Have you ever been to a hotel where right after you've checked in, unpacked, got settled and turned on your TV only to stare at a blank screen? It isn't working! And the solution of the hotel staff was to move you to a different room because they couldn't figure out what's wrong with your TV so without providing assistance, will you still move to the other room so you can watch TV as you relax after a very long and tiring trip?! It's the little things but after a very tiring trip, we've pretty much had it with incompetencies. This is the experience we had at the Quality Hotel in Epping, UK today. Would you request to cancel this stay because you found a better deal closer to London? We looked. We found a better deal. And we called the front desk to tell them we're leaving in two days. So we requested to cancel the rest of our stay after giving them more than 24 hours of notice (a requirement of the hotel). We decided to call it a night.
But by 22:30 [10:30 pm] (yes this is early for some but we haven't slept for 24 hours flying from North America and heading straight to work then to this hotel) they wake you up with a loud phone ring asking why you requested to cancel the rest of your week long stay into two days?! Do we need a reason? we asked. We didn't have to (we thought). We didn't owe them anything (we said to each other). We can leave anytime we want so long as we provide enough time as per their cancellation notice. (we continued to read each other's mind). Was it anything we did, the front desk person asked. Too late (we mumbled as we awaken from deep sleep). Besides, we paid a non- cancellable fee for the entire week already at a different hotel in the heart of Central London (as it was part of a last minute deal). No, we answered instead. No! I want to know why you canceled the rest of your stay, the insistent front desk night manager asked. Was it something we did? he seemed to be looking for a scape goat to blame. If you continue asking me you will be the reason for me leaving, I said with anger and continued You've awaken for this? To insist on asking me why I canceled? I don't need a reason to leave your property? Do I? No your cancelation is already in the system, but I wanted to know...as his voice trailed off because I cut him off with Since you don't need a cancelation reason, I am not giving you one. You've awaken me and now I'm angry. So good night sir and I had to hang up. I'm exhausted and the last thing I want to hear is some front desk person realizing that he should amend an error in judgment but have expressed this quite inappropriately.
Thus the need for further training especially in understanding their clientele. When we checked in we saw four tables in the lobby filled with businesspeople in suits smoking and reviewing documents and had their laptops on. Wouldn't one think that the hotel staff know that their clientele are business people? Wouldn't that mean not just business people from UK and maybe have clientele from other countries as well? Which logically mean time zone issues? I even said I'm quite exhausted and one look at us, you would not even for a moment think otherwise. It was a very long day. This was not an appropriate reaction. Thus a rating of NOT WORLD CLASS and definitely NEED TO UPGRADE SOMETHING. ~ cyberworld
