We had an extremely upsetting and humiliating experience during our recent stay. After arriving and seeing a dessert cart unattended in the hallway (with other guests were enjoying the desserts) our children took a few cakes, thinking it was self-service. Suddenly, a man—later identified as the bar manager—rushed over, aggressively took the cakes from us, and threw them in the trash. He spoke rudely and ignored my husband’s question about how we could pay. He just gave us a harsh warning this was not self service.There was no signage on the cart, and we had no way to know the setup wasn’t self-service.
While this individual later came to apologize, his tone was condescending and dismissive after we reported it to front desk. He insisted that we broke the rules by pointing to signage at the hotel entrance. The sign through our translation app only says generic welcome message. When i asked for his manager, he said he is the manager and no one else above him we could talk to. He also said he only talked to my husband not me which directly put me into panic attack.
Two other managers later came to our room to offer complimentary drinks and dinner, which we appreciated—but unfortunately it didn’t undo the damage. Later on in the evening i felt heart pain.
To make matters worse, we believe our treatment may have been racially biased. As an Asian family, we felt singled out and humiliated in a way that seemed rooted in more than just a misunderstanding.