ilikegoats
Couples · October 20256/10
After traveling over 20 hours from Buenos Aires, we arrived at the hotel at 1:15 p.m.—exhausted, hopeful, and ready for even a small dose of wonderfully bohemian hospitality. It was not our first stay...After traveling over 20 hours from Buenos Aires, we arrived at the hotel at 1:15 p.m.—exhausted, hopeful, and ready for even a small dose of wonderfully bohemian hospitality. It was not our first stay, and our previous experience had been very pleasant. Unfortunately, what we received from the front desk was more performance art in indifference than any semblance of service, let alone going above and beyond.
At the front desk, Gabriella informed us our room wasn’t ready. Fair enough. I politely asked if we could be accommodated as soon as one became available. Her unconvincing reply: “I will see what we can do, but Check-in is at 4 p.m.” I assured her I knew the policy but was asking, as most hotels would understand, for a bit of compassion and initiative. I thought that in an hour or so a room would almost certainly be available, and she said she’d text us as soon as room was ready. She didn’t.
We went to the pool, had lunch, and by 3:00 p.m., still nothing. I went back down to check—only to be met with the same rebuff, delivered with the same deadpan precision: “I am sorry, nothing is available yet. Check-in is at 4 p.m.” She had a thing about 4pm.
Given that check-out is at 11 a.m., and the hotel charges a dollar a minute if you are late, the notion that no room was ready four hours later strains credulity. I explained again we’d been traveling for 24 hours and would really appreciate a shower and a change of clothes. No dice. It suddenly dawned on me that Gabriella had for some reason decided that, come hell or high water, she was not going to let us check in until 4:00 PM. This was a hill she was prepared to die on. Then came the pièce de résistance: 4:00 p.m. came and went—no text, no call. And when I went back down at 4:05, no Gabriella! I discovered she’d actually left at 3:30; apparently her shift expired at about the same time as my patience - so she knew full well she would not even have to face my full dissatisfaction. She literally didn’t give a damn.
A charming gentleman at the desk got us checked in immediately and noted that Gabriella was supposed to have called us. The contrast could not have been starker. In that moment, Petit Ermitage lived up to its online reputation: most of the staff are five kinds of fabulous, others seem to be conducting a psychological experiment on how far guests can be pushed before they snap. Incidentally, I was with one of the housekeeping staff in the elevator - she was the sweetest lady. If Gabriella had called her and said “how fast can you get a room ready for a guest who has been traveling for 24 hours?” I absolutely know she would have bent over backwards to get me into a room in well under an hour. Gabriella had turned what could have been an easy win for her and the hotel, into a guest who will never return.
To add to the absurdity, I was told there was no manager on duty, and no general manager at any time - only a reservations manager. That might explain why there’s no adult supervision. If there is a hotel policy that says no guest may be checked in until 4pm, it is an utterly misguided one. I noticed that at that time, several guests who had also been waiting by the pool to check in all descended on reception simultaneously, and the nice man quickly became overloaded, as was the porter, and the phone was ringing off the hook unanswered, and people were waiting, and it took a further 40 minutes to get my luggage delivered to the room (eventually done not by the porter, but by the nice man on the front desk!!). All of this overloaded chaos was entirely avoidable. If guests were checked in as rooms became available, the guests would be happy, the staff would not be stressed, and the hotel’s reputation would be intact. A much better system for all concerned.
A hotel that trades on “bohemian charm” might want to take a look at replacing staff who consider passive aggression and inflexibility a commendable skillset.Show More
