Well, the first recent trip, I arrived at 11pm and these buggers at Hotel Mulia didn't even have a room ready for me! I made damn sure they knew my arrival time (the travel agent usually informs them anyway) and they even had airport transfer arranged. And so they made me wait for 15 mins in the lounge before they put me up in a room with two single beds. Grrr...so I called reception and said that in my bookings I always ask for a double bed and I went back downstairs to see if they could put me up in another room. Of course the answer was no which probably means they were booked out for the night (otherwise they wouldn't have given my room away). I was really grumpy at this stage since I've just been through a full workday, spent 4 hours travelling to Jakarta and can't find a bed to rest and sleep. I don't know why but probably because I looked so grumpy, the girl decided to upgrade my room to a Royal Suite. :-)
And now I'm in the lift thinking, "what the heck is a Royal Suite??" The first sign of things to come was the double door to the room. Second sign was I walked in and there was no bed, just a dining area opening up to a lounge area and a big giant 46" plasma screen. Riggghhhtt....so where the heck is the bed? I want to sleep!! Open a door and I have this big giant bedroom with another giant plasma screen, a work desk and a bathroom that's about the same size as the standard room. Hmm...I can live with this. :-) (see photos)
View from entrance foyer
Dining and lounge area
One of the nice plasma screens
Now this is what I call a nice bed!
View from work desk
Doors to bathroomOf course, life has to balance itself out and this was the trip where I was only staying for two nights rather than the week (doh).
And then the next trip....
All was well as I got my room key and got in the elevator. Arrive at the door and I can't get in. Back to the reception I went and changed my key. Mood was still OK. Back to the room door and it still wouldn't unlock. Mood turning e little sour. Tried it again and the door unlocked. I walk into the room and the TV cabinet door's been ripped off it's hinges. A quick check of the hinges tells me that you can really only break it if you were hanging on the door like a monkey and swinging about. Never mind...doesn't concern me. Unpack my clothes and lie down to watch the news. Hmmm....where's the TV remote control? Missing. So I call housekeeping and ask for one which they promptly delivered. Alright...watching the news now and I'm feeling a little peckish. Let's order some room servi....hang on....the room service menu is missing. Grooaann...I decided to go downstairs to the restaurant instead and phoned housekeeping to give me a menu.
I come back from dinner and felt like a piece of fruit. Well, what do you know? The fruit plate is missing. There's always one every stay that I've had at the hotel. Well, if you haven't worked out the logical conclusion, when fruit plate is missing, there is no fruit. :-) Still, doesn't faze me. I'm there for work all week and the room was just a place to sleep as I'll be out most of the time.
Comes the time to check-out. Me, being my paranoid self, had to check every single cupboard door in the room to make sure I haven't left anything behind even though I don't use any of the other cupboards. And guess what? I realise the mini-bar has been completely emptied out and the fridge had nothing in it, not even the ice tray! And whoever it was did it, they decided to pour some juice on the inside of the fridge which after a week, was producing quite a stench. I go downstairs and asked to speak to the duty manager. I was very polite and nice, spoke to him, gave him my feedback and filled in the guest survey form. He was very apologetic and even offered a cab ride to the airport. Fine by me.
At the airport, the cabbie asks me for payment. I said the hotel was paying for it and he said he didn't get the taxi ride slip so even the duty manager got it wrong then. Boy...what a trip.
Anyway, the hotel manager called me in Singapore a few days later and spoke to me about my feedback. He was again very apologetic and asked me when my next trip was. I said I wasn't sure. Two days later, a courier package arrived for me. I opened it up and he's given me a voucher for two nights complimentary stay in their signature room. It's not as nice as the Royal Suite but it's still a nice room. The question is, when will I ever use it since I don't think Jakarta is a touristy place to go to and each trip I make there will be for work i.e. work will be paying? And arghh...I can't give it to someone else because it's got my name printed on the voucher.
Whew! Had to get that story off my chest for some weird reason. In the end my conclusion was either the last guest that stayed in the room was very disgruntled or housekeeping just slacked off.
Alrighty...back to work on this lovely Saturday in Singapore. I'm off to Lahore, Pakistan on Monday. I hope the people there are more friendly than their embassy staff.
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