111. Checking Out: A Totally Ignored Request

On their last evening at the Thai resort, the couple guest asked the Guest Service employee, who was driving them on the buggy back to their room, to send their latest bill that very night.  The guests wanted to have the time to go through it without rushing through during the morning check-out.

 “If you or your colleague need more time to prepare the bill, you can slide it under our room door if it is late, say after 10pm.” the female guest said.

“Certainly,” the employee assured.

That evening, the guests did not receive the requested document before they went to bed but thought they would find the envelope under her door the next morning. At 6.30am soon after waking up, the guest went straight to the door and even opened it to look outside. However, the promised envelope was not there.

After breakfast, the guests went to the reception to settle the check-out and remarked that the invoice was not sent to their room as requested the previous evening. The receptionist apologised for it but did not seem aware of the situation.

 Perhaps the person who was meant to prepare the bill was not able to complete the task and had to wait till the morning to cross-check with other colleagues/departments. Or maybe the bill was ready but no one followed-up to send it to the room. It could even have been that the first employee did not understand the request (unlikely) or did not even pass on the message as an oversight.

Regardless, the guests’ specific request was completely ignored and they could not help but walk away with the impression of a lack of seamless communication internally.

Service Bank: Minus 5

 

Reflective thoughts: How would you feel if you were the guests? Think through their emotions from the evening to the next morning, and imagine what else might be affected.

Given the above possible reasons as to why the bill was not sent to the room, discuss – for each scenario – how it could have been better handled or be avoided in future.