This was unfortunately our third choice in Geylang. Not fussy travellers we had passed on the first two accommodations we had taken a look at due to things such as blood on the walls etc. We stumbled upon Hotel 81 Orchid and while it was better than our first few options, it was nothing to brag about. As others have mentioned here, the bed sheet thing is ridiculous. The bed is made of vinyl and since the sheet doesn't cover the whole bed, your feet are on the bare, sticky vinyl bed. The whole room was covered in a layer of mold. The smell was godawful. We had a sore throat by the end of the night. The wallpaper was moldy, the roof was moldy, the air coming out of the aircon was moldy. The sink emptied out onto the bathroom floor. Huge families of 6 were staying in one room all over the place and they ran in and out of each others room the whole night, slamming doors. The fire alarm went off because someone was smoking in their room. We saw a dead cat, a fight between a man and woman (fist fight) and a bleeding man laying on the sidewalk all in the span of 6 hours. All for a fantastic bargain of $65 SGD! Take a pass and spend more to get something tolerable.

I chose this hotel based on what I had seen on I think either agoda.com, or just by viewing the hotels' actual website (can't remember which I did though). Either way, I made a number of visits to Singapore solely for the purpose of obtaining a visa for Thailand and each time I went to the country, and after choosing this hotel just once, I've consistently chosen it time and time again. Why? Well, I guess one of the main considerations was that it's rather close to the Kallang MRT and thus makes for easy access to public transportation when one wants to go into the main city part like Orchard Rd, or any other main areas of the city. If one doesn't mind walking about 15 minutes, they can reach this MRT station and from there, access the rest of the city and the other train lines. (I always found this to be beneficial while staying there).
Yeah okay, as I discovered, it is sort of located in the red light district but as another person had mentioned on a recent review, it's not like people are touting you in the area and I always enjoyed going to this location whenever I go to Singapore.
The rooms are a little small but that's okay as I usually only need the basics and am not one who needs all the amenities. Whew! The AC runs quite cold though and found myself having to turn it off at time since the room sometimes had a tendency to become a little bit of an ice box.
Otherwise, I really couldn't complain about the hotel and thought it to be perfect for my trips. There's also two 7 Elevens close by if one does not want to buy or eat at some of the food stalls that open up in the evenings (or if they just want to go and grab something to eat or drink).
Overall, a great hotel for value, price and location, and would gladly stay there again should I travel to Singapore again sometime this year.

Hotel 81 Orchid is one of the many franchises of the Hotel 81 group of hotels.

I chose this hotel for our family vacation because of its higher rating compared to its other Hotel 81 counterparts.

True enough, i am satisfied with the service provided by the hotel. We had free wifi and our room was cleaned daily with fresh bed sheets and toiletries too.

The hotel is located at Lorong 8 (geylang - singapore's red light district) which is near a bus stop and four blocks away from the Kallang train station .

Just around the corner are 24-hour hawker restaurants which includes "Mongkok Dimsum" which serves chinese food and "Kusina" which serves Filipino food.

There is also a nearby 7-11 where you can buy last minute nessecities and food stuff.

I hightly recommend the hotel for budget travellers who do not mind the "night activites" in the area. They don't bother you anyway.

In choosing a hotel to stay at, especially when traveling on a budget with hubby and 2 grownup kids, i usually consider three important things. One- should have earned generally good reviews, two- rate per night for a family room and three- proximity to the nearest transport station. In the case of Singapore, it should not be more than 10 mins walk from MRT.

Hotel 81 Orchid satisfies all of the above. It is rated average 3 star by reviews on TripAdvisor. That's good enough for me. Amongst hotels I've shortlisted (which isn't many) it has relatively the cheapest rate for a Family Room. Of course, at a rate of SGD 120 nett per night, I was not expecting luxury. As long as the room has the bare essentials - a clean bed to retire to after a long and tiring day, a toilet that is well maintained, with strong running hot/cold water and clean towels, it will serve its purpose for 3 nights. Well, I later found out that the simple expectations I've set still turned out to be quite an "overrating".

As soon as you enter the small lobby, it smells of mildew. There was even a time, one evening, coming back from Sentosa, it smelled like cockroach (though i didnt see any crawlers, thank goodness!). Our check-in was efficiently handled though, by a friendly male chinese staff in specs (i'm poor at remembering names).

The Family Room is also small, old and cramped up. It is practically 2 connecting rooms, with a curtain instead of the usual door in between. It has 2 bathrooms which are so narrow that you can wash your hair under the shower while sitting on the toilet! It was fairly clean but not all corners. One towel was a bit greyish white and has threads falling off its edges so badly that it looks more like tassels (that evening, i bought medium towels from Tangs).

The masters room has one queen sized bed, the other has 2 single beds, which were firm and comfortable. The linens were crisp and clean. The fluffy pillows covered in soft cotton gauze like pillow cases. There was a mini fridge, so mini that it's as low as the bed, has rusted hinges and not plugged in. Instead, we used it as a night table and placed a few things atop it. There was also tea/coffee making facility, hair dryer. There was an LCD flat screen TV on each room with one DVD player - though without remote controls.

Hotel 81 Orchid, like most of its hotels, provide accommodations only and does not have any F&B outlet. It does have room service, but i'd rather not try it. We had, however, complimentary access to wifi in our room during the entire stay.

They say its near the red light district, but it didnt bother us because we didnt go out at nights. The area nearest the hotel is relatively quiet and has lots of local eateries a block away. The nearest MRT station is Kallang, which is less than 10 mins walk from the hotel. If you're too tired to walk back, a cab costs SGD 3.60.

If you're a budget traveler, perhaps you may want to consider other hotels. Although I've only seen the Family Room, so this review may not reflect the condition of all rooms. If what matters to you is a place to stay at night and would rather spend your money on shopping, eating, Sentosa and USS, then Hotel 81 Orchid may be an acceptable option.

Please see photos to help you decide.