Don't Bother With The Club Hotel Singapore If You Like Hot Water

October 24, 2011 at 3:38 PM | by juliab | Comments (0)

Maybe we don't want to be part of this Club anymore

You know the feeling. You get off a long flight to a far-off country, reach your hotel, feel the relief flooding over you as the place seems nice, and you�re checked into a nice room, and then hit the shower in an attempt to slough off the jet lag.

Hopefully, though, you won�t know the feeling that came next for a friend of ours last night when he checked into the Club Hotel in Singapore: the water was lukewarm. And stayed lukewarm while he ran it in the hope that it would heat up. It didn�t � and it still wasn�t hot enough to shower in.

At about 7pm, he called down to reception to let them know the water wasn�t hot. For two hours, they tried to fix it, to no avail. At 9pm, they offered to move him to another room � which had the same problem. They tried another � ditto. The staff told him there was a problem with the water heating throughout the hotel. No sh*t Sherlock.

According to our friend:

They kept trying to call a manager, who didn�t answer the phone. At that point I had had enough and asked for a refund, in order to leave. They then spent another two house messing me around and not doing anything until one of the staff finally said she didn�t have the power to give me a refund [ed note: he�d booked through Expedia]. So I then - at 11pm � packed my bags and checked myself into the hotel next door.

We did wonder why nobody else had complained about the situation (even though we should point out our friend is ultra-trustworthy and a regular, problem-free traveler), but he pointed out that the hotel only has 22 rooms (and clearly isn�t at capacity, since they were able to move him around), so it�s conceivable no one else had tried to shower in the tepid water that evening. Come the morning, though, there may be a few other unhappy campers. Unless they�re like us, who, being stereotypically English, have been known to take cold showers rather than complain.

It�s a shame, because from its website, the Club looks rather dashing, and from its Facebook page, it looks like the kind of place we�d want to stay, though TripAdvisor reviews are mixed. But, as our friend says, it�s more about the unimpressive staff reaction than about the fact that the water wasn�t hot.

In ten years of business travel I have never seen as poor performance from staff in response to a problem. Fair enough that they have a water problem - these things happen (although I wouldn�t expect them in a 4 star), but the total ineptitude of the staff response and lack of clarity as to what they were going to do about it was appalling.

In the meantime, he�s shacked up at the Scarlet Hotel next door, which not only has a rather sexy website but, also, water to wash off longhaul flight grime. And, hopefully, an atmosphere conducive to working out how to get the $646 he paid Expedia for three nights� stay � back in his pocket.

What do/would you do if the water wasn't hot in your room? Call downstairs or shiver it out? Let us know in comments below!

[Photo: The Club Hotel's Facebook page]

HotelChatter

Select a Destination:

Hotel Hell / Singapore Hotels / Boutique Hotels / Expedia / Hotel Showers / → All Tags