If hotels want to beat Airbnb, they need to be more like this

Here’s a challenge for hotels if they want to appeal to families, particularly those with young kids: be better than an Airbnb.

That’s it. That’s the simple metric. For a hotel to be successful, guests have to check in and think, this is better than an Airbnb.

And that’s not easy because the price is often about the same, and the location is similar, and there’s a lot to be said for house or apartment rental when you’re travelling with small children: you get facilities such as washing machines and kitchens you can use for free; you get separate rooms within your property so that the kids can be asleep in one place while you are awake in another; and you get space for children to play and make mess without everyone being on top of each other.

Can a hotel meet that challenge? Many don’t, even if they pay lip-service to the idea of being “family friendly”. I stayed at a family-oriented resort in Fiji once that didn’t even have kids’ cutlery; our two-year-old had to lever food into his mouth with the world’s largest spoon, the equivalent of an adult eating with salad servers.

So we’re not sure this is a good idea right now, even upon check-in. I’m staying with my family at the Shangri-La Singapore, a hotel that touts itself as being supremely family-friendly, in a city-state that is also a pleasingly safe and predictable place for a holiday or stopover in South-East Asia.

We’re in the right place. But are we in the right-right place?

Ten minutes in, and I’m seeing the upside. We’ve just flown from Australia to Singapore, an almost nine-hour flight during daylight hours that has us landing past the kids’ normal bedtime, which means that by the time we alight from our transfer at the Shangri-La, we’re into the twitchy-eyed crazy zone.

The kids need to be asleep as soon as possible. The adults, meanwhile, need food and maybe even a few drinks because it’s still only 6pm in Singapore.

What do you do? You order room service. Something you can’t do in an Airbnb.

While we’re showering the kids and getting them dressed for bed, someone is out there preparing satays and wonton noodle soup and Hainanese chicken rice for us, and those dishes are all rolled in on a cart just as we’ve got the kids sorted. Our room is also stocked with small plastic plates and kids’ cutlery, not to mention kids’ slippers and robes.

But it gets better. The following morning we check out the Shangri-La’s facilities. This is a city hotel, a 15-minute walk from Orchard Road, but its layout is more like a resort, with three separate towers, multiple restaurants, a large pool and a kids’ water park.

There’s also Buds, an extensive indoor play area with professional supervision, meaning you can drop the kids off and go grab a cocktail, or do some shopping, or take time to regain your sanity. For us, however, Buds’ main purpose is to use as a threat. As in, behave yourself, or you’re not going to Buds today. Does the trick every time.

The Shangri-La water park has the same effect. It’s only small, but so are our kids, and very soon those waterslides and water cannons become an obsession that we’re only too happy to parlay into bribery for good behaviour. Stop kicking and punching each other, fellas, and you get to go to the water park today.

And we haven’t even reached the best part. Our accommodation for the first couple of nights is in the Garden Wing, in a Deluxe Family Terrace. This is a standard hotel room really, only with a fold-out couch for the kids to sleep on, and an outdoor patio.

Is this better than an apartment rental? The basic space, no. But you have to consider the hotel amenities, including the breakfast buffet, which once again has been designed with kids in mind.

There’s a whole separate buffet set at a lower-than-normal height and stocked with child-friendly breakfast items. Our kids love it, even if their preference is for nasi lemak over doughnuts and Froot Loops (a rare parenting victory).

There’s also access here to some of Singapore’s cultural drawcards, the best of which are the hawker centres, which are surprisingly child-friendly. Over at Maxwell Food Centre, our six- and four-year-old can tuck into Hainanese chicken rice – light, clean flavours – and Chinese-style dumplings, while my partner and I feast on char kway teow and Indian-style green chilli chicken.

With waffles and ice cream for dessert, the entire meal costs less than $40, which for a family of four is an outrageous bargain.

Getting around is easy, too: Grab, the local equivalent of Uber, allows users to book cars with child safety seats, and is relatively inexpensive.

Thus, we return by car to the Shangri-La, where we’re switching rooms for our final night, into one of the hotel’s “themed family suites”. Now this is better than an Airbnb.

The family suites are two hotel rooms that have been combined into one, linked by a normal door and a secret tunnel that’s only big enough for kids.

The kids’ side of the suite has a huge bunk bed, in this case shaped like a submarine, complete with drivers’ cockpit with periscope. There are also kids’ robes, slippers, kids’ toiletries in their own bathroom, a little writing desk by the window with pencils and colouring books, and a treasure chest with a number lock on it.

The code for the lock can be broken by answering questions on a quiz posted in our mailbox outside the room. You can imagine the excitement.

Take it easy

But then it’s time to move on, to see a different side of Singapore, a side that, if anything, should be even more family-friendly: Sentosa. This island is the kind of place I would avoid if I were travelling solo – it’s a mix of theme parks and other tourist-friendly attractions – but with kids, it makes sense.

Our children’s adventurous spirit, meanwhile, is starting to wane. They rove the breakfast buffet at the Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa and head back to the table with boiled eggs, bacon and milk with Milo. Whatever. They’re happy.

And why shouldn’t they be? This island is kiddie heaven. There’s a cable car that goes all the way from the resort to central Singapore, not to mention beaches, waterslides, theme parks, a Shake Shack outlet and a long beachside promenade for burning off energy.

You have to deal, of course, with the downsides of Singapore’s famous cleanliness and safety. The staff at Rasa Sentosa who patrol the pool area call themselves the “Fun Team”, but we quickly nickname them the Fun Police, such is their rigidity.

We learn, too, to get to the breakfast buffet early in the morning before a long queue forms. Fortunately, we don’t have to learn this the hard way.

But people here are kind, they’re helpful, they’re 100 per cent accustomed to the sight of small kids making a ruckus. And there’s a pool, and waterslides, and fruity drinks to order from the kiosk.

We have lofty plans on our final day, to visit more hawker centres, stroll more streets, soak up culture. But kids – or our kids, at least – don’t want any more culture. They want pools and waterslides and fruity drinks.

You know, the stuff you can’t get at an Airbnb.

THE DETAILS

STAY
At the Shangri-La Singapore, Garden Wing Deluxe Family Terrace rooms start from $1085 a night for two adults and two children, including one session at Buds and one at the Splash water park each day. Themed Family Suites start from $2600 a night. At the Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa, Deluxe Pool View Rooms start from $653 a night for two adults and two children, including breakfast. See shangri-la.com

FLY
Qantas and Singapore Airlines fly direct from major Australian ports to Singapore. See qantas.com and singaporeair.com

The writer stayed as a guest of Shangri-La Singapore and Rasa Sentosa.

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