Saturday, June 16, 2007

5-star Downgrades To No-star!

I stayed over the weekend for a wedding function in one of the supposedly 5-star hotels in the capital.

What initially thought to be a pleasant stay soon turned out to be a mess. Firstly, upon checking in, I found that there's no towel provided in the room. I called for an urgent supply. That's not the 'best' part, I later came to know that my 'debris' could not be flushed away in the toilet. I flushed repeatedly but it seemed that the pipe system had been engaging a bit of strike against the hotel. I called again for a fix, also reminding them about my towels.

I waited for an hour. I finally decided to go out to get things done by myself. I met with one of the service boys in the elevator and managed to get a towel. Lucky me.

I called for the third time regarding my complaints, stressing on the 'floating' debris that was more distressing than any other things. They didn't come, not until the late midnight. They apologised, saying that the whole hotel was fully housed with guests and they just couldn't cope with the demands. I said I understand.

A 5-star hotel gets downgraded (at least, in terms of rapidity of service) to a lesser grade.

Not that the hotel management did it on purpose.

Nor did the guests actually purposely overloaded them with demands.

It's just the way of the service industry works.

As the number of guests/ customers increases, the ability of the system to cope with the demands would largely depend on its available resources.

The same principle applies for medical health service as well.

It's even more staggering true in the context of public health service in this country.

Near-zero charges and an ever mounting number of patients.

The public needs to learn the necessity and the art of 'waiting', for a free service, run by just a handful of sorely underpaid staffs, under a system which is imperfect in many ways.