Radisson PE left me feeling blue

I checked into the Radisson Blu hotel in PE on Sunday, 11 November 2018, and checked out on Thursday, 15 November 2018. I was there for business.

Although I do a lot of traveling, it was my first day at the Radisson, and I had high expectations.

I was very disappointed at how things unfolded though, because right from day one, after checking in, I experienced problems: 1. the passage on the 7th floor looked like it had just survived flooding, with ugly water marks all over it 2. my room had no drinking water 3. there was no facecloth in the bathroom 4. the glass doors in the bathroom were literally dirty 5. there was old food in the fridge 6. While I was ironing the iron just went dead.

I called housekeeping and they brought water and facecloths, removed the old food, and sent someone bring a replacement iron. She figured it was the plugs, not the iron, and promised to send someone to fix the plugs.

Two hours later, I couldn't finish my ironing because the plugs were not yet sorted. I had to make a second call. By then I was seriously disappointed. Moreover, the housekeeping line rang for much longer this time because they knew who it was. Finally after the second call someone came to confirm that the plugs were now working.

The plugs went dead again on Wednesday afternoon. ..

On day 2 my water was not replenished. By this time I'd concluded that the standard at this hotel just sucks. So I didn't complain.

On Monday night I went to the restaurant and was astonished to find waiters who did not know the answer to the simple question, "how do I order from a la carte?" She asked two more people, with the third one saying "give her a menu". Really?

I was at the Radisson to facilitating a workshop, and our numbers were changing from day to day, which I acknowledge must have been an inconvenience to their planning. I explained the situation to one of the conferencing supervisors/managers, apologising for the inconvenience. He graciously acknowledged, and did NOTHING to adapt the master plan or whatever it is they work from (if there is indeed such a thing). As a result, we'd get random hotel staff members asking us about numbers , etc.

Our teas and lunches were mostly late, and every time we'd be given excuses and no accountability taken. Every single day we had to ask for the aircon to be switched off, on some days we had to ask 3 time. True story!

On Wednesday we had to wait 20 minutes for lunch to be served, despite the fact that I personally went to the restaurant to check if lunch would be ready at 12. I was told yes. But sowaar... 20 minutes late!

A few minutes later, on the same day, the chef and coordinator come to the training room to complain about the delegates ordering everything instead of ticking just one item, some people changing plates and taking someone else's order, as well as the numbers that keep changing. The audacity! I as a customer should be the one complaining, not the other way round!

I felt so disrespected, and also felt that our business was not valued. I had communicated and apologised for the changes to about 3 different people who were assisting us with conferencing. It should not be my problem that their internal communication and business process is chaotic and inefficient. Like I say, I travel quite a bit for work, and have facilitated a few workshops in many different hotels. I've had better stays and better conferencing experiences at non-graded venues.

I wrote to the hotel manager, and received an error message that there's some kind of problem with the email address. It did not surprise me.