Hotels are expected to make their guests feel at ease and comfortable. Customers are supposed to feel that they are getting their money's worth.
Hotel Jaipur Palace's tagline ironically states: "Place for Royal Hospitality". Unfortunately this statement only remains as a tagline/ copy.
My room mate and I witnessed how much their reception staff was poorly trained with regard to simple customer-relations protocol.
What happened?
Our bath tub couldn't drain the water. Yes, the water couldn't go down due to some blockage. To be fair, when I reported it to Housekeeping, a decent and kind bellboy tried to fix it at once. But after sometime, he still couldn't fix it and what's worse is that I saw a lot of black and brown dirt/ residue (from his pumping). This was the time that I went down to the lobby and requested if we could just move to another room, seeing that our tub needs to be really cleaned and disinfected. After all, the tub was almost entirely filled with black and brown dirt - thick disgusting lumps of dirt with murky water.
And so I shared what happened to the receptionist and finally, I asked him very nicely if we could just switch rooms. He instantly shook his head slowly and gave me a small smile with a look as if saying - "sorry but thats life and this is hotel policy". He automatically said no.
Still, I told him patiently that we paid good money. I think that a clean and working tub is part of what we've already paid in full for three days. I was hoping that his answer or at the very least the expression on his face would change - but no. He didn't apologize. He didn't even bother to ask how bad the tub problem was. All he said was that some guy is already taking care of it. I asked him why we can't just move or upgrade our room (which we were willing to pay for even). He said that all rooms are booked. I double checked it with him and asked if he was sure. He nodded. So feeling left without a choice, i went up to the room. My room mate and I were considering moving to another hotel. While we were contemplating about it for almost 30 mins - I checked the bathroom again (with the housekeeping guy still trying to fix it and this time with a plumber) and I saw that it was even dirtier and filthier this time around (very disgusting really). After sometime, one bellboy came up and instantly gave us a key to a nearby room. Lo and behold, not all rooms were occupied just like what the receptionist said. And this time I asked the plumber and other staff in our bathroom if they could fix our tub- they said that it can't be fixed. And so this was the final factor for them to allow us to move to another room.
So it turns out that:
1. Not all rooms were occupied after all - like what the receptionist told us.
Okay fine, let's say that all rooms were really booked - couldn't have the manager at least apologized for the inconvenience and at least assured us that they will disinfect the bathroom floors and tub very well for our comfort?
2. They will only give us a new room just because they couldn't fix our tub completely.
Okay fine, perhaps they were trying to "save" up on any hassle maybe for them (moving us from our room to another) but come on, we wasted time because we couldn't shower on our bathroom that afternoon... and to actually see how dirty the floor was- that's a different thing already.
3. The reception staff was very rude, unconcerned, and unapologetic. They came off as too defensive. It's like they were saying that we should just live by their rules even if we're already hassled. But then again, if that's the case, it just shows that this hotel isn't at all ready to adjust to the concerns and needs of their clients.
If I appreciated anything from this hotel that would be their housekeeping staff who tried to take care of the problem at once, not like the hotel managers.
We at least paid for a functioning and clean room. These are basics. We don't mind if the room interiors and the sheets looked old - but cleanliness and unbroken tubs should be givens.
In summary, I do not recommend Hotel Jaipur Palace because they do not know much about customer service and basic protocol. "Place for Royal Hospitality"? Sorry but I don't think so. NOT EVEN CLOSE.
