BACKGROUND:
My boyfriend's birthday was on 3 April, so he booked a staycation at W hotel.
I was the one who encouraged him to choose W hotel out of all other hotels, because I had stayed there once before, at their "Away" room on 1st floor, with private plunge pool outside the room. Back then during my first stay, the guests in the room beside me were blasting music even up till midnight, and it sounded like there were having a party, with several people inside, laughing, cheering and playing games. Unlike other hotels which are usually strict on noise levels, W hotel allowed that group to make noise and blast music till late, no one came to complain or stop them.
WHAT HAPPENED:
During our stay on 3rd April, we were playing music from about 9-10pm – I had connected my handphone to the BOSE sound system provided in the room, and the music was playing at moderate level, it wasn’t blasting. We received no complaints. However, after taking a dip in our plunge pool, while I was taking a shower at about 10.15pm, I heard some voices, and the sound of the main door opening, which prompted me to walk out of the shower to check out what was going on. I thought it was my boyfriend at the door, so I waked out half naked, while wrapping the towel around myself.
The main toilet door is a full length wooden sliding door which is very heavy to push / pull every time you wish to open / close the toilet door, so, thinking that it was only me and my boyfriend staying in the room, we had left the sliding door open 24/7. So, I was walking out of the shower half naked, towards the main door of the hotel room, and to my horror, I came face to face with 2 male strangers! Apparently, 2 W hotel male staff (1 in particular, named Wei Hao), had used their access pass to let themselves into my room without permission, and it just so happens that the bathroom is situated right next to the entrance of the room. So, the 2 male staff actually saw me half naked, wrapping a towel around my body! Upon seeing me half naked, the 2 guys retreated back outside of the room.
I was totally shocked and traumatised and frightened, and (after wrapping the towel around myself properly) I opened the door and demanded to know why were they in my room! Wei Hao explained that, a guest next door had complained that our music was playing too loudly, and that the hotel management tried to call us, but we did not answer (he mentioned that hotel standard procedure is to only allow the call to ring 3 times, after which, if there is no answer, they will hang up, and will not disturb the guest any further).
After failing to reach us via phone, they came to our room and knocked on the door (he also further mentioned that hotel standard procedure is to only knock 3 times), and after we did not answer after 3 knocks, they decided that the next course of action was to let themselves into the guest's room. Seriously?!?!?!
WHAT’S RIDICULOUS:
Apparently, we discovered that the phone in our room was faulty, and we even had a technician come into the room the following morning to fix the faulty phone, and verify that it was indeed not working well. Therefore, it is not our fault that the hotel tried to call us at our room, but failed to reach us, because it is their own fault that their devices are not well maintained and kept in good working condition.
Secondly, with music playing in the room, and with only 3 knocks on the door, how would you expect guests to be able to hear you?!
Thirdly, my boyfriend mentioned to the staff that, upon check-in, guests are required to provide their IC as well as mobile number at the counter. So, why didn’t they attempt to reach us on our mobile phone FIRST, before deciding that the next best course of action was to simply let themselves into our room?!
In response to that, Wei Hao doubted us: “Are you sure you provided your contact details with our front desk?” We felt insulted that he would question our words like that, so we told him to go to the front desk and check it out himself then, which he did, and later on came back to us to say that, yes indeed, our mobile number records were there with the front desk. But this time, he defended himself by saying that, hotel guests usually do not like them to intrude their privacy and contact them via their personal mobile numbers, therefore the hotel will avoid calling guests on their personal numbers.
So , what Wei Hao is saying is that, in such an “emergency” situation, the hotel’s view is that it would be less intrusive for staff to let themselves into guests’s rooms and catch guests half naked, than to simply drop them a phone call on their mobile phone, to inform them to lower down the volume?
In fact, while I was showering, my boyfriend was actually outside by the pool, scrolling through his mobile phone. Hence, if the hotel had bothered to call him on his mobile phone FIRST before deciding to barge into our room, they would have been able to reach us, and get us to turn off the music, WITHOUT having to go through all that trouble, and causing distress and unhappiness to their guests!
But Wei Hao was simply unapologetic, and kept finding all sorts of ridiculous excuses to defend himself! So we felt that there was no point continuing the conversation with him, and requested to see his manager the following morning when she reported to work. Wei Hao assured us that they would give us an explanation in the morning by 10am. (Therefore we did not proceed to immediately call the police, because we wanted to give the hotel a chance) But, the following day, there was no word from them, all the way until about 11+ / 12pm, while we were packing to prepare for checkout.
APPALLING ATTITUDE FROM UPPER MANGEMENT:
We were hoping that Wei Hao’s manager, Rissa Williams, would be more reasonable and sincere in her approach. However, to our horror, her attitude was even WORSE than her subordinate’s! She simply said, we can only offer our apology that you were shocked by our staff’s presence in your room, however, you were blasting music and disturbing other guests, and we had to protect our other guests, so, he had the authority to do so. And anyway you could have also been charged $500 for noise disturbance.
She was even extremely hostile in her tone and approach, right from the start, which made us feel that she is unsuitable to be in the hospitality industry!
We reasoned:
1. If it was absolutely necessary for the staff to enter our room. Shouldn’t they have checked their records, and realized that there was a female guest staying in that room? And hence, shouldn’t they have at least sent a female staff to enter the room instead? – She had no answer to that, and simply brushed us off that it was actually no big deal that I was seen half naked by her male staff, because he had no ill INTENTIONS, and was merely just carrying out his duty.
2. I was insulted and infuriated that she said it was no big deal that I was seen half naked, so I responded by saying, perhaps because she is a Caucasian lady, therefore she might be more open-minded than Asians, hence she does not feel that being seen half naked is a big deal. In response to that, she was very angry and said that I had insulted and offended her! She was also on the defensive mode, and pointing fingers at us guests, without reflecting on her own words and actions! – If she had not said that my ordeal was no big deal, and had better hotel service attitude, why would I be agitated and induced to respond in a sarcastic manner back to her?!
- See more at: http://www.allsingaporestuff.com/ar...-half-naked-female-guest#sthash.YMJwgW5M.dpuf
