St Regis Picks 3 Bentleys To Ferry Guests

Source : The Business Times, December 19, 2007

Luxury hotel says British marque complements its brand

THE St Regis Singapore has chosen three Bentley luxury limousines to grace its driveway.

At your service: St Regis expects the three cars to meet guests' needs for a start but will monitor demand and increase the fleet if necessary

The five-star hotel on Tanglin Road opens this Saturday and its well-heeled guests will be chauffeured to and from the property in the customised Bentley Continental Flying Spur saloons.

Only one other hotel here uses a Bentley - The Raffles. The single Continental Flying Spur joined the iconic hotel's classic Daimler and long-wheelbase BMW 7 Series models in May 2006.

The St Regis fleet comes with customised details, with the cars having paintwork to match the unique gold/bronze shade that is the St Regis brand's corporate colour.

Other features include discreet St Regis badges on the door pillar and St Regis embroidered monograms on the back of the front headrests. There are also deep-pile carpets for guests to bury their feet in and a wine cooler tucked away in the centre armrest of the spacious rear seats to store chilled drinks and towels.

The hotel says it chose Bentley because the British marque complements the St Regis brand.

'With matching beliefs in the importance of heritage, prestige and the promise of providing a memorable lifestyle experience, Bentley was the perfect choice for the hotel's limousine service,' explains St Regis Singapore's general manager, Yngvar Stray.

The hotel is the first St Regis to open in south Asia and the first new internationally branded luxury hotel to open in Singapore in 11 years.

Apart from its bespoke service with personal butlers, another distinctive feature of the St Regis Singapore will be its artwork, said to be one of the largest private collections in Asia.

Over 40 original pieces by world famous artists such as Joan Miro, Marc Chagall, Fernando Botero, Le Pho, Fernand Leger, Gu Gan, Chen Wen Hsi and Georgette Chen have been selected to complement the hotel's elegant interiors.

Mr Stray says the Bentley fleet will be used to chauffeur guests to the hotel as well as for other transportation requests.

He believes that the three cars will be able to cater to his guests for a start but 'we will monitor the demand and increase the fleet if necessary'.

St Regis Singapore has declined to reveal the cost of the luxury limousines but the price of a standard Flying Spur is about $730,000. With the special options, the final price tag could come up to as much as $800,000.

For now, the St Regis Bentleys will be the most expensive cars to be used by a hotel here. Later next year, that honour will go to the Capella Singapore resort.

When it opens its doors in the fourth quarter of 2008, the Norman Foster-designed resort on Sentosa will have a pair of Rolls-Royce Phantom ultra-luxury limousines. The standard-wheelbase models cost $1.5 million each and will be used to ferry guests of the Pontiac Land Group hotel.