I'm The Guest From Hell

It was just a 3-day 2-night stay at a luxury hotel.

I noticed that the silly e-confirmation did not mention anything about breakfast being provided, or not.

Upon check-in, I specifically enquired whether breakfast was included in the online rates we paid. I expressly said that if breakfast wasn't included, I didn't want it. The smiling receptionists said 'yes'. Breakfast was complimentary and all we needed to do was to turn up at the dining room and let the servers have our room number. They stressed that we needn't sign a thing.

So we merrily did that the next morning.

On the third and last day, we strode in to have breakfast. We had only a couple of eggs before the server came over with a bill for us to sign and informed us that we would be charged for breakfast. She checked in with her manager and affirmed that breakfast for both days was indeed to be billed.

I flew into a temper.

If there is one thing that annoys me, it's screw-ups like this in the system.

I abandoned the coffee and whatever that was left on the plate. I stormed to the reception desk and demanded to know why I was being charged for breakfast.

I glared at the man who dared to quietly quip "Because you ate it??" He had seen me fly into a rage. A couple of times. He has learnt to take a backseat and hold on to the rails. Because he'd have to play Mr Nice Guy and soothe all the toes that I would have trodden on hard.

At this point, all I wanted to hear was "I'm sorry, madam, please take a seat and let me look into it."

Instead, the staff turned defensive and tried to explain that it wasn't their fault. They said that there was no way that they would have told me that breakfast was complimentary if it wasn't so. They went as far as to look at me accusingly and hinted that I was lying. They went on and on and said that this couldn't be. I thought that one lady was almost going to cry.

I cannot stomach service lapses in luxury hotels. Not one teeny bit.

I had enough. I repeated 2 points very loudly.

2 points:

1) Upon check-in, in reply to my specific enquiry, I was told that breakfast was complimentary. I needed to know because if breakfast wasn't provided for, I wouldn't have paid S$35 to eat at the breakfast buffet. I would have walked out to have my own tasty S$10 local breakfast 20 metres away from the front gate.

2) If breakfast wasn't complimentary, why didn't anyone inform me at the first breakfast that it was chargeable? And after that, why didn't anyone follow up with a phone call, leave a note or something in the room that day?

Importantly, in the manner of luxury hotels, I would have expected someone to appear at my table and apologetically explain to me that this breakfast would be charged because of blah blah blah. And I would have paid. I would have even given the messenger a tip.

Finally the front desk supervisor suggested that I should pay 50% of the charges and the other 50% to be paid by the staff who gave me the wrong information. She told me to wait while she sorted out the technicalities.

I flatly refused. "No no no. I'm not paying anything. If somebody told me that breakfast was chargeable yesterday, I would have paid. Something went wrong with your process. So deal with it."

And I wasn't going to wait. In fact, I hopped upstairs, sorted out my luggage and went to sit down at the lounge. I left the details of checking out for the man to settle. I told the man that I was prepared to pay for the miserable breakfast we had this morning, but definitely not for the day before.

The man breezed back and waved the bill in my face. "They didn't charge us for breakfast. In fact, they apologized for their lapse in service. And they wanted to apologize to you personally too, rude imp!"

I didn't smile to that. In fact, I felt like one little piece of shit. I think the hotel made the poor staff pay for that lapse.

Yes. I could have just paid for those food that I consumed and be done with it. I'm not proud of the major tantrum that I threw.

But this sort of nonsense was exactly what I foresaw and wanted to avoid!

I wasn't going to pay for someone's mistake that I took the trouble to double-check from the onset.