We booked the Duplex Penthouse Suite with the previous General Manager and originally planned to stay for 11 nights but we extended our trip, and stayed for 16 nights instead.
Evening 1
Arrived at 12:30am to the suite which had not been made up. I arrived to DIRTY sheets, curtains that wouldn't close, no shower gel, no snacks at the mini bar, no complimentary bottled water, the bathroom tiles had grout all over them, chips in the furniture, patches of paint peeling from the walls, stains on the carpeting and scratches on the floor.
I called down to reception and asked for help, and an older man (I think his name was Dickson) was sent up. He giggled and told me that he wasn't going to change any sheets and that he didn't even know how. He also told me that he couldn't help me close the curtains.
The person at the front desk (I think his name was Raymond) then came up with some sheets and changed them himself. When he left, I realised that he had not brought a duvet cover. I was too tired to call down again, so that night I slept without one, getting woken up every now and again from the incredible noise that the air-conditioning makes.
Day 2
I woke up feeling hungry and having no snacks in the room, I called down to ask if there was any room service available. The person told me "no" and that I could go across the road and get myself some breakfast at the Cranberry Deli. I later found out that there IS room service, just not at the time that I had asked. I also asked again for the curtains to be closed.
Day 3
The bathroom skylight started to leak. I called reception (again) to tell them about it, as well as to ask for the curtains to be closed (for the 3rd time) as there is a gym in the next block that looks straight in at the bed and the wardrobe area. There was also still no shower gel and the towels looked old and some were frayed.
The skylight was fixed promptly, and the curtains finally got fixed, thanks to Michelle from Front Office, watching over it all. And therein lies the Night(mare) hotel's only saving grace. The staff ARE friendly and they DO try to help. But that's it. They can only "try". I spoke to the General Manager, Karla [--] and got some apologies and was offered a couple of hundred bucks off the rate I was originally quoted for those first 2 nights, free internet for more than the normal 1 device and some complimentary snacks, drinks and gym passes.
Day 4
My husband arrived to join me. I had informed Raymond on my arrival that my husband would be joining me on the 20th and that I would like for him to be registered as a guest. This was not done and when my husband arrived, the person at reception, Jonathan, was objectionable and didn't even offer to have someone help him with his bags. Not wanting to deal with this treatment, my husband decided to carry his large bag up the stairs himself.
My husband also called down to ask for a DVD player before we went out for the day, as it was stated in the guestbook that they were available on request. When we got back to the room, there was a DVD player, just left by the TV, not connected. So, we had to call down to ask for someone to come and connect it. And after it was connected, we couldn't watch any TV; only DVDs.
This type of service continued for the rest of the trip:
- the bartender at the bar gave me a bucket of ice and a bottle of wine, to bring up myself, when I ordered it for the room. I carried it to the lift then returned to tell him it was too cold and heavy for me to bring up myself.
- another bartender had to refer to a piece of paper to figure out how to make the drinks on the menu. And when we got those drinks, they were terrible and not drinkable.
- the bedroom slippers are sized small. My husband had to walk around the room in socks as the slippers were too small.
- the reception button on the phone stopped working, and when we went down to tell the Front Desk that it wasn't working, we were told that we should've dialed "0" - as if it was a well known fact.
- then the message button on the phone also didn't work, so we couldn't retrieve any messages from the phone.
- when we extended our stay, we checked with Lewis at reception if our room would be available for the rest of our stay and he said "yes". We proceeded to change our flight, paying extra to make the changes, and when we informed the front desk that we were confirming the extension, we were told that the room was not available. We managed to stay a few extra days, thanks to the intervention of the General Manager, then we left for the Waldorf.
When a service-based establishment cuts corners, it is always obvious to the customer, as they are the ones who are left with a bad experience and inconvenience. The Night hotel needs to invest more in both the hotel and their staff. There are some good employees like, Patrick, Michelle, the maintenance guy who came to fix the leak, etc. But if there is always a high turnover of staff, particularly at the senior (GM) level, there won't be any follow through with systems and processes. And that's when the ball gets dropped.
In a conversation with one of the staff, this is what I said, "Don't apologise. I'm tired of hearing "I'm sorry". Saying "sorry" doesn't change the fact that I'm the one that's being inconvenienced. You need to fix this; not just say sorry and leave me to fix a mistake made by one of YOUR staff."
Coming from a long-ish stay guest in their Penthouse Suite, I think I can safely say that I doubt we'll return.
hotel reviews