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