The Bus Collective is a resort hotel located at

Changi Village Changi Village is a modern village situated at the northern tip of Changi which is at the eastern end of Singapore. It is the usual connecting point for travellers heading to Pulau Ubin or Malaysia by ferry. Fishermen in the kelongs located in the ...

in Singapore. Operated by the local travel agency WTS Travel in partnership with the

Ministry of Trade and Industry A ministry of trade and industry, ministry of commerce, ministry of commerce and industry or variations is a ministry that is concerned with a nation's trade, industry and commerce. Notable examples are: List *Algeria: Ministry of Industry and ...

and the

Singapore Land Authority The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Law of the Government of Singapore. SLA optimises land resources for Singapore's social and economic development. History The SLA was formed on 1 June 2001 when the ...

, it is the first hotel in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

to be built using repurposed public buses, having been constructed using twenty decommissioned buses formerly operated by the local bus operator

SBS Transit SBS Transit Ltd (abbreviation: SBS or SBST) is a multi-modal public transport operator in Singapore operating bus and rail services. With a majority of its shares owned by Singaporean multinational transport conglomerate ComfortDelGro Corporati ...

. It held its

grand opening An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

on 5 November 2023 and started accepting guests on 1 December.

Background

In 2022,

(SBST) retired 97 Scania K230UB buses. This was due to a new agreement between SBST and the Land Transport Authority concerning the transition of the

Downtown MRT line The Downtown Line (DTL) is a medium-capacity Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore), Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line in Singapore. It runs from Bukit Panjang MRT/LRT station, Bukit Panjang station in the north-west of the country towards Expo MRT station, ...

to the New Rail Financing Framework Version 2, to replace older buses with newer ones. According to Philip Raj, a hospitality consultant for WTS Travel, the idea for a hotel constructed out of retired buses came about during internal discussions on how to boost business amid declining demand for travelling due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, and to find "a new way of getting guests to experience something different".

History

SIN SBS Transit buses parked at 43 Keppel Road 2022-07-24

In July 2022, several ex-SBST Scania K230UBs were spotted in a parking lot at Keppel. The dealer agency RVS Allied Global owned these vehicles at the time. It would later be revealed that these buses were reserved for the tentatively named "The Bus Resort". A groundbreaking ceremony was held on 28 August 2022 and was attended by Maliki Osman, a Prime Minister's Office (Singapore), Minister in the Prime Minister's Office and the Member of Parliament for East Coast Group Representation Constituency, East Coast GRC. In total 20 buses were scheduled to be converted to hotel rooms. The hotel, renamed "The Bus Collective", held its

grand opening An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly constructed location or the start of an event.

on 5 November 2023, which was once again attended by Maliki, and started accepting bookings for 1 December onwards. Each bus received an exterior Vehicle wrap, wrap, and all rooms are in size. Some original bus components were retained as features, such as the driver's cabin and windows. One of the rooms was designed to be wheelchair accessible.

Reception

The initial announcement of the concept of a bus resort received mixed responses from netizens. In a report by ''Today (Singapore newspaper), Today'', some readers were put off by the reported price of S$300-S$400 per night. Netizens have also branded the concept a "gimmick" and compared it to a trailer park. Others praised the "eco-friendly" idea of repurposing retired buses and noted the success of a similar concept in Malaysia in which an abandoned bus was converted to a homestay accommodation. Some have humorously asked whether they could pay for the stay using EZ-Link, a travel card used by many Singaporeans during their commute.

Future expansion

In two separate interviews with ''The Straits Times'' and CNBC, WTS Travel's managing director, Mickey Sia, said that the company was keen to further expand the concept of repurposing retired buses to outlying islands such as Pulau Ubin and that he believed the concept had "the potential to resonate with audiences in other locations within the Asia Pacific region".

References

External links