Firstly the good points:

The room was big and clean. The location was excellent, easy walkung distance to the nearest MRT which I believe was Dhoby Ghost. The staff were very helpful and were able to give good restaurant reccomendations

We stated here twice (first for three days and then 1 day after a trip to KL) and one of the days we had a room with an interconnecting door, this made the noise from the next room quite audible.

I would reccomend the hotel as it is cheap for Singapore and well located.

My partner and I booked the City Bayview after discovering that our previous hotel (which was opposite the CB) that we stayed in wanted almost twice the price we had paid in 2006.

Feeling slightly trepiditious after reading hundreds of varying reviews online, we decided that we would give it a shot anyway. After all, the majority of the time when we were last in Singapoare, the hotel was used for sleeping in and swimming!

We arrived at the C.B. around 1500 hours. Check in was swift and the concierge very helpful with the luggage. We were checked into room 607. If anyone reading this has stayed or is planning to stay in C.B., please ask to be away from rooms that have 07/08 at the end or else you will find yourself opposite the lifts.

Good points about the Hotel:

Pool was hardly used - a good thing because it is rather small and I like to do laps. If it had been busy, all I could have managed was a small dip.

Corridors were clean and lobby was spacious.

Location is a huge positive. Bugis Street one way and Orchard Road the other. Dhoby Ghaut was perhaps 5 minutes walk if that.

Negative:

No safety warnings at the pool. On my first swim, I slipped badly coming out of the shower as the slope slightly. They aren't designed for safety either - no grip-safe tiles at all. Just normal tiles you might find on a kitchen floor. After suggesting that the staff put a warning up, nothing was done by the end of our 10 night stay.

Breakfast. Oh, dear Light, what can I say about this? Buffet style which is okay, but very very limited selection. Three types of fruit juice. Apple, orange and pineapple. The orange tasted like strong diluting juice and I couldn't even bring myself to taste the other two. I ended up savouring a few extra hours in bed and then eating at the Kopitiam thirty yards away.

Laundry and ironing facilities were disappointing. There were no instructions on how to work the iron. You had to assume that the timer switch that was meant for the light was actually for the iron. It was six dollars (Sing) apiece to use the washer and dryer and yet only three minutes away was a laundretted that charged 10 Sing dollars for collection, laundering and delivery - all on the same day!

Good points about the room:

Very spacious
Huuuuuuuuuuuge bed - well above king/queen size.
Air-conditioned and the window opened ever so slightly.
Curtains were amazing at keeping the light out. I woke at 1000 hours one morning and thought that it was still the middle of the night.

Bathroom was spacious enough.

Negative Aspects

Walls were PAPER THIN! I was woken at 0600 by some German man's nokia ringing over and over and then the hotel phone calling to wake him. I ended up shouting through 'Answer your bl**dy phone!'

We were given an inter-connecting room - obviously one meant for families. On our second night within the hotel, two girls decided that they were going to play 'knock door runaway'. Feeling decidedly angry at having my night disturbed, I knocked on their door and asked them in no uncertain terms to stop knocking. I then spoke to the front desk and they sent three people to our room to investigate.

We were informed that our inter-connecting door could not be opened by the adjoining guests as long as ours was 'latched' into place. There was no lock on it and the fact that there was only a knob on one side (the side into each room) was supposed to assuaged my fear of someone sneaking into the room and perhaps raiding our items.

Luckily, the girls appeared to only be stopping over for a couple of nights - of which I am glad - their incessant chatter and giggling had me at my wits' end and I am someone that enjoys a laugh far more than the average person.

THE CLEANERS HAVE TO CHECK UNDER THE BED!

It's all fine having a newly re-furbished hotel, but the bath was so old that it was stained yellow. Before I took a bath myself, I scrubbed it to ensure that it wasn't nicotine or dead skin stuck to the sides.

The TV was so-so. Only two English channels - BBC World News (which repeated every 20 mins or so) and HBO, which due to injuries, my partner and I spent a lot of time watching.

The lighting could have been more adequately placed and a lot brighter. After three days in the room, the lightbulbs were replaced by dimmer ones and so we had to have every single light on to feel comfortable to read!

I would recommend this hotel for people that have a smallish budget and anyone that is looking for a 'stopover' room between travelling destinations.

Dont hesitate to book the Bayview hotel in Singapore, it was a lovely hotel and the breakfast is fine. Rooms clean and comfortable. Reception staff are very helpful

The roof top pool is lovely and they have washing facilities next to it. Best place I have every done any laundry. We are going to stop off at Singapore next year and I will book this hotel up again.

Taxi and transport are so cheap that yo can get to any attraction.

Like all places in Singapore the wine is very expensive. I would take your own at the duty free and remember to take a bottle opener if you are a wine lover.

We had the Asian buffet at the hotel prior to leaving in the evening, and it was not very hot. In fact the restaurant was empty , maybe this should have told us something. Breakfast is fine though and there are loads of other eating places locally.

We booked the room for an extra night prior to departure, as we had a 11pm flight and we wanted to shower etc. However you can take a shower at the hotel, or you can book a room for $90 up until 6.00pm.

Many decent reviews of this hotel, and for a while I thought I'd gone wrong, cause the hotel I checked into was not up to standards..... Unfortunately, I found that I was at the Bayview in Bencoolen Street.

The beds were uncomfortable, rooms was smelly( I tried two), walls between room are paper thin, the TV had 3 english channels, the hotel does not have a laundry service ( although they have an overpriced self service by the swimming pool), there are no facilities to speak of, and frankly, there are a lot of better choices in Singapore at similar price.

On the bright side, the location is very good, and they provide free internet, and that's all the positives I can think of.