It's a terrible feeling to be disapproved of, and to be misunderstood, but it really irks me when people say things without thinking it through first so when you ask them for some examples, they give such airy-fairy, neither here nor there kinda answer.
Yes, my hotel is a bit of a mess due to the weak management. Everyone up there is so comfortable because people below them are working for them, but without any true leadership nor inspiration. Everyone is working just to get by. Just as long as the days go by without any major issue, it's ok. They don't work so that they can be proud of something.
It's an acceptable work ethic to themy. But when things get messy, when there is trouble, the finger pointing goes so fast you won't even know what hit you.
We had a problem last night, guest complained to one of those up there, let's call him A, A shoots his mouth off before even checking, makes the excuse and pushes the blame on this other guy, let's call him B. B says C told him this and this. C heard from D, and eventually, D got the instructions from me. D and I are under the same understanding. I talked to the group organizer and that was agreed, organizer acknowledges that, but what happened after became a game of broken telephone, everyone's story is different, but ultimately it has to be my fault. Of course I was indignant, but seriously the more we argue, the more I lose because my trying to fight for my point becomes a waste of my breath. How do you win management? They tell me one thing, but they tell clients another.
Anyway, internal problem, and can be simply solved if Obama bomb the living daylights out of them. I'm sorry, but I'm beginning to see a pattern here with the people from those places. Not very productive in terms of actual work, produces a lot of hot air, and prone to backstab others.
Clients also. I don't mind getting blamed and I don't mind them complaining about my service, but if you do want to complain then make sure you know what you want to complain about. Saying that my service was really bad from the very beginning once contract was signed, and that you were not happy with me from the start is ok. I just have to wonder what exactly your intentions were back then when you sent that email that said you are lucky I am working in the hotel as I am the only one who understands you.
You said I am rigid and inflexible, that I charge for everything. First up, I am also an employee, I don't own the hotel nor am I entitled to give freebies not belonging to me. You asked me for extra meeting room after the 6 complimentary meeting rooms I already gave free. I have to charge because this is the standard. You went to management to ask for free, and they are ok. If this is what you mean by being inflexible and everything also charge, then please understand this. I am NOT IN THE FUCKIN position to give out free things NOT BELONGING to me. And I care about the welfare of the staff because we are all in operations while management sits and cool their asses in the office. I don't want my staff working for free because we sweat and toll moving tables to and fro. And this is NOT THE ONLY ROOM we have to work in, we are setting up in all 10 function rooms we have.
And so I asked again what is that that we are inflexible about, so I can see what I can improve on, if too late for this, then at least for the next time. You just said "Aiyah, forget it, what's done is done." Like how do I know what I did wrong then? From what I can tell, you were extolling praises on the hotel who gave you 2 days free rental of the ballroom to do setup. Excuse me, did I charge you for the 24-hour setup you did in the ballroom TWO days before the event? Did I turn on the aircon for free when you complain it's too hot? All I did was to explain that I can only turn on half the ballroom cos of electricity costs. Was it my fault that of all the 30 people in the room, you were the only one sweating? Perhaps you should consider losing some weight? You asked for water for your VIP in the meeting room. I said I have to charge because once again, I didn't buy the hotel, hotel did. And I wasn't about to give you free water from the gallon if you said they are VIPs cos hell knows how important they are and they can't afford to go to bed with a bad tummy. And in the end, did I charge you for the water? I didn't because I managed to find spare. That is inflexible. Just because you don't see the hard work and thinking that goes into it doesn't give you the right to judge me right there.
You said the service was bad and the staff unfriendly. I can tell you part of the reason why, because you are a racist. Or a nationalist, or whatever. You are a typical Singaporean who looks down on people from developing countries like Thailand. I can tell by the way you talk to them, like they were idiots who don't understand English. Your condescending tone when you enunciate your words, and your WTF look when they don't understand you. It's not that they don't understand English, but they don't understand your Singlish. You and your bloody "you noah, you noah." (you know ah?)
And the fact you gave up so easily and starting calling me for everything. My banquet boys are standing all around you in the meeting room, and you have to call my mobile phone while I'm far far away to tell me to move the whiteboard from one end of the meeting room to the other end. And then complain that the reaction was slow if you don't get it within 10 seconds. You do realize I have to call them after you call me to give the instructions, and that involves me pressing buttons on my phone, and for some ringing to take place. They are not mind-readers. Did you even look them in the eye when you ask them questions? Did you use a nice polite voice to ask them to do something? People don't react well to "Ay, you." You look down on them and don't trust them to do the work, so why should they bother then? They are also human, they don't have to be nice to people who are mean to them. It's human nature. And your expectations of the staff? Call them and expect them to produce the results within seconds. Call me at 7.30 am to prepare for a last minute check-in for a delayed flight group, all 20 of them. call me at 7.35 am and tell me you are not seeing anyone (cos we were busy preparing the welcome drinks at the back and getting the cold towels, things have to get stocked you know, productive work can happen out of your sight too) call me at 7.40 am and said the group is arriving get my ass out there now, 7.45 am we are all seated at the check-in counter, 8.10 am the "group" arrives, 7 people only. Waste my time seriously. Cry wolf like this 3 times and see if anyone cares after that.
And then I tell you how the hotel works best, you say you don't want, you want it your way. Fine I give you your way, and it's a huge mess because it's a waste of manpower and time walking to and fro. I told you to set the group to queue according to check-in name, give me the passport and credit card and I have him sign the registration card there, identify his luggage and he's done. 30 seconds per guest. I personally guarantee it, provided you gave me right flight details and check-in date. No, you want guests to come in, sit down, I go to them get passport, go back to my desk, check by alphabet for his registration card, take the details, go back to the guest, get him to sign, walk him to the luggage area, identify his luggage, go back to the next guest, get his passport, go back to the desk etc. I waste a lot of time that way, and then you complain that the service is slow. So why didn't you listen in the first place?
And then there is a policy once again why check-in time is 3 pm. Because the previous guest has to check out at 12 pm and we need human time to clean the rooms. When you come in the morning flight, be prepared to wait, especially in high season when occupancy is high. Coming to me every 10 minutes to check if your guest's room is ready will not make it ready faster. You are just annoying yourself even more because you keep hearing no. Plan something for the guest! Plan a bus to take them out to town for lunch! So many things you can do other than blame the hotel for not having the room ready. Be creative! We already told you since the beginning that we cannot promise everyone can get their rooms upon arrival if it's a morning arrival. You should have had the foresight to do something for them, not wait for miracles from the hotel.
And you said that everything from my mouth is NO NO NO NO. So you just dismissed all the times I've said yes and done things for you. The fact that you came unprepared, you did all your signages without checking with the hotel on the amount of display stands we have. You want to have at least 30 flipcharts (which freakin' resort in Phuket will have that many on standby?) and then you pick and criticize on the flipcharts. You didn't do your homework before you come on what the hotel can offer, so what we have is what we have. But did I stop there with NO, not available? I went out and borrowed 18 more flipcharts, I had my staff drive 3 times to town to pickup from 3 different locations the flipcharts. I've done 10 big groups, all of them checked with me first on what the hotel has. YOU are the first MICE agency who didn't do your homework. You made display charts without checking with hotel the size of our signboards, and then threw a fuss when we cannot put it up cos it was too big.
When we did menus you made the selection of the food and 1 week before the event you want to add beef to an already messy menu, did I say NO? You want me to extend my buffet line for another hour for the late arrivals though it was agreed that the buffet would only last this long, did I say NO? I gave you 90 minutes more! You wanted breakfast to be setup in the function room for free for the speakers, we usually charge for this service, did I say NO? I gave it to you for free. You asked for free spa for your boss, did we say NO? Perhaps before you are so quick to make a judgement, think about the good you have received too.
And fuck me for trying to care. The fact that you swung two huge bags of mangoes and sticky rice at me at midnight after the gala and told me to get someone to skin the mangoes and prepare the sticky rice for you like you were at home with your maid. Heck if I have a midnight bus to catch. Heck if my staff are tired from working 16 hours shifts for the gala and would like to go home so they can come back at 8am the next day for their normal shift. Heck if we are not all busy with clearing the room. Heck if my restaurant opening hours are till midnight. You think you are boss of us all because you pay that miserable bit of money. If you have that kind of power to pay, you wouldn't have haggled so hard and begged us to lower our rates because you have a very tight budget. You begged us to help on one end, and then you step on us when you are here. Fuck me for caring enough to go skin the mangoes myself with my staff at midnight. And then to get this unjustified stupid comment from you the next day. Let's see you try to get any European hotel staff to skin mangoes for you.
And to make an unqualified statement about my reputation among MICE companies in Singapore. She was like "I have so many friends from the industry in Singapore and they were all like 'good luck working with Praisie'." And then she was like "Maybe they never dare to tell you about your service, but I am a very open person, so I'm telling you this." So I asked her third time, what is it that I am doing wrong. And it's still a "It's ok, what's done is done." I mean seriously, you are just blowing hot air right? As far as I know all the Singaporean groups I've done, it was 99.5% compliments and 0.5% points of improvement, which were concised and detailed and justified so I know what I can improve on. I have the hard copies of their thanks and promises to return. And in fact we did receive a lot of repeated enquiries from these agents who worked with me. Perhaps they really were just giving me face by not telling me, though I don't see the point since these people are guests and they should comment if they were unhappy about something. I know I definitely would comment if I'm unhappy about something. Hence this blog.
And I'm sure management would not have promoted me if I was so lousy and garnering so much complaints.
So until you can qualify your statements and give examples of your personal comments about me, I'll just treat you like you are having a verbal diarrhea. Good thing I have a good self-esteem and I am confident in my own abilities.
Perhaps I should be "open" too and make judgemental statements about you. Like how you sound like an uneducated housewife bargaining in the market. Or how you look so dry and shriveled up like a twig. Or how unprofessional you really are. I may not have worked that long in this industry but I have done big groups and dealt with many agents and corporate companies over my time here. Yours is one of the most unprofessional. You don't anticipate problems and you don't prepare ahead. You have no foresight, and as an event planner, that is the worst fault ever. Asking me for more rooms over high season is an absolute lack of foresight. Saying that you didn't think you needed to book rooms for your own staff is a major lack of foresight. Assuming hotel would "chope" a few rooms outside of the contract agreement for your stuff is plain stupidity. Why would we hold rooms without guarantee of payment? This is a business, not a charity. How about the times I managed to save your ass in front of the client? Asking me for 120 pieces of beach towels at midnight for 6am the next day is nothing short of a miracle, which the hotel managed to achieve. Booking rooms at a neighbouring hotel for your staff because you were dumb enough to not pre-book for them. Asking the neighbouring hotels for SUPER special rates for you because you have no budget cos you didn't plan it properly.
Yes, I write very formal emotionless business-like emails (can't believe she complained about my email writing style) because we are business partners working together on this project. I am not your friend nor am I interested in becoming one. Some agents are nice and I don't mind being their friends. Not you. You are mean, arrogant, snobby, full of hot air, no substance, no foresight, impolite, and you remind me of a witch.
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