Dorsett Singapore Charms Its Guests

In the heart of Singapore’s vibrant traditional Chinese quarter of Chinatown is the stylishly modern Dorsett Singapore. A favourite among business and leisure travellers, this 10-storey hotel offers all the amenities and facilities of a world-class hotel for a comfortable stay. On a recent visit to the island country, EZ not only got the chance to experience Dorsett Singapore, but also have a chat with its Director of Sales & Marketing, Frankie Lam.

One of Dorsett Singapore’s most obvious strengths is its prime location. So strategic is this hotel that it is very accessible by public transportation, what with being located just above the Outram Park MRT interchange station! Just an escalator ride down a short walk from its lobby, you will find yourself on the MRT lines that will whisk you away to Orchard Road, Marina Bay Sands, HarbourFront and Singapore’s Central Business District, most of which are a mere train ride away.

Dorsett Singapore is impressive on the outside with its full-glass building façade that gleams in the city skyline. This novel concept of high drama continues inside the hotel with the jet black tiles that are punctuated with streaks of brilliant gold. The walls of the lobby are tiled in reflective glass and mirrors, setting a theatrical backdrop for the opulent chandelier that greets guests as they walk through the doors of the lobby.

While dramatic and quite avant-garde in its appearance, the hotel staff and services come together to offer its visitors an experience of understated luxury that is tastefully contemporary. Lam, who has been with the hotel since its development phase shared with us the scope of work that was done to create this mid-scale hotel that is artistic, cutting-edge and people-centric.

Part of the pre-opening team, Lam joined Dorsett Singapore almost a year before it was opened. ‘It started with a few of us, the GM of course, the Financial Controller, the Room Division Manager, the HR Manager, and myself.’ Having been in the hospitality and hotel management industry for almost three decades, his vast experience, along with that of the rest of the team, has proved to be a success and has attracted guests from all over the world.

‘I built my team and set up the system in the sales and marketing division and the booking procedure. I worked closely with the other departments as we all shared our experiences to benefit the hotel and train the young people,’ said Lam, adding that most of the staff in the hotel front office were working in a hotel for the first time and were trained by Lam and his team.

It is the human touch that Lam said drew him to the hotel industry and at Dorsett Singapore, getting to meet diverse groups of people from different regions and interacting with the hotel staff and training them has been gratifying to him. ‘I enjoy working with people in person and networking. No doubt now the technology has really advanced and technology can help us in certain areas, but the main feature is still human touch. Human networking cannot be replaced with computers or technology. For instance, here we have installed the best hotel management system in the hotel computers, but we still need people to greet the guests and to key in the data to let the system run,’ he said.

As for interacting with the hotel guests, Lam said, ‘I meet many happy people every day; most of them are happy because they are in Singapore and are staying here at the Dorsett. Some of them are here on business, and for their weekends, we talk to them and share with them some good tips or experiences they could try when staying in Singapore. They feel happy and feel like they have been taken care of.’ It is that human touch that sums up what Dorsett Singapore is all about.