Wanderlust Hotel
Singapore’s temporary digs for the contemporary traveler
With its handy book-like itinerary given out to all guests, Singapore’s 9-month old, 29-room Wanderlust Hotel puts travelers in the mood for discovery from the get-go. Their clever attention to detail, carried throughout the hotel, make the boutique establishment a destination in itself.
The booklet, executed by Foreign Policy Design Group, gives useful information about the hotel, from its history to how guests can access their voicemail on the in-room telephone. But taking it one step further, the book becomes a helpful city guide. There’s a map showing the bus stops near the hotel’s location in Little India, a subway map, plus recommended places at which to eat, drink and shop—with accompanying maps, for those too. The rest of the pages are left empty, but formatted as graph or lined paper in both white and color for travelers to enter their own notes and create a personalized keepsake for when the trip is over.
The press kit is designed in the form of a boarding pass and accompanying folder. The boarding pass is actually a multi-page catalog about the hotel, describing the differently themed rooms and floors designed by Singaporean design agencies Asylum, Phunk Studio and fFurious—the Pantone shades of the rooms on level two; the origami-inspired, black and white rooms of the third floor; and the various rooms on the fourth that feature monsters.
The lobby and restaurant Cocotte were done up in a distinctive industrial flair, which provide the perfect setting for the mismatch of furniture from Tom Dixon to Frank Gehry. Cocotte serves up a French menu and has large tables for communal dining, a small detail that very much meshes with the interactive element of traveling. Rooms, which also come with Kiehl’s toiletries and iPod docks, run from $300 to $650 Singaporean dollars.
