Staying at a mainland hotel can be quite interesting. Here are two episodes I experienced recently:

1. Coffee Cup

After lunch at the hotel’s (rather empty) western restaurant, I ordered a coffee. It was served in 5 minutes but the coffee cup was stained (as in not cleaned properly) along the rim of the cup as well as the sides.

So, I signalled the waitress and informed her of the situation and asked for the cup to be replaced.

Another 5 minutes later, the waitress came back to me with what I thought was a replaced cup of coffee. Much to my amazement, the cup was still stained and didn’t look like anything was changed.

Puzzled, I looked at the cup for a moment and then, thought to myself, “Hmm.. which part of my description of the problem and which part of my request that they change the cup did they not understand?”

So, in order that I can get to drink my coffee sooner, I brought the cup with its content to the restaurant drinks counter where they prepared the coffee. I pointed out, in Putonghua and I am native to Putoghua, that I would like the cup changed as it was dirty.

The response I received was this:

The waiter went to the stack of cups on the shelf, looked at every cup there, and mumbled to himself, “They are all like that…”

An onlooking waitress suggested to him, “Why don’t get the cup from the sanitising machine?”

The waiter did so, poured my coffee into the “clean” cup and placed it in front of me.

I looked at the cup. And I think the cup looked at me. It is still as dirty as before. I returned to my table, took out a piece of tissue paper and wiped off the stain myself.

It took more than 20 minutes to have this little problem resolved. I should have just cleaned the cup myself in the first place.

2. Fitness Centre

I had some time after work one day and had wanted to go to the hotel fitness centre to get some exercise. I changed into my exercise gear, put on my shoes, grabbed my towel and headed for where the fitness centre was supposedly located (as indicated in the hotel directory and keycard envelope).

When I got there, I found myself in a billiard room filled with people and shrouded in smoke. I didn’t see anyone exercising except for some who were “exercising” their arms with the billiard cue. I asked around and no one knew where the fitness centre was located.

So, I strutted to the hotel front office reception and asked for directions. The receptionist gave me the directions and I promptly thanked her for her help and off I went to get myself an exercise.

When I arrived where the fitness centre was supposed to be, it was locked and it complete darkness. I thought it strange because the hotel directory stated that it closed only at 11pm and the time then was only 9pm.

So, I walked back to the hotel reception, walked up to the same receptionist who gave me the directions, and asked if someone could open up the fitness centre as I would like to use it.

She replied, “Oh, it is already closed for the day. It is not operated by the hotel but it is outsourced to a private company to run.”

At that moment, many thoughts raced through my mind, many of which are not flattering.

Why did she not tell me in the first instance that the fitness centre was already closed? Why did she have to direct me to the centre just so that I will find it closed and then waste the time coming back to her just for her to tell me that it is closed?? I doubt I will find satisfactory answers to these questions anytime soon.