SINGAPORE: A woman from Hong Kong who once considered moving to Singapore now claims she doesn’t even want to visit the Little Red Dot after a recent bad experience at a hotel at Pasir Ris Park when there was neither power nor water on a very warm night.
The hotel, D’Resort @ Downtown East, however, has been quoted by Stomp as saying that the woman has been apologised to both in person and via email and explained that the power and water outage did not last very long.
It also offered the guest, who wished to be known only as “Jojo,” a 50 per cent discount on her next stay, valid for one year. Ms Jojo, however, was quite adamant about her disappointment with the accommodation, telling Stomp, “I won’t go to Singapore anymore!”
The guest’s story
The guest stayed at the hotel on 1 Apr, which happened to be when D’Resort @ Downtown East was holding its annual maintenance check for its power supply as part of regulatory requirements.
She was informed by the staff when she checked in on the evening of 1 Apr that there would be no electricity from 2 to 5 am. Ms Jojo says she was reassured that the outage would not last the entire time, but would be “Maybe around 15 to 20 minutes.”
“No worries. l thought a few minutes was acceptable. It was too late and expensive to change hotel,” Stomp quotes her as saying.
However, she claimed that there was no “water from around midnight, then no power until next morning.”
Moreover, she could not sleep that night as she was sweaty. And because there was no air-conditioning and the windows could not be opened, she added that she could not breathe. Opening the door was no help because the corridor was very hot as well.
“I almost fainted in that terrible dark, hot room,” she added.
As bad as that was, the water situation was worse, as she could not wash off the shampoo in her hair and the shower gel on her body, causing her to feel sick and have allergies.
What D’Resort @ Downtown East says
The hotel told Stomp that the guests were informed of the power interruptions and that they could choose not to check in and would be refunded fully.
Ms Jojo, however, denied having been told this and added that she could have been informed of the scheduled check when she made her booking. She added that the hotel could have also chosen not to take bookings on that day “since they can’t provide any service.”
The hotel explained that this was not so, as interruption was minimal. Furthermore, in the area where Ms Jojo stayed, power was cut at 3.29 am and was restored by 4:12 am.
Also, after the woman informed the hotel that she had no water, it sent a technician to address the issue, and the water supply “was restored to normal shortly after.”
D’Resort @ Downtown East is generally well-reviewed online, receiving on average more than four over five stars on Google, Trip.com, Booking.com, and Trip Advisor. /TISG