His room is one of the 186 rooms in the hotel that offer a full view of this year's parade and fireworks display on Aug 9.

According to Mr Jasni, paying more than $600 for his room for one night is lavish, but worthwhile.

'It's more convenient as I no longer have to reach the stadium by noon to reserve a good seat and wait under the hot sun for six hours for the parade to start,' he said.

On Aug 9, the 57-year-old retiree will check into the room with his wife and two grandchildren after lunch in the hotel, avoiding the crowd expected along Marina Bay and the Esplanade waterfront, where more than 250,000 people can also watch the extravaganza.

Besides The Oriental, hotels around Marina Bay, such as The Ritz-Carlton, Swissotel The Stamford and Pan Pacific, expect to have more guests checking in. Most of their bayside rooms are fully booked, with guests paying about 25 to 30 per cent more.

The food and beverage outlets in these hotels have also seen a spike in demand for seats that command a bird's eye view.

Most hotels said they received reservations as early as August last year after the last NDP. Many of these reservations were made by return guests like Singapore Computer Systems executive vice-president Vincent Lim.

Besides 'soaking it up' with NDP revellers before the parade, Mr Lim and his family of four hope to 'hop around' his friends' rooms in The Ritz-Carlton for celebratory drinks or small post-parade parties.

But the party mood may be dampened. Hotels have said they will strictly enforce safety regulations that restrict the number of people in one room.

For instance, only two adults and two children below the age of 12 are allowed in one deluxe room at The Ritz-Carlton.

The hotel's sales and marketing director, Mr Andreas Kohn, said: 'We will put more staff on duty to register all guests at the lift lobby and ensure they do not bring additional people into their rooms.'

But the hotels that The Straits Times spoke to said they are not too worried that guests will cry foul as they had been informed about the restrictions when making reservations.

But there are no such restrictions for the lucky few who work in the offices that overlook the floating platform and offer a good view of the action on the parade grounds and the sky.

These offices, including those in the NTUC Centre at Marina Boulevard and One Raffles Quay, have already witnessed some of the parade highlights during the rehearsals.

These include the flypast as well as patrol boats and assault craft from the Singapore Armed Forces and Police Coast Guard doing water manoeuvres.

The Straits Times understands that some office staff plan to hold their own parties on Aug 9. Mr David Chua, an operations manager in one of the offices at One Raffles Quay, said the clincher is seeing fireworks from one of the bayfront buildings.

He said: 'Though we may have to go back to the office on a holiday, it's for a party. It'll surely be more comfortable than squeezing with so many people under the sun.'

jermync@sph.com.sg