2020drpc
October 31, 2024
Our family of three with a 2-year-old child stayed at the only Four Seasons Hotel in Shengsi. We checked in on October 27 and checked out on the 29th.
The guest rooms are clean and bright, and the hardware facilities are consistent with those of the Four Seasons Hotels in the surrounding cities of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. However, the hotel does not have non-smoking rooms or non-smoking floors, resulting in the smell of smoke no matter how the windows are opened for ventilation. This is a point deduction.
The housekeeping staff saw that we had milk powder and a constant temperature electric kettle in our room, and they also prepared some more mineral water for us. That's a plus point.
During the few days in Shengsi, everything was very pleasant and comfortable, until the last day of check-out, the behavior of the front desk staff made me feel uncomfortable, puzzled, and even more angry.
Early on the 29th, I planned my morning schedule. Beach, car charging, lunch, farmers market shopping, I estimated that I would be back at the hotel to check out around 1:30 pm, and then drive straight to the ferry for the return trip.
We went downstairs to the front desk and informed the front desk staff that we would be checking out late, and they nodded in understanding. Later at 10:39, the front desk called me and asked if I had checked out. I said I had a late check-out. The front desk said they misunderstood me and thought I had already checked out. So I expressed again that I had a late check-out, and the other party knew and the misunderstanding was cleared.
Later we returned to a restaurant near the hotel and were about to have lunch. At 12:37, another person at the front desk called and told us that the check-out time was 12 o'clock. It was already past 12 o'clock, so we had to go back to the hotel to check out immediately. He also told us that if we did not check out before 1 o'clock, the system would automatically charge the room fee. I called the front desk staff back and explained that we had just started eating, and that we had informed them of the late check-out before we left, and had repeated the late check-out during the first call. In both conversations, the front desk staff did not inform us of the latest check-out time. After I explained our current situation many times, the front desk staff completely ignored the fact that we had difficulty moving around with our 2-year-old child, and that we had just started eating. He also ignored the fact that there were only 10 minutes left until 1 o'clock when we were on the phone, and just kept emphasizing the room fee! Room rate! Room rate! He hung up the phone before I could finish my words!
Regarding the above, I have a few questions:
1 Is it that the system will automatically generate fees, and you are just reminding the guests out of kindness; or are you using the excuse that the system will automatically generate fees, assuming that the guests don’t understand, and creating a miscommunication to force the guests to check out immediately. Do you use this tactic over the years and it never fails?
2 There is a saying in the hotel industry, I don’t know if the person who brought you into the industry has taught you: "No SOP can cover all situations." The front desk is the most core front-line position in the hotel. When encountering special situations, it is time for you to demonstrate your value. And today, your value is: under the pretext of automatic deductions by the system, you keep repeating and urging a family with a 2-year-old child to flash back to the hotel within more than 10 minutes, pack their luggage, check out on time, and actively accompany your work without any mistakes.
3 It is the off-season in Shengsi, so we thought that delaying check-out by 1-2 hours would not affect the hotel's business. For hotels, the off-season is also the best time to improve customer service quality. At such a good time, you don't provide service and you are most interested in driving customers away.
4 Although Shengsi Island is small, Shengsi Four Seasons Hotel welcomes tourists from all over the country. The local government spent so much money to repair the hardware facilities, such as the spectacular winding mountain road along the coastline and the new bus station, in order to better showcase the charm of Shengsi to the whole country. As hotels are indispensable software services, please don't lag behind.
This trip to Shengsi offers a variety of delicious seafood and beautiful views of the sea and sky. The behavior of Four Seasons Hotel Shengsi in driving customers away was the only failure of our trip.
Ms. Wang at the front desk, the above are your problems. I hope you can make progress!
Original TextTranslation provided by Google