Non existent service. dirty rooms, no wifi.
a review in three parts:
Dear Best Western,
I am currently a guest at the Best Western Plus in Sai Ying Pun in your native Hong Kong.
I use the term guest quite loosely here because we are not be treated as guests. After a family emergency in the US, my wife and I have returned to our home in Hong Kong and are under government mandated 21 day quarantine in hotel. I'll save the debate about the efficacy of a 21 day quarantine for another time.
To the point--we are not being treated as guests. There has been zero hospitality shown to us by the staff or management. Zero. As a matter of fact, the amount of 'cannot' we have gotten--without any attempts to offer alternative solutions to the problems we have called down to the desk to address--is appalling. There is no heat--yes, common in Hong Kong--but also no attempt to mitigate the problem with a space heater or another solution. So I asked for an extra blanket. Fine, the front desk said--there is a charge. What kind of hotel charges for the use of an extra blanket?? Robbery. And no laundry services. Not solutions, no alternative, just 'cannot'.
Yes, there are regulations involving all of this--but I am a PAYING guest. I pay this hotel. And other hotels in Hong Kong have no problems making the quarantined feel like the paying guests that they are. One needs to look no further than Facebook groups and other social to find examples of government designated hotels going above and beyond to help people who are already deprived of fresh air and confined to a box for 21 days. Why can't Best Western follow suit? Anything else is not only bad service, it's inhumane.
Regards,
Would like to clarify something here, and name names. While the Best Western Plus in Sai Ying Pun is a 'cheap' hotel, for $20k, I still expect to be treated like a guest. Especially since I cannot leave my room for 21 days!! Period. I am paying them. There should be someone assigned to each room, floor, whatever, that should PROACTIVELLY reach out to everyone who is trapped here, once, twice a week, every other day, whatever. I should never have to call and ask and feel I am begging for new towels, or sheets, or ice, or bottled water, cleaning products, anything. If this was an actual hotel, they would do this as a matter of course. But, the Best Western Plus in Sai Ying Pun is not, right now, an actual hotel. They have not called us once. This is a HOTEL. That I PAY FOR. They are a prison, where the inmates get the privilege of paying to be shown a room and then locked up for three weeks, and hopefully forgotten about. It's disgraceful, and Best Western, the corporation, should be ashamed of the damage that this hotel is doing to its name.
I am currently staying in your Best Western Plus Hotel in 308 Des Voeux Road West, Hong Kong, I am not a criminal, committed no crime, was out of the UK for 21 days before coming back to Hk and currently on day 5 quarantine. I have tested negative 2 x before coming back to Hk and once on arrival, I don’t have a criminal record, committed no crime and am paying your company for the privilege of staying here.
So to start, I arrived and was given 4 pieces of paper pointing out the penalties for doing anything wrong? I have not been informed of any sheet changes or anything apart from refuse collection, the internet is shameful and far too slow for any meaningful business work or leisure activities. I have been here for 5 days now and my only interaction with your staff was my being shown the room followed by the door slamming on arrival.
Now what does this mean for you? Well I have been noticing a great deal of traffic from fellow guests about similar experiences. So to put it bluntly we are all members of a HK focused internet site with 30,000 members (and growing) discussing on a daily basis and advising others to boycott your so called hotel/prison. In the short term this probably wont mean a great deal to you as we are limited in our choices but in the longer term it will be very damaging to your business and reputation especially when it gets escalated to your group COO.
I would expect at a bare minimum standard Daily/Weekly checks from your staff to see if we were still alive?? A fast broadband service, windows that open allowing some fresh air in? what happens when you get a suicide?? And I don’t thing it will be long before that happens! Im my case if I died in my room the 1st you would hear about it would be on my day 10 test! There is something very seriously wrong with the running of this hotel
I heard from a fellow guest today that he has tried to contact your company on several occasions via social media and not received a response and as such I am not holding out much hope for you to respond!
Just be very aware that there is a very large audience out there keen to understand hotel options available to them and user experience also please try to remember I am paying for your service! This is not free and the HK Govt has entrusted you to provide a service beyond the policing of a prison cell in HK less