sinks that provide about 2 seconds of water. There’s also not enough seating for eating in the lobby. If you’re on the top bunk, there’s not enough of a railing to prevent you from falling so you don’t really feel safe.

Singapore offers an amazing array of hostels and given we hadn’t explored them until now, we decided to book our stay at ‘The Pod Capsule Hotel at Beach Road’ based upon a personal recommendation. The Pod definitely didn’t disappoint and rather proved to be a perfect stay option for us. Located amidst the happening Haji lane and Arab street neighbourhood, it offers amazing connectivity and happy vibes. Their friendly and prompt service along with it being well maintained makes it apt for solo as well as couple travellers. Stay options differ from a Single pod to a Double pod. The Queen suite however offers better privacy comparatively.