So, we had everything ready. Projector, attendees, foods, etc. We're excited. We're not that big of a group but I really miss hanging out with these amazing, amazing people. There's this online deal for PhP4500 and it promises:
- 24 hours use of party room
- 1 case of San Mig Light
- 1 bottle of red wine
- 1 pitcher of juice
- Free use of pool
- No blackout dates
- Perfect for holiday parties
Great for extensive fangirling, right?! I never had one for a long while. We purchased the deal and immediately called the hotel to have the party room reserved.
Everything went well. Or so we thought... It all started with a phone call (which is a really, really good thing).
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Around 10AM, my friend decided to call up the hotel for booking confirmation only to find out that it was reserved to another group. Booking should be at least 10 days in advance prior the event date (that's what it said in their their deal) and we called them up around a month earlier prior to our event date. The receptionist said that our booking was not placed on their calendar (though my friend was sure the receptionist said that she jotted our reservation down WITH THE TIME). Too bad we didn't get the receptionist's name. So, room gone, karaoke gone. Well, they gave us the suite instead. Well, ok... Better than nothing. We decided against rebooking our package since most of the attendees will be too busy. My friend got the receptionist's name, room number and reserved the suite for us. She gave my name as contact person.
By 6:30PM (yeah, we're late. We're supposed to be there by 6PM), our projector guy came and I told him to have the projector set up in the suite. I told him that we had the suite reserved under my name and to inform the receptionist that I gave him permission to enter the suite. A few minutes later, our projector guy called and said that there's no room reserved under my name.
WTF?!
I instantly called them up and demanded for an explanation. I was pissed off since we were given a suite instead of the party room and NOW they're telling me that there's no room reserved under my name?! The receptionist (different from the one in the morning shift) informed me that the room given to us was indeed reserved but not under my name. Well, at least we had the room. I told her that I’d like to have a word with her manager but she/he’s not in their office since it’s a Saturday. If that’s the case, then I’ll talk to her after a while (at least I gave her time to prepare. It's not entirely her fault when you think about it)
So, I talked to the receptionist and was able to get the room. The karaoke was gone (since they're using it in the party room - which was supposed to be ours anyway) so I asked her if there's anything they can offer to compensate for the karaoke box. She kept insisting that there's no other option for us to take. I haggled that she should give us 24hrs pool usage (the pool should be closed at 10PM) but she said she can just extend it to 1AM. Not pleased, I told her to at least remove the food corkage fee (PhP500) to compensate for the karaoke. She agreed. Good. Karaoke issue fixed and yay! No Corkage! I’m satisfied with that.
But wait, aren't we supposed to get some sort of drinks package? From what I remember it should be 1 case of San Mig Light, 1 bottle of red wine, 1 pitcher of juice. Wait... Alcohol ban due to the upcoming election... So there's no alcoholic beverages? I though the ban only covers "buying alcoholic beverages" and "drinking alcoholic beverages in public". I thought they had some in stock since… Well, since they offered it with their package. But it’s ok… I understand. Law is law anyway… So, remove 1 case of SML and what? No red wine? Their staff (while talking to someone on the phone. Maybe another staff?) informed us that as much as they want to provide us the drinks, their beers are locked away and they can't open “it” (I dunno… Storage room maybe?). To cut the chase, I asked the to at least give us something to compensate for the drinks. Sodas and juices are fine as long as they are of the same number as the original drinks. They agreed. End of discussion.
So we're finally there... In the room, getting ready for some serious fangilring. We then had our late dinner. We called up the front desk to have our drinks delivered to our room. She said yes and we waited... And waited... And waited... And waited for 30 minutes!!! I know that they are supposed to bring up 2 pitchers of juice to our room. I called front desk several times until she decided to pass me to "housekeeping". That’s when they told me that the drinks are being prepared and the pitchers are being washed. Ok... We waited for 30 minutes and the pitchers are just being washed?! Well, ok... It's not as if we can do anything about it... We waited until our drinks arrived. Yay! 2 pitchers of powder-dissolved juice that took more than 30 minutes to prepare. After an hour or so, 11 cans of sodas followed. Oh, impressive! They bought our drinks without us pestering them. Aaaaannnndddd for some magical reason (which I decided not to know) they were able to bring us 1 bucket of SML beers. We're not expecting them since we already told them that they can remove it from our package but oh well... Thanks...
We slept at around 2AM and I woke up at 5AM. It suddenly became insanely HOT! At first I thought we can take the heat but after a few hours or so, we're all dripping wet with sweat. Who do you call? Of course, front desk. We asked them to have our air conditioning fixed but their maintenance is not around (heck, I thought hotel maintenance staff should be around 24 hours?). We asked for the crew’s estimate time of arrival. They said 9AM. Ok... We'll wait... 9AM came and still, no maintenance! We called up front desk (countless times) and after some time, they allowed us to use their pool (which should be open at 1PM then they moved it to 10AM then maybe because of our constant complaints, they allowed us to use it before 10AM). Some of us took a dip in the pool. Me and 2 other fangirls decided to just visit the nearest Mcdonald's and enjoy their conditioning while having a decent breakfast.
We got back at around 10:30AM and that's when we were told that we can transfer to another suite. Uhm... Thanks but we would appreciate it more if you'd let us use it sooner. At that, I left the group (since it's mother's day) and the hotel.
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What I want to point out is really simple: Get your staff a decent customer service training. This scenario is not uncommon in the hotel business and they should at least have some ideas on how to handle customer complaints. I mean... Come on! How do you expect the "already-irate" customer to react when you say something like "That isn't possible" or "We can't do that"?
I suddenly remembered my conversation with their receptionist. I'm trying to haggle to compensate for the Karaoke Box and drinks:
Me (M): All what we're asking is compensation in exchange of those items which are SUPPOSED to be ours.
Receptionist (R): I'm sorry ma'am... We really can't do that. We have a policy to follow.
M: .... Policy? Didn't we followed your "10 days prior" policy when we reserved the party room? What happened?
R: ....
I'm honestly a patient person (or I thought I am) and my friends can prove that I stayed as calm as possible when I talked to their staffs. I want to deal with such issues calmly but I ALMOST went into a fit of rage when I discovered how customer service sucks big time! I really can't accept their reason that there's no maintenance around when you need it the most. Yeah, I know we got the package from a deal but offering your service would mean that you HAVE to meet what's stated in the deal right? If something unexpected happen, then at least have some options ready. Answering "We can't do that" to an irate customer won't help ease his/her anger. I had some terrible experiences with hotels before but this takes all the credits when it comes to bad service.
Just to point out, I'm not saying that people who read this should NOT try this hotel out. Maybe there are people out there who experienced good service from them. I'm just writing out a review about our experience.
| Criteria | Ratings | Reason |
| Accessibility | ★★★★☆ | It's highly accessible. Public and private vehicles can reach this place without any problems. See? I’m nice. Lolz! |
| Facilities | ★☆☆☆☆ | Their air conditioning failed to work during the night. Their elevator's cramped and definitely not good for claustrophobic people. They do have their pool but it's not that clean... Or so, in my opinion |
| Staff's Service and/or friendliness | ★☆☆☆☆ | There are friendly staffs and there are staffs whom you can easily point out that they're irritated with your complaints. The night-shift receptionist is kind enough to listen to my complaints without making a face. Lolz!) |
| Customer Service | ☆☆☆☆☆ | Nada! They don't follow-up to our requests and we need to call them up each time for follow-ups. I STILL can't accept that there's no maintenance person to accommodate us at that time |
| Package Offer | ★☆☆☆☆ | We got some of the items in the package (24hrs stay but not with the expected room, some drinks and pool) but aside from that, everything else was fail. |
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