Room disservice

2008-12-15 12:35

Chris Moerdyk

While all the advertising keeps telling me that travel is a lot simpler these days, my experience is that it has become boring, frustrating and tedious.

I have to fly between Johannesburg and Cape Town a couple of times a month and every now and then a longer regional flight and an overseas trip. I support only one airline and generally speaking, as a frequent flier, I can check in and book my seat online, get my boarding pass from my computer printer or a little machine at the airport, drop my bag off and head for the departure lounge.

Everything usually works quite well.

But, I can't say the same for car hire companies and hotels. I always use the same hotel and car hire company and I am a member of their loyalty programmes. They have on record my name, address, driver's licence, phone and fax numbers.

I book online and always request the same room and the same car just so that I don't spend the first half hour in the car trying to work out how the radio and aircon works and turning the wipers on every time I want to go round a corner.

And when I get up in the middle of the night in my hotel room, I can find the bathroom and don't end up peeing in the cupboard.

All the same

In spite of booking a car online well in advance, in spite of indicating, just as they asked me, what sort of car I wanted - I still end up standing in queue and having to give my telephone number and all sorts of details all over again and nine times out of ten they always say, "We don't have a VW Polo available, we are giving you a Toyota Yaris."

When my wife is with me this means that instead of being able to drive around all day with our suitcases locked in the boot of a Polo, we have to go to the hotel and ask them to store our luggage until the room is ready because the dam suitcases don't fit in the tiny Yaris boot. And in Joburg you simply do not leave suitcases on the back seat of a car when you go to meetings.

Hotels are the same, they have all my details but I often have to fill them in all over again. And then, in spite of them knowing I am coming, when I am arriving and with my record showing that twice a month for the past thousand years I have never not shown up - they still wait till I arrive to allocate me a room. Then they ask if I want smoking or non-smoking - the answer of which they have on their files in really big writing.

So, if I arrive late in the evening I get a crappy room in spite of being on their list as a VIP frequent guest.

There are all sorts of unnecessary hassles.

When something doesn't work in your hotel room, do you know how long it takes for someone to sort it out? I am convinced that the housekeeping and maintenance departments of all Johannesburg hotels are situated in Witbank and Nelspruit.

And my worst about hotels is when you order room service and they ask you to leave the tray and dirty plates outside the door of your room. Then, when you get up early in the morning you have to walk past trays of congealed food and empty beer cans and wine bottles as you try to get to breakfast without throwing up. Why do they do that? Why can't we just hide the damn trays in our rooms somewhere?

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