Yeoh Siew Hoon checks out the newly-opened Fullerton Bay Hotel and finds out why Giovanni Viterale is like a fish in water.

View of Marina Bay and Singapore's skyline.

Sitting at The Landing Point of the Fullerton Bay Hotel, Giovanni Viterale takes a deep breath and says, "This feels like Hong Kong. The bay, the views, the skyline."

Viterale, who was with the Conrad Hong Kong before he joined the Fullerton as general manager, has good reason to be proud of the Fullerton Bay Hotel.

Its location is hard to beat – right on the water in the middle of the financial district. Its views are to die for – surrounded by the transformed city skyline of Singapore. Its story is old and new - a modern building built between two slices of Singapore's history.

The first hotel in Singapore to be built on the waterfront – about 80% of the property juts out into the bay – it is literally located between two old worlds in the middle of a modern, urban landscape.

Pictured left: Giovanni Viterale and Tina Sim, hotel manager

The Fullerton Bay Hotel is the link between the old Clifford Pier and Customs House, the two historic buildings at the centre of Singapore's trading in the old days.

Think of it as a modern bridge between two old worlds and as you walk along the lobby, you literally feel you are walking from one part of history to another.

Since its soft opening on July 8, the hotel and its views have got people talking. The Lantern Rooftop Bar, set out into the bay, has a 360 degree view of the bay and city skyline. You feel like you're on a movie set when you're sitting up there, sipping your martini.

And it is also there that you realise how much the Singapore skyline has changed – panning from the historic river area with its colonial buildings to the arts and cultural hub symbolized by the spikes of the Esplanade and then swooping up to the Singapore Flyer and the three towers of the Marina Bay Sands.

Staff of the hotel say they have the US$6 billion view.

With views such as these, the hotel doesn't have to try too hard to be special but I like the minimalist and the Oriental-Mediterranean feel of the hotel. The glass façade allows the views to flow into the building.

The passage to the hotel lobby

The generous-sized rooms (45sqm) have balconies built out onto the waterfront so it does give you a resort-like feeling, yet you're surrounded by skyscrapers right in the middle of the business and financial district.

The water looks pretty clean. The Marina Barrage has obviously been doing its work and the whole bay area is being turned into a man-made body of water. It's not quite Bora Bora where from the over-water bungalows, you can see schools of fish.

Here, given the cleaning process that's taking place, apparently fish are popping up dead. "That's when you know the water is being cleaned," someone said to me. A sad fact indeed that you have to kill something to give life to something else.

The 100 rooms at the "glamorous sister" (as the staff are calling it) cost slightly more than at the "grand dame" Fullerton Hotel. Viterale says his aim is to create a place that is "sleek and chic" and offers a "personal experience".

View from the hotel

That, of course, is the challenge in labour-starved Singapore. All hotels are struggling to maintain service standards and the night I dined there, the service was friendly, attentive but creaky round the edges.

The two hotels indeed complement each other quite nicely. The Fullerton has the more imposing, grander presence while the Fullerton Bay Hotel exudes a gentler, more elegant feel.

Opening at a time when the market is buoyant has also helped of course. Says Viterale, "Singapore is on a very fast track and we are enjoying good business."

It ran full occupancy during the National Day weekend and will also run full during the Youth Olympic Games' opening weekend when the opening ceremony will be held in the bay area.

Viterale says he's got good vibes about the new hotel. "I love water. I lived in Hong Kong for 15 years and I had a fountain in my office at the Conrad. I also grew up on the Amalfi coast and there's a stone with a word in Arabic that translates into 'prosperity'."

And oh yes, by the way, he is a Pisces.

Yeoh Siew Hoon, one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, writes a regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry for 4Hoteliers.com.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her other writings can be found at www.thetransitcafe.com . Get your weekly cuppa of news, gossip, humour and opinion at the cafe for travel insiders.

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