When we’re staying at a hotel, I’m not looking for personalized service. I like for the hotel staff to be pleasant and it’s a nice touch if they remember a small detail from a prior interaction. The category of a hotel doesn’t matter either. The concierge at the Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg, Austria walked Sharon down the street to the store that sold a Christmas Ornament she liked. We’ve also been treated like best friends by a front desk agent at Candlewood Suites.
But until a recent stay, I’d never received such a polite note from a hotel employee.
Our stay at the Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra Golf & Spa Resort was the last stop on our tour of Southeast Asia. We needed to have a few pieces of laundry cleaned before heading home. While we could have paid per item, the hotel offered a bulk price of $45 for a laundry bag full of clothes. Never one to pass up a bargain, I threw as many items as I could into the bag.
We received the items back later that day, delivered in a box left on our bed. Every item was folded and neatly presented, even the T-shirts I bring to wear around the room.
There was a note left on the top of the box.
I didn’t know that any of my items had a stain on them before sending them to be washed. In addition, when I looked at the itemized list of items, I saw a handwritten note saying my white T-shirt was torn before washing.
I don’t know the typical guest they’re accustomed to dealing with, but I’m not about to cause a scene because my T-shirt has a tear or there’s a small stain they couldn’t remove. Part of me thought it was such a nice gesture that the laundry manager was apologizing they couldn’t remove a stain, but another part felt sad that people can be so mean that they felt it necessary to leave a note like that.
This reminded me about my three things to do so that I’m a better customer when we travel. To the person who’s upset about a stain on their clothes, remember rule #1. “When you have a problem, don’t become the problem.”
On another note, if you’re traveling in Southeast Asia, most hotels offer reasonably priced laundry services so there’s no need to wash your clothes in the sink.
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