Take a sneak peek at RWS’ Equatorial Hotel and beach villas

Does it have what it takes to capture the potential stream of VIP players from the two new junket operators?

Here’s a review from CIMB analyst Loke Wei Wern which took time to visit the new 172-room EquariusHoteland 22 beach villas launched by the Resorts World Sentosa on 16 Feb 12.

Our first stop was the Equarius Hotel. One aspect that immediately caught our attention was the space and vastness ofthe roomsas well as the good dose of sunlightthat they get.

The rooms (excluding the suites) in Equarius Hotel generally trump the ones in Marina Bay Sands in terms of size. All deluxe rooms have balconiesbut with differentviews–some facethe marine life park and water theme park, both of which are under construction,while others facethenatural rainforest.

Of the 172 room offerings,we gather that only 100 were opened. The remaining rooms are only expected to be rolled out in 2Q. The100 rooms are running at close to full occupancy. Average room rates startfrom S$800++ per night.

Our next stop was the beach villas. Out of the 22 villas, we gather that only 17 were opened. There are four types of villas ranging from one room to four rooms with rack rates starting from S$1,200++ per night.

The 10 units of one-room villas have outdoor terraces that overlook a shared free-form pool.

Meanwhile, the two-bedroom villas, with private lap pools, overlook the Keppel Bay. The space and sizes of the villas were also distinctive features of these new beach villas.

RWS has yet to ramp up marketing activities for the new accommodation. The hotel and beach villas look spanking new but feel rather incomplete, in our opinion.

Some of the rooms at the Equatorial Hotel overlook the marine life park and water park, both of which are still under construction, We therefore, think that it is a fairly reasonable move for RWS to allow time for completion of the marine life park and the water park and for the landscape to mature, among others, before actively promoting the rooms and villas to new punters.

We think that marketing of the new accommodation will start in the earnest in the middle of the year to coincide with the completion of the West Zone. This suggests that the hotels are occupied by customers from the Southeast Asian region. With the new hotels RWS hopes to be able to extend its reach to Eastern European and Middle Eastern customers.