"A Man's a Man for all that!" - Rabbie Burns

"Religion? No thanks. I prefer not to outsource my brainwashing."
Trying to get your average Joe creationist to understand the phrase scientific theory is as hard as getting a fish to enjoy mountaineering. Its an unimagined world for them - it requires a complete reversal of their normal modes of thinking and being. The fact that humans could explain the complexities of this world without a creating God is a world view they cannot grasp. It's like asking a tuna if it appreciates the view from the top of Mount Everest.

Nov 7, 2008

Hotel Living Apex Edinburgh

I am just back from a couple of days at a very interesting conference in Edinburgh which was lead by a professor from the J F Kennedy School of Government Harvard. While the conference and discussions were very interesting I must say that my experience staying at my hotel confirms once more for me that all that glitters is not gold when it comes to Hotels.

The Apex International Hotel in Edinburgh sits right beside Edinburgh Castle and is, like most Apex hotels, a modern design hotel with top clash furniture and decor. I couldn't really fault them on that count. What I have found though staying at Apex hotels is that they seem to employ a much younger staff group than many other hotel groups. I am not sure if this accounts for the sometimes slip-shod service but I suspect it is one of the factors.

Having left home around 6 am to get to the conference and then had a long day at the conference itself I decided that I just wanted to eat in my room and get an early night ready for the next day.

I was thwarted in this by the fact that no-one had bothered to leave a dining menu in the room and there was no note of the hotel reception number. So, still in a relatively benign mood, I made my way to reception and pointed this out. No problem. They would take my order there and that would be it sorted they said.

So I wearily made my way back to my room. The clock ticked on. I think I fell asleep for a while and on waking realised that it was no over an hour since I had given them my order. I wondered of course if they might have come while I was asleep but I am not that heavy a sleeper. Oh, well they are just being a bit slow I thought. So, in a slightly less tolerant mood I waited. An hour and a half had now gone by and no sign of my food.

My dilemma now was that I would have to go to reception again to check what had happened and they might try to bring my meal while I was down there. Hmmm. Wait a little longer. Approaching two hours in and I am no longer in a very tolerant mood and I go back to reception.

Ah, so sorry they say. We forgot all about your order! Give us 15 minute and we will have it with you. Some twenty minutes later and my food arrived , together with a complimentary bottle of wine.

Now I am not trying to be unreasonable here. Mistakes do happen. The trouble is that they seem to happen regularly at Apex Hotels. this is not the first time this sort of problem has occurred when I have stayed at Apex hotels. It has been a much rarer experience at other hotels.

I wonder what other peoples experience of hotels is like? How frequently do you come across this type of shoddy service?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was a globe trotting salesman living a third of my time off suitcases and in hotels. I have had worse experiences but, must admit that they were very rare. When you travel as much as I used to, you learn how to prevent such goof ups from happening.
At Edinburgh particularly, I was lucky that I had family accommodation at Ormidale Terrace and so did not have any problem. In fact, I used to work at Glasgow and commute from Edinburgh.

Anonymous said...

Mostly I have no problem with Hotels. I am away about two nights a week and it's not often the service is lousy. It's just that Apex seem to have made up more than their fair share of the goof ups that have happened. Hotel living is mostly boring and uneventful. Maybe I should look at the goof ups as providing an intereting interlude.

Delirious said...

I don't spend much time in hotels, so my experiences are limited. But I did have some interesting experiences in Taiwan. One thing I learned is that the cheaper hotels in Taiwan have very uncomfortable mattreses. They are more like a board with a thin mattress over it. You may ask why I chose to stay there. Apart from sleeping on a bed that felt like the floor, the hotel was clean, did have complementary chinese breakfast which I LOVED, and internet access. The best part: It cost about $35 a night. I decided I could sleep on a hard bed in exchange for saving hundreds of dollars. :)

Looney said...

I have spent a year or more of my business life living out of hotels here and there. There were a few very rare bad experiences, the worst being bitten in bed by fleas. A room change fixed that and I suggested to the front desk that they spray the room. Probably some migrant cat-woman was staying in the room before me.

Anonymous said...

Uuugh! Fleas? My problem hardly seems worth mentioning in comparison. I am starting to feel itchy just thinking about it.

Marf said...

I'm in hotels maybe once every 4 years? I don't get off the island much.

But, my dad and I have always had good things to say about Comfort Inn hotels, especially the one in Bellingham, Washington.

Anonymous said...

Marf - don't feel hard done by - hotel living is actually a pain in the backside. The novelty wears off very quickly and you end up just thinking about all the things you could be doing at home.

Looney said...

I had a few multi-week hotel stays for business. They were the most annoying and I needed to plan ahead to keep myself active on the weekends to preserve the little that is left of my sanity. One thing I decided was that long term stays in 2-star hotels were much easier than 4-star hotels, because the staff are more friendly and accessible.

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