Taxi driver A. Mohd keeps a notebook to jot down new names of hotels and their locations.
Smart move that, for there have been several instances of existing hotels taking on new names in recent months, either because of rebranding or owners taking charge.
Last month, Le Meridien hotel in Orchard Road became the Concorde Hotel. If the latter sounds familiar, it is because that is the old name of the current Holiday Inn Atrium in Havelock Road.
Meanwhile, the old Holiday Inn in Scotts Road is now called Royal Plaza On Scotts.
Raffles The Plaza is now Fairmont Singapore while Negara on Claymore is now Pan Pacific Orchard.
As Mr A. Mohd, who is in his 40s, said: "My memory is not very good and I don't like to be clueless when I pick up tourists."
Other cabbies and tourists said they also have a hard time keeping up with the changes.
Said Mr Ricky Teh, 55, a cabby for eight years: "I've given up trying to remember hotel names. They keep changing every few years. These days, when I don't know where the hotel is, I'll make a quick call to my cabby friends."
Cabbies are also confused by similar-sounding hotel names.
There are three hotels with the word Mandarin in their names - Meritus Mandarin, Mandarin Oriental and Marina Mandarin.
Old name: Concorde Hotel New name: Holiday Inn Atrium
Three hotels are linked to Copthorne - Grand Copthorne Waterfront, Copthorne Orchid and Copthorne King's.
Two hotels are called Furama - Furama City Centre and Furama RiverFront.
Then, there are Pan Pacific and Pan Pacific Orchard.
Which is why hotels said they conduct extensive branding campaigns and advertise in newspapers whenever they go through a name change.
When the Oriental became the Mandarin Oriental last year, it distributed posters to taxi operators and asked the taxi call centres to notify the cabbies over several days.
Pan Pacific Orchard gave out prepaid CashCards to cabbies that came with a map of the hotel's location.
TransCab Operators' Association president Ong Hian Teck said whenever a hotel changes its name, the news is usually spread via word of mouth among cabbies.
Old name:Mandarin Hotel New name:Meritus Mandarin
Advertisements sometimes go unnoticed because not all cabbies may come across them.
Tourists get frustrated when a cabby takes them to the wrong hotel.
Staff at the Concorde Hotel said some guests have complained about being dropped off at the Holiday Inn Atrium.
The Mandarin Oriental said it has so far received one complaint from a guest who was taken to the wrong place.
Malaysian businessman Abdul Rahim, 40, has one solution - he avoids hotels which taxi drivers cannot identify easily.
"I would choose a hotel which has a well-known and unique name, such as Hilton or Hyatt. Taxi drivers can never confuse them with another hotel," he said.
WHERE IS THE NEW CONCORDE?
I hailed a taxi in Kembangan last Wednesday morning and asked the driver to take me to the Concorde Hotel.
The driver, who looked to be in his 40s, was puzzled and adamant that the hotel no longer exists.
He asked if I meant The Concourse, a retail-office complex in Beach Road.
Old name:The Oriental New name: Mandarin Oriental
I repeated the name Concorde Hotel a few more times, just to make sure he heard me properly.
I refrained from giving any pointers or directions during the trip as he confidently drove to Outram and pulled up in front of the Holiday Inn Atrium hotel, the former Concorde Hotel.
There, we got into a mini-tiff as I insisted that he drive me to the new Concorde Hotel while he repeatedly claimed that the latter does not exist.
Five minutes later, sensing that I wouldn't step out of his vehicle, the frustrated driver made several calls to his cabby friends on his mobile phone.
The first two he called were equally clueless about the new Concorde Hotel.
Fortunately, the third one knew that the new Concorde is the former Le Meridien hotel in Orchard Road.
With an "aiyah", the cabby drove me to Orchard.
There, the sheepish-looking fellow managed a few "sorrys" and an explanation of how difficult it is to keep track of hotel-name changes.
I still had to pay the fare though - about $25.
This article was first published in The Sunday Times on Oct 12, 2008.
