6 posts tagged “hotel”

How odd, the compose screen comes up twice over a short period, despite being out of action for two solid days. Even before those two days, it was only working intermittently (but I could deal with clicking refresh for a few hours—a few days gets boring).
   Before the service goes away again, here are some shots I wanted to share with you of Christchurch from my last visit. These were shot from my suite at the Hotel Grand Chancellor.

Christchurch at night

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Holiday Inn Christchurch 1

   No idea why this linespace appeared (I never clicked ‘Enter’), so let’s put that down to Vox, too, shall we? (Vox won’t let me type after the below photographs, anyway, so I may as well end the post here. Don’t hold your breath for the next one.)

At one point, it seemed Keeley Hawes was getting cast in receptionist roles. There was The Avengers movie with Ralph Fiennes and Sean Connery; and this pre-Tipping the Velvet Channel Five comedy, Hotel!, which had nothing to do with Arthur Hailey. Watch out instead for the stunning Lysette Anthony (who would be in her mid-30s at this point, but wow), Pakistani actor Athar Malik, better known as Art Malik, playing a terrorist again (he was a Mujahadin warrior in The Living Daylights and the villain in True Lies), and Lee Majors as the President (who probably doesn’t need much of an introduction). Some good sight gags, much in the vein of the Zucker movies.

I was meeting friends at room 604 of the Bolton Hotel yesterday. And as I do with computers, I followed the instructions.
   You would think that since computer instructions are never correct, I should know better. Because whomever did the signage to the floor—which I, incidentally, followed, since it was directly across from the doors of the elevator—is an imbecile.

Bolton Hotel signage fail

Wow.
   That’s all I can say after the Crowne Plaza’s contact with me yesterday.
   As some of you know, I wasn’t that complimentary about the Crowne Plaza Today Gurgaon hotel during my time in India. The service was a trifle slow for such a top-rated establishment, and I blogged about it, almost in a throwaway fashion.
   Yesterday, two of the staff—Monica, as well as Nitin Sharma, the assistant director of the food and beverage department—called me to apologize. And this morning, I awoke to find a written apology from Mr Sharma, which I have gratefully accepted.
   His words: ‘I would like to extend my sincere apologies for the delay in service at the bar.
   ‘I hope you will accept my apology and give us another opportunity to showcase our hospitality. Once again I am truly sorry for the inconvenience caused.
   ‘I would request to give us another chance of proving the real hospitality of Crowne Plaza.’
   If I wasn’t already enamoured with the high quality of Indian hospitality, I am now.
   Of course I will be delighted to return to Gurgaon and check out the Crowne Plaza Today once more.
   I’ve also offered to write about this in the online edition of Lucire, because the positive side of this deserves a wider airing. Who knew that the Crowne Plaza would make a customer feel this good after a negative experience?
   This is real customer service in the 21st century. It shows (a) consumer power; (b) the fact that brands are now being steered by audiences and that the legal trade mark owner tends to be a steward steering perceptions; (c) that the Crowne Plaza is willing to engage its customers, safeguard its brand, and help steer those perceptions positively.

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Allan Parker, husband of Miss Universe New Zealand organizer Val Lott, took this great photograph not long after Laural Barrett, Miss New Zealand 2007, handed her crown to her successor, Samantha Powell. Sam is holding back a few tears here as she took the prize on Sunday night at the Novotel in Ellerslie.
   We’ve had a lot more press interest this year compared to 2007, so it does appear that beauty pageants are coming back into favour in New Zealand.

In New Zealand, why is wireless internet in hotels cheaper than wireless internet on the streets, but phone calls are so expensive?