[1200hrs] I packed up my gear and headed to reception to check out. Would have been nice to get into the pool during the warm heat of the day but ah well.
My stay at the Siloso Beach Hotel was utterly disappointing. Here's the feedback email I sent to the hotel when I got home to Perth:
To whom this may concern,
I am a frequent traveller and visit Singapore often during my travels. I always make time to try out different hotels and upon a few recommendations, I made reservations to stay at the Siloso Beach Resort (Sentosa Island) on Friday 26th December through to Tuesday 30th December, 2008. I made the reservation online and made an inquiry about the room rates because I had a copy of the American Express brochure which I obtained at Changi airport on my arrival. In the brochure, it clearly states that in December 2008, I should be charged SD$260++ per night for Friday and Saturday, and SD$210++ per night for Sunday and Monday of my stay. Anyone with a basic understanding of English could summise this from the conditions that are clearly listed in the back of the brochure. It's not that I can't afford the regular room rate, it is the principle that the hotel should honour their quoted prices especially when they are in print. I was informed by the staff member over the phone that due to December being a holiday period, this special room rate was not available, despite the conditions in the brochure clearly having been outlined in order to take into consideration the holiday/peak period of December. I told her I would bring a copy of the brochure in to show them when I arrived for check-in.
I arrived at the hotel at 1700hrs for check-in. I was immediately unimpressed with the lack of greeting or acknowledgement at the front reception. I have never experienced such a poor (or should I say lack of) greeting when arriving at a hotel before. It made me question the hotel's four star rating. There were two staff members on duty at the time. One was dealing with another unsatisfied guest. He had been waiting since check-in time at 1500hrs for a room and when they finally assigned him a room, there was already someone else in it. I was tempted to take my luggage and leave at this point because the other staff member appeared to be oblivious to me standing at the counter waiting for someone to notice me. I actually had to ask if anyone was going to help me before someone asked for my reservation confirmation, without so much as a 'hello, how are you today' or even a smile or eye contact.
Being in Singapore on holidays, I did not have access to a printer so of course could not print out a copy of my cofirmation email. I thought it was ridiculous that the staff member asked me to go to one of the computers in the corner to access the confirmation email. Shouldn't my reservation have been in the hotel's computer system? I also brought along two copies of the American Express brochure to show that according to that, I should only be charged SD210++ for my stay on Sunday and Monday night. The staff member had to confer with her colleagues and finally came to tell me that the sales manager would be coming shortly to speak to me. I had had enough and told her to not bother and that I would cut my stay in half and only stay the Friday and Saturday night. I was extremely displeased at this point, as you can imagine.
I found my room, and the porter brought my suitcase to me promptly, which was a huge surprise considering the service so far. I did not have bathrobes in my room though, so I asked if he could have someone bring me some. He said he would. I waited about half an hour and no one came, so I went out for dinner and thought they would have ample time to bring some to my room while I was out. I arrived back to my room at 2000hrs and no bathrobes. I rang housekeeping to ask for some and waited 45 minutes before getting fed up. I rang housekeeping at 2200hrs to again ask if I could have bathrobes and the staff member said she would check for me. She phoned a few minutes later to inform me that due to the "high usage", there were none left. To me, this was ridiculous. I'm in a four star hotel that has run out of bathrobes.
I also got the sense my room was made up in a hurry before I checked in. I did not have a guide describing the hotel's facilities. All I had was a room service menu. One of the water glasses in the bathroom was filthy. It had some sort of white residue all over it.
My second night there, I ordered room service. It was about 0500hrs and I asked for the soup of the day. The staff member brought it to me - WITHOUT A TRAY. He just thrust it into my hand and the bowl was extremely hot, I burnt my fingers. I had ordered the soup my first night and it had arrived on a tray, served with a layer of pastry baked over the bowl. This second night it was just a bowl of soup that obviously had just been reheated in the microwave.
I have to say, I was extremely dissatisfied with my stay at your hotel. Fortunately, I had the foresight to only stay the two nights instead of the four. I departed feeling stressed and irritated. I do not feel that I received the service that befits a four star hotel and I hope that you take action to work to improve your service.
Sincerely yours,
Sarena Foo - Australian resident.
[1300hrs] I arrived back at Aunty's house. I didn't have plans for the afternoon so I decided to join Mum and Aunty as they were going to Bugis to catch up with another Aunty and my cousins.
[1600hrs] Yes, it took three hours to get to Bugis by MRT and finally meet the relatives after there was a miscommunication about where to meet. We also met up with David to have a (really really) late lunch. Mum and Aunty were both complaining of not feeling well and wanted noodles so we ditched David's lunch plans and went to a restaurant on the basement level of Bugis Village.
We each ordered a bowl of noodles and David also asked for some other dishes to share - way too much food!
All I've eaten today is an apple. A single apple. And I'm meeting Ramona and her sisters for a buffet dinner tonight. I think I managed about four mouthfuls of noodles before I felt like I'd eaten a whole leg of lamb.
dumplings with chicken & mushroom
char siew bao
xiao long bao
[1800hrs] David drove us to Selegie Road where we went to get beancurd.
They make the food they sell on site here. I was ecstatic that they let me take photos of the food being prepared!
[1830hrs] I caught a taxi to the Pan Pacific Hotel to meet Ramona and her sisters for dinner. We had reservations at a hotel nearby.
This is a really really classy looking hotel! Ramona and I were rather excited when we caught a glimpse of the buffet as we were being shown to our table. Ramona's sisters, Melody and Meneka (hopefully I've spelt them correctly!!) joined us shortly after and we all headed eagerly to the food.
I actually was feeling rather run down because I'd only had about two hours sleep last night. Our waiter brought this soup for our table. It had chicken, shallots, enoki mushrooms and button mushrooms. I don't remember what else was in there - I was saving what little appetite I had for the seafood!
After my second plate of seafood, I was ready to lay my head down on the table and have a nap. I happened to say out loud that I felt so bad that I'd lost my appetite and didn't know how I was going to eat SD$138++ worth of food. Ramona, Melody and Meneka almost spat out whatever they were chewing on - I must have read the email in such a rush because I'd looked at the wrong price. Our buffet dinner was actually only SD$58++ - HA HA!
With the pressure off, I decided I'd better have a coffee. I'm glad I did, because it did me a world of good. I set out to have more seafood, but I spied all the desserts and strangely had a huge sweet tooth tonight.
We asked to see the wine menu - our waiter brought us this encyclopaedia. I call it the wine book.
Here's the link for the buffet menu we had tonight. Be warned - you may need to catch that drool.
[2300hrs] Ramona and Meneka headed back to their hotel room for an early night, while Melody and I stayed to have a cup of tea before deciding to have a nightcap back at the Pan Pacific.
We went to the bar downstairs in the spacious lobby.
myself - lychee martini
SD$22.00 each
This is our silly moment - the lounge singer and pianist retired for the night, so I asked if we could take photos up on the stage. One of the bar waitresses saw no problem with that - she even helped take the photos for us![0030hrs] It was finally time to call it a night. I couldn't help but feel disappointed with myself. Tonight is the first time I have ever not eaten like a horse at a buffet. *lowers her head in shame* What will people now think of me!? ha ha
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