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Less than good hotel experiences, plus some good ones.


Woodie

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I was just adding a reply to the Katty bar thread and mentioned a hotel I stayed at, which made me think of bad hotel experiences I have had over the years. Both staff wise and room condition etc.

The one I mentioned in the thread was the Now Hotel at Jomtien Beach. I had booked in via a website, and then during my travels had changed the dates. When I arrived and tried to check in, it was though I had broken the Ten Commandments. The looks, the sighs, the exchange of glances between the two staff members. it was along the lines of,"you should not have done that, you should have done this etc etc". I was at the point of telling them where to stick it when she said ok, and threw the key down on the counter. Actually the room was ok and the activities in the room with the fili girl more than made up for that little drama. It did make me think at the time, why do these hotels employ staff that really have zero people skills?.

A similar experience occurred at the Zing Hotel, on the climb up the hill towards Jomtien from Pattaya. The girl there was probably the worst I have encountered. First when I checked in and secondly when I asked if she could change some large notes. Sighed, made dopey eyes, the whole lot. Another basket case!.

Other hotels that I would not return to, but off the top of my head cannot recall the names of, had bad facilities, or lack of. Had bad bathrooms. Were dirty and not much hot water and others where the aircon was not working properly and/or was noisy. A funny experience was at Sugar Sugar a gogo on the corner of LK Metro. They have rooms above the disco. Had booked in during the day, and returned later that night with a LB who I had known for some time. Had our showers etc and just getting into the action when I heard a key in the door. I had not chained it. Next minute this girl bursts in and dumps some water on the table, looks up and sees me poised over my girl. Just looked for a few seconds then backs out the door as though she sees that every day!!!. My girl and I look at each other and I said something like WTF!.

The oddity about the place is that you climb up stairs to get to the room and there are girls on the landings changing their costumes right in front of you. Not that I minded!.

On the other hand have stayed at some hotels where you wonder how they can provide rooms at the price they do. Good size rooms, really clean linen, cheap bar prices etc etc.

To continue on that theme, I have had some really good ones. One being the Beer Garden Bar opposite Baby Boom. Another being Chaiyapoon Inn. Both nothing flash but more than made up for it by the people they had. I hope those hotels get through this period and come out the other side with the same staff?.

Edited by Woodie
changing the title
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Great topic Woodie.   :drinks:

I think a receptionist's attitude comes from the top down to some degree.

If an owner places great importance on things such as broken ashtrays or lipstick stained towels but doesn't adequately monitor staff friendliness then he will reap what he sows.  Repeat business is important as well as Agoda/Booking.com/TripAdvisor scores.

I've rarely encountered surly staff at Thai hotels but then I've spent most of my time here staying at three places where the staff is pretty good.   I initially chose one of these places partially due to one friendly, ever so slightly flirtatious ladyboy who is my all time favorite staff person.  In this case recruiting a good staff member and probably paying her slightly more than he going rate for a shitty receptionist paid big dividends.  

But I'm going  :offtopic: here talking about the good stuff.

The Sundance Riverside in Phnom Penh (not Sundance Inn on Street 172) was taken over by new ownership a couple weeks before I checked in. The new owner was quite nice but made changes to the safety box in standard rooms because too many customers customers were removing the good batteries in the safety box and replacing them with older batteries.

As a result I had a safe that could only be opened by key which is not great if bringing a guest back.  But to make matters worse the key (which did not work very well as it took some jiggling) was welded to the thingy that must be put in the wall that turns on the electricity so in order to open the safe at night I had only 15 seconds to put the key in the wall, quickly remove it to open the safe. So I had to practice this routine countless times to learn exactly how to do this in 15 seconds.     

Btw, this is an otherwise good hotel but can't see myself ever staying there again.

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