Family hotel rooms in Singapore and Bali

[Fifeflyer]

My wife and I are planning a trip to Asia this July with our kids (ages 11 and 14) – their first time visiting the region! We’re flying into Singapore and returning home from Denpasar (using Qatar Avios flights).

I’m finding it challenging to locate family-friendly accommodation that doesn’t involve the high cost of interconnecting rooms, which often depend on availability at check-in and could spoil a holiday, if they couldn’t deliver. Hotel websites and online travel agents are frequently unclear about sleeping arrangements. Many listings mention that a room “sleeps 4 with existing bedding,” but they don’t specify what that actually means (e.g., bed sizes, types, or configurations).

If anyone has recommendations for family accommodation (double bed and 2 singles would be perfect) ideally in a resort-style hotel with enough facilities to keep the kids entertained, I’d greatly appreciate it:

• Singapore: 4 nights
• Ubud: 3 nights
• Sanur (or similar): 7 nights

I’ve spent hours searching this weekend, so any suggestions or tips would be incredibly helpful. Thanks in advance!

[BBbetter]

Hilton has (or had?) a feature to show the availability of connecting rooms at a hotel. Google it and you might find the articles and comments.

Holiday inn orchard city centre and crown plaza Changi offer two doubles. Book direct after confirming with the hotel.

In Bali, you might be better off booking an Airbnb. A villa would have rooms for all and some might even come with breakfast, pool etc. Book direct so that you can communicate with owner for any special requests.
if you are willing to book two rooms the hotels in Bali might be able to accommodate connecting room requests better than Singapore. Again always book direct and email the hotel.

[FH2]

Hi – we did a similar trip last year with 2 kids ages 15 and 12. We stayed in the Swissotel Stamford in Singapore in 2 interconnecting rooms. They don’t advertise these on their website – you need to email the hotel directly and they will guarantee these. A cheaper option is 30 Bencoolen which has family rooms. I had originally booked there but then switched to Swissotel as the rates were pretty reasonable. We also spend a couple of nights on Sentosa Island at the Village Hotel which has family rooms.

Ubud – we booked a 2 bedroom villa at Adiwana Suweta. it’s a very nice hotel but not a large resort. There is a pool though to keep your kids entertained, though I am guessing that you will be spending most of your time in Ubud sightseeing.

I can’t comment on Sanur as we did not go there.

[aseftel]

I think one of the Singapore Holiday Inns has a room category with a double and two singles. Perhaps you’re less after a report-style hotel there. Otherwise, rooms with two doubles are more common – Fairmont does from memory.

Hilton will do bookings with guaranteed connecting rooms.

[mol27]

I also spent ages looking at this – we ended up at the Swisshotel Stamford in one room that had two double beds. We were able to request a rollaway (for free) as our youngest was 10, and that fitted in fine.

[RK228]

FH2 wrote:

A cheaper option is 30 Bencoolen which has family rooms. I had originally booked there but then switched to Swissotel as the rates were pretty reasonable. We also spend a couple of nights on Sentosa Island at the Village Hotel which has family rooms.

We’ve previously stayed at 30 Bencoolen and their junior suites and family rooms are effectively two interconnected rooms. I think the main difference is that the second room has a sofa bed in the junior suite, while the family room has two single beds instead. We opted for the junior suite as we have only one child and the junior suite was slightly cheaper. The hotel is certainly good value and staff were friendly, although it’s not resort style by any stretch. It’s an ideal hotel though if you plan to be out a lot and doing lots of sightseeing.

When we were last in Singapore a couple months ago, we stayed at the Jen Singapore Orchardgateway (a Shangri-La hotel) in a deluxe family room. The pool area is one of the best in the city with great views (and a main reason we stayed here) and it’s well located for shopping/restaurants/getting around. They also have a Panorama club room for similar money that is quite large and, based on reviews that I’ve read, the hotel seems willing to add extra beds to this room.

As for Bali, if you’re going to only be in Ubud and Sanur, you might consider lengthening your time in Ubud and shortening the stay in Sanur. Sanur is okay, but the beaches aren’t as nice as other destinations in Asia and we found Ubud more interesting. Views may vary on this, however.

[The Savage Squirrel]

No specific suggestion but as a general comment, Hilton’s guaranteed interconnecting rooms is a bit of a gamechanger here if you feel such a setup is essential; although from experience it also greatly reduces your chance of an upgrade (which makes sense as the IT would need to do some form of specific room pre-allocation).

[AP]

We did a similar trip in 2024 with our kids, 12 and 16.
Singapore : Holiday Inn Orchid City Centre – 2 double bed room. Booked on points. We would do this again if in the city for a few days. Good value for money.
Bali, Jimbaran : Kayumanis Private Estate – booked package through luxury escapes (inc bfast, beer bucket & lunch/dinner). Had the 1 bedroom villa with the separate annex for the 2 kids. Loads of space with a private pool. Everyone absolutely loved this place.
Bali, Ubud : Stayed in a villa with a private pool. Would not recommend where we stayed though. Kids weren’t too keen on Ubud, particularly with the stress of taxi / traffic.
Bali, Intercontinental (at Jimbaran) – booked the Club mezzanine room, but was upgraded to a 2 room suite. Booking club included all soft drinks around the pool which the kids loved. As much as they loved the villa it was a bit quiet so the IC was the favourite hotel of the trip.
Singapore IC (Bugis) : Interconnecting rooms + lounge access. I wanted to end the trip on high so picked this hotel. Rooms nice but lounge offering / service poor (such a contrast to IC Bali). Cost loads of money and was very disappointing overall. Should have gone back to the Holiday Inn.

We are doing a similar trip again this year. Will go back to the IC Bali + Indigo at Seminyak with a King & 2 singles room. Then 2 bedroom duplex @ Bask on Gili Menno and probably a two room suite at Novotel on Lombok.

[Michael C]

All the Hiltons & Conrads in Singapore do adjoining rooms.
We love the Hilton Orchard locations with our 11-yr old: bright lights, food courts,
cinema and Ion amusement arcade for walks following evening swim and happy hour cocktails.

As for Bali, I imagine you’re avoiding the dreaded K*ta word! Having said that, Hard Rock Bali
is still one of the best kids’ hotels we have ever ever been to, and has plenty of sleeps-4 options (the hotel webpage has many more offers than anywhere else).

[The real Swiss Tony]

From experience, hotels in SE Asia have never let us down with connecting room requests, which is a stark contrast to the US, Europe & UK.

You might also want to look at serviced apartments in SG – they’re typically better for a 1 week plus stay as one of the taxes is (or at least used to be) waived. But you can get a very nice apartment and they’ll stock the fridge for you on arrival. Just get somewhere near the MRT as there’s so much to do with kids of that age in SG, you don’t need a resort hotel to keep them occupied in the City.

[Fifeflyer]

This has been incredibly helpful! We’re currently deep in research, reviewing all the advice so far. The Hilton/Conrad interconnecting room search tool is (as suggested)a total game-changer, both for this trip and potentially future ones. The Hilton Orchard location and the Swissotel Stamford look promising—I’ve messaged the Stamford to ask about the availability of a rollaway bed, although looking at the number of floors, I’m not sure it will help my wife’s vertigo! The Village Hotel at Sentosa has an ideal family room, but it might be a bit too far from the main attractions to work as our base. 30 Bencoolen is also a contender, even though the rooms look a bit tight—but we don’t plan to spend much time indoors anyway. I might hold that as a cancellable insurance policy.

Our search in Bali is still ongoing. I’m currently in discussions with the Hyatt Regency and Andaz about interconnecting rooms, although there’s still some risk in relying on their ability to deliver, the odds appear to be on my side. Some of the villa recommendations are fantastic, but I’m concerned they might be too quiet for the kids.

This process isn’t getting any easier as the kids grow older and are less willing to share beds—maybe Airbnb will be the solution in the future.

Please keep your suggestions coming, and I’ll share the final outcome of our plans once everything is settled.

Thanks again for the quick and thorough responses!

[The real Swiss Tony]

Fifeflyer wrote:

This process isn’t getting any easier as the kids grow older and are less willing to share beds—maybe Airbnb will be the solution in the future.

You should (hopefully) be at a point very soon where the kids are old enough not to need a connecting room. When to do that is your call, but my kids are now 19, 17 & 15 so for the last couple of years we have been freed of those shackles. As I said, hotels in Asia have been far better than others in assigning connecting rooms and also just doing sensible stuff like keeping us on the same floor.

Also please, please don’t stay on Sentosa. You will really miss out. Just as an example, Booking.com is showing a 2 bed apartment in the Somerset Bencoolen (rated 8.6) for £1290 for 4 nights in July. I believe the considered opinion is that SG hoteliers are being very punchy with rates until a couple of weeks out too, so book a refundable rate & see what else comes up.

[alastairtravel]

I’ve recently launched a website to cover this type of question: https://bigrooms.travel/

Let me know any thoughts / items you would like to see:

Hilton connecting rooms is covered here (and has been on this site): https://bigrooms.travel/2024/02/why-are-large-families-choosing-hilton-unravelling-the-benefits-of-guaranteed-connecting-rooms/

[tygerbright]

Hi @Fifeflyer

We actually stayed at all of these places last year so can relate to your situation. We are a family of 4 also – two adults, two teens – age 17 and 15 at time of travel.

Singapore: We managed to grab a nice large room with two double beds at The Swissotel Stamford Singapore. The room was on a high floor with a stunning view of the Marina Bay Sands. I tried booking via the usual booking sites but it didn’t come up as an option for my group. I then checked direct on the Swissotel Stamford site and I wasn’t able to progress either as the max child age limit is 12 there. Hot Tip – if you go to the Accor site and search for a hotel there, you can actually specify ages up to 17 – it worked for us! 😉

Sanur: We stayed at Klumpu and had a really nice loft villa. Kids were upstairs and us oldies downstairs. Klumpu is a really nice place and we have fond memories of our stay here. The breakfasts here were the best we had all trip.

Ubud: Dwarka Royal Villas – we stayed in a massive 2 bed villa with private pool. It was like living in a house it was so big. I think Ubud is where you will find it easiest to find a family room as there were a few options we were considering before settling on Dwarka.

Hope this helps and happy to help on any questions you may have!

Cheers!