What was supposed to be a relaxing getaway turned out to be a half and half. For most part of it, the rides, the sights, the sand & sea were great, but the service.. now that I have to talk about...
See, the people I'm working with now.. (I say that only coz they were friends first before employers) decided to take a trip during the CNY break that they closed their boutique... however, coz Ms Smarty Pants here hadn't renewed her passport, we were limited to the following places - Pulau Ubin & Sentosa. Sentosa being the more popular choice ended up to be our destination :)
So we surfed the net and found a new resort - Siloso Beach Resort, and from their website it truly looked like a natural, back to the jungle getaway with fringe benefits . We were told to check in at 3pm... and if we wanted to check in any earlier, it'd be $80 more... so we decided to come around 2plus and check in.
Check in date Tuesday at 2.30pm... after spending 2hrs at Vivo to kill time..we arrived eager to check in and get started on our 'getaway'. Set amidst the jungles, you can see the trees going thru the building. Basically they left most part of the forage around us and built the resort around it. We were told 'Sorry rooms are not ready.' ???? It was almost 3pm.... our 3 rooms not ready???? Then they said, we can put you in 1 room first and we'll get housekeeping to get ready the other 2. We just stared at them in utter disbelief?!?!?! But coz we had a 2yr old with us, we decided to just take what they could give first. We finally got the other 2 rooms at almost 4pm after about 5 calls to reception who kept giving us the round about!!! All this for S$260 per night??? Unreasonable.
We decided also to cancel our 2nd day and ask for a late check out due to the inconvenience of waiting. Again we were given a roundabout and the staff on the other end of the phone kept cutting us off which was very rude. Finally, we spoke with somebody who promised us that 2 of the rooms would be able to check out at 3pm while the 3rd would be at 6pm due to the inconvenience. However, he didn't confirm this with us later in the night or early in the morning.
So we all enjoyed the evening and woke up late to go out and see the sights, only to find out that only 1 room could check out at 3pm and the other 2 had to check out earlier... at 2.30pm when I called the reception!!!! My friend was so enraged with the bad service she marched straight to reception and demanded for the duty manager, and vented her frustrations. Thankfully, he listened, and saw to it that whatever the reception had promised us would be seen to although the fact that he promised a room till 6pm FOC would be looked into and at the most, it would be docked from his pay.... Their excuse throughout this whole ordeal - We are at full capacity and have a shortage of housekeeping.
Now... honestly.. is that MY PROBLEM?!?! This is a new resort, only opened since Nov 2006. I understand that most SOPs are not in place, and there will be teething problems but anticipate that it is a long holiday weekend and over hire on the staff? And preferably staff with a little bit of experience or some training. If Singapore wants to pride itself on Star Service, then this is a place to start. Or is my S$260 a night a paltry sum that doesn't deserve good service? I'm giving my honest opinions which are facts.
Apart from the service, everything else was good. I had a great room on the 3rd floor which faced the beach and with the bay window, I was able to sit and admire the beach and Cafe Del Mar which was right opposite my room window. At the same time, I managed to soak in the beautiful pool which had a fountain & slides although with the nature all around me.. i did get a couple of bites but hey, it's the ambience right? Felt like I was in a pool in the midst of the jungle, nice.
I just hope that if I do make a trip back for a weekend at the Silos Beach Resort in 6mths time, the teething problems would be settled and improved.
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