I recently stayed in Keong Saik Hotel after running through the ratings and comments in Trip Advisor. It's pretty misleading from the pictures shown and I didn't have much of an expectation when I booked this hotel. In gist it's small and they charge 100 SGD for a room, eventhough the advert states that it's 85SGD, perhaps it's additional taxes and what not.

The location, decently located within walking distance from the Outram Park MRT, but from the MRT it's difficult to know where is the actual location since there is no landmark to pinpoint it's location. It's located right next to an Indian Temple and it's housed in a pre war shophouses, hence the term 'boutique' hotel. Along the same row there is a ridiculously small 7-11 convenience store.

Once in the premises, it's dingy looking and and dark. Electricity bills must be really expensive. It's no frills and the rooms is as small as it can be, similar to hotels in Hong Kong. Hardly had any room to walk. Water is chargeable at 2SGD a pop. The rooms are dark, and the lightings are scarce. There are cracks all over the wall and the most glarring thing is that there is NO WINDOWS, hence no ventilation whatsoever. The bathroom are small and basic, a shower is provided.

The mattress is acceptable but not comfy, blankets are old and torn. You get the gist of it. Room doors are thin and there is no latch apart from a safety hook.

Breakfast is provided, only 3 in 1 coffee, some juices, bread and eggs. Basic is the word of the day.

All in all, it might be a nostalgic experience for some, (not many if I may opine), Perhaps for Westerners this hotel might be appealing since they have not experience it before, but for many asians, the set up of this hotel, it's rooms and the services, are reminiscent of those cheap 'love hotels' where prostitutions are the main business.Would I stay here again? I definitely wont, even if it's the cheapest hotel around. Would I term this a boutique hotel, MOST DEFINATELY NOT.

We stayed four nights in this hotel which offered low rates in mid-august. This place is old-style but not of bad taste. The first room we were given was small (+/- 15m²), but nice and clean (#101), with a simple decor and dark wooden floor. The bathroom was very small (2.5m²) with a toilet, a sink and a shower with curtains shrinked in. There was plenty of space & closets in the bedroom for our laundry, suitcases etc., as well as a minibar for which we were asked to pay a deposit of 10S$ upon check-in in case we would drink its water bottles! There was no safe in the room which we disliked very much, especially since there was a big warning on the door stating "do not leave any valuable in the room... the hotel management could not be held responsible in case of theft ... blablabla..." which was not reassuring. We had no other choice but to leave some valuables at the Reception's safe, but it was so tiny we had to carry most of them on us permanently.
In terms of comfort & quietness, room 101 should be absolutely avoided as it is the closest one to the lobby, the elevator's motor room, the breakfast room, and the noisy Keong Saik road. During the day, we missed some shadow curtains for more intimacy. At night, there was no black curtains at all the cover the upper window, so we suffered from the daylight. The noise was permanent day and night, and worsened by the trendy white cafe across the street with loud music up to 2am (except on sundays).
The rates included breakfast so it was cool to have an instant coffee, some toast, cereals and eggs on site. (there are only two coffee table so we guess when the hotel is packed breakfast must become epic!)
We asked the hotel to store our bags for 2 nights. The Reception staff agreed but asked us to pay 3S$ per piece, even if we had made a booking for the following night. Of course, for that price, our luggage stayed in the lobby during 48 hours since there is no storage room!
It looked like every little extra service has a cost in this hotel, and it was not pleasant.
Finally, when we returned, we were given a nice room on the third floor, on the street but away from the elevator. We really enjoyed that one as it was bigger and quieter.
If we were given this room from the beginning, we would have stayed in this hotel until the end of our journey. But the room 101 made us sceptical and we moved to a different hotel.