CaLDRON February 2014 - Valentine's Day Special | Page 27

ROAMING ROVER Scenario Four: At the largely vegetarian buffet breakfast, a guest asked for any Jain dish, but is brusquely told that none is available. That a Jain dish wasn't on the menu is acceptable. But any manager at a service-oriented restaurant would have politely inform the guest that Below Average Service they'd try to whip something up, Finally, as promised, our experience rather than literally telling the guest of the service at this property. off rudely. tiny rooftop lounge, while cooing pigeons roosting within the stained glass lanterns gaze at you languidly as you sip your drink. Well, they do make pleasurable drinking companions, if silence is what you crave! Scenario One: A group of 29 people enters the well-appointed lobby of Clarks Amer after a long journey and has to wait for 25 minutes to check in; despite being the only guests checking in at the time and despite making advance reservations. This delay was possibly because of the three people manning the front desk, only one was checking the guests in, while the others hung around waiting to be ordered about. Scenario Two: A family with two kids and an infant request an extra bed in the morning and then step out for sightseeing. When they return late into the night, a collapsible mattress is left outside their room, instead of being placed within. After frantically calling the front desk for 20 minutes, and getting no response, the hotel finally sends a housekeeping staff member to arrange the bed – by which times the three cranky kids had managed to raise quite a ruckus. The property sports quaintly decorated seating areas. CaLDRON February 2014 Scenario Five: At the same breakfast, we ask the person making eggsto-order whether he would please send our omelet to our table. His not-very-polite and sulky reply was, "If I find someone, I'll see." We were stumped by his blunt and callous tone. Suffice it to say, we skipped our eggs that morning. These scenarios would not be acceptable in a 3-star hotel or any hospitality establishment. But encountering it in a 5-star property takes one’s frustration to an entirely different level. Strangely, though, we saw non-Indian guests receiving better treatment. Does this mean that the smiles of Clarks Amer’s staff are reserved exclusively for guests from Europe, Iran, China and Japan who come in large groups and are housed in Clarks Amer as part of their India travel package? Could it be that the personnel at Clarks Amer feel that these guests would be more liberal in their tips and therefore prefer to Scenario Three: We call room ser- focus their energies only on them? vice and ask for two bottles of water. We hope not, and would rather The person who knocks on our door blame the lassitude in Clark Amer’s brings only one. When we tell him staff on the December cold. Let’s we would need one more, he comtrust that with the winter chill wearplains grumpily why we hadn’t asked ing off, the workforce at the hotel for two the onset and that he’d have will thaw off their stupor as well. ■ to go down to get us another bottle! Vinita Bhatia 27