Locked out…

I have stayed at this airport hotel a number of times already and I’ve enjoyed it very much especially on the last one or two occasions. It is a very nice place, not obtrusively ostentatious like some of those luxury ones where one would feel uncomfortable when one isn’t dressed up to the nines and carrying oneself with a pretentious air of class. I would say that I feel so very much at ease and relaxed here in the middle of nowhere with nothing much to do other than to laze and idle around.

This time around, I stopped by en route to Seremban and Malacca as I was hoping I could check in and leave my bags and stuff in the room and be on my way. Unfortunately, I could not do so as their check-in time was at 2.00 p.m. and if I wanted to check in earlier, I would have to fork out another RM60.00 for the “privilege”. Wouldn’t that be an indication that there were rooms available but no, you can’t check in unless you pay extra? Good grief! I would not want to pay that kind of money especially when I would not be physically there to enjoy what I had paid for – just my bags! Well, I guess that is their company policy so I had no choice but to toe the line.

They told me that I could leave my bags with the concierge which I did…but unfortunately, he would not take the laptop. Now THAT was the main reason why I wanted to leave my things at the hotel – I would not want to go some place and come back to the car only to find the windscreen or a window broken and the laptop stolen. It wasn’t so much the laptop, that old thing – in fact, the glass would probably cost more to replace. Still, I guess that is their company policy so I had no choice but to toe the line.

I only managed to check in by late afternoon when I came back from Malacca. Actually, I had put in a request via Facebook for a room closer to the lobby and I was glad that they did give me what I wanted – they gave me the exact same room in which I stayed on my last visit and the lobby would be just a couple of minutes’ walk away. Double thumbs up to them for this!

The room rate has increased by RM10.00 but that is no big deal, considering that the prices of virtually everything have been shooting up by leaps and bounds. I must say that I did appreciate the fact that they had tried to add a few extras probably to justify the price hike, for instance, they now have a bit of carpet under and around the bed…

…and that certainly was not there before. They have also put in a comfy armchair in the corner by the window and there is a nice menu in the room (I love that icon in the middle!)…

…so one can dial for room service and have a bite…

…without having to walk all the way to the restaurant.

I don’t remember seeing this nice hair dryer before either…

…so perhaps that is new too.

Then, it happened! I wanted to go into the bathroom/toilet and I discovered that the door was locked. I went outside and I saw the housekeeping guy down the corridor so I asked him to help. He came and used a cotton bud to poke into that little hole in the door knob to get it open for me…

Gee! Interesting!

Then, at around 7.30 p.m. I wanted to go in again and I found that I had been locked out yet once again. I called the operator…

…and got a machine that would rattle through the exact same things you would hear if you call the hotel from home. At the end of it all, the voice would tell you to press “O” for the operator and I did just that. There was a ringing tone but nobody answered.

I went out of the room and walked around looking for somebody who could help me out of my predicament. I saw the housekeeping trolley left outside one of the rooms but there wasn’t a single living soul in sight. I headed back to the room and tried to call somebody on the phone again but to no avail. Some 10 to 15 minutes had passed so I walked over to the reception counter to tell them my problems with the door and the telephone. They told me they would send somebody over in around 10 minutes. 10 MINUTES??? Another 10 MINUTES!!! What if I was down with food poisoning or something like that and had to use the toilet right away? What if I had done it in my pants and had to clean up urgently? Luckily, it was nothing of the sort and I was in no real hurry…so I went back to the room and waited.

10 minutes…15 minutes…and nobody came! I tried to call again and again, there was the dialling tone and nobody answered. Then I had to resort to using MY HANDPHONE to call the hotel to speak to the operator. Now, that worked!!! After a while, the maintenance man came and he fixed the door and before he left, he gave some instructions as to what I should do so that I would not be locked out again. No, thank you! I was not taking any more chances and I definitely was not ready to go through all that hassle again so I just stuffed something into the keyhole…

…to make sure that the door would not close by itself. I was alone so it did not matter that I did not close the door while I was taking my bath or sitting on the toilet bowl, doing my thing.

Then the telephone in the room rang and the girl apologised that their phone system was malfunctioning earlier and they had got it fixed already – I don’t know if I could call them or not after that as I did not bother to try anymore but it certainly looked like they were having some teething problems in their attempt to make it easier for the guests to use the telephone.

She also apologised for the fact that they could not send somebody sooner to resolve my problem with the door and she gave a reason which I would not mention here. I, for one, would know that it was not really a very valid reason. Life would go on and you would need to do what you would have to do when duty calls. Work is work and the world will not stop to wait for you. Imagine a doctor halfway through surgery, dissecting some part of  a patient’s anatomy and he stops suddenly and says, “It is time!” only to resume what he is doing after he is through.

If it had been a foreigner (whom they would kowtow to and wait on hand and foot at such places), I am sure they would hear no end of it…and since I was in no real hurry, like I said, to use the toilet or bathroom, I just let the matter rest but it certainly would make one feel a lot better if the duty manager had called to apologise himself, not one of those syts (sweet young things) from reception. Whatever it is, I do hope that the management will look into the matter and make sure that such unbecoming incidents will not arise again. As they always say, little things mean a lot and no matter is too small or negligible to be simply brushed aside and ignored…especially when you are in the service and hospitality industry.

And by the way, Mr. Manager sir, while you’re at it, perhaps you could get somebody to do something about the layer of dust under the lamp shade too, please?…

Thank you ever so much for your kind patience and attention.