Stay Report: Hong Kong Skycity Marriott Executive Suite + Being Insulted By Housekeeping
- Albert K. Field
- May 25, 2018
- 8 min read
The mid-aged housekeeping lady asked her colleague: " He's so avaricious(贪心 in Chinese), I've gave him one already, should I give it to him?" All of their conversation was done under the impression that I've locked the door.
Skycity Marriott has to be one of the best airport hotels near Hong Kong International Airport, although Starwood(Marriott) will soon have a Sheraton and a Four Points by Sheraton open; for now, Hong Kong Skycity is still the only Marriott property near the airport. The property is not young but is in excellent shape due to the great maintenance they've kept.
This property generally treat their elite guests with generous suite upgrades, so with a simple request through Marriott app's chat feature, I was able to see the upgrade to executive suite one day prior to arrival. Bear in mind, I am currently only holding a gold level elite status with Marriott, so they are exceptionally generous here.
Here's some practical info regarding my stay:
Length: One night stay before early flight
Booked Room Category: King Guest Room
Upgraded Room Category: Executive One Bedroom Suite
Booking Made: Marriott App
Marriott Rewards Tier: Gold Elite
I consider this Marriott property one of those I would keeping coming back as I could see myself travelling to or through Hong Kong airport many times in the future, thus I've been proactively trying to keep a pleasant relationship with this property and the most of the wonderful staff working there. What I meant here is that I would try to be more understandable when a situation in service inconsistency occurs.
Check In:
After arriving at the MTR station at the airport, I went down to the bus bay area under terminal 2 and took the shuttle bus to the hotel, the bus is scheduled every twenty minutes, also you would be able to request for a private nanny van to pick you up(yes, that's what we call it in Hong Kong), although the criteria for getting that service is at the hotel's discretion. All you got to do is just try to ask nicely, normally as a elite member, if no shuttle bus is available right away, they will send one for you.
The lobby staff is very helpful and are very willing to reach out a helping hand and show you the way to the front desk. At the front desk, the check-in process was also done with excellent profession. She even came out her way out of the desk counter and personally shook my hand and walked me to the elevator.
The Room:
Hotel room size in Hong Kong is generally very small, however this is not the case with this airport property. The building was built specifically for a hotel to meet passengers' need around the airport. The hotel have a 24 hour gym and a pool in the basement, the lower floor level rooms are all reserved for airline crews, and the crew even get their own lounge.
I was quiet surprised to get the suite upgrade this easily, but still I am very grateful for this gesture.
Entrance view to the suite, it looks like they've utilised every inch of the space to feature everything possible that would improve the amenity standard. On the right side, there's a decent sized guest bathroom.
The Living Room:
The desk is right next to the TV stand. You can feel that there isn't much depth in width of the shape of the living room.
Living room space with the welcome fruits on the coffee table. There are also magazines provided by the tourism board in Hong Kong.
The Bedroom:
The bedroom is almost in identical size to the living room with an armchair beside the bed.
The bed is big and comfortable, the bedsheet was clean and smelled great.
Night stand amenities with an alarm clock set which I did not try out but it can be useful to old people.
The luggage stand next to the TV stand in the bedroom is ginormous. I mean you can put huge luggage on it, or two medium ones side by side, very thoughtful actually.
Since they put metal bars to add friction on it, I suppose it's not for sitting for laying around.
The bedroom bathroom is gorgeous, I mean for the Marriott brand, it's more business-oriented, but this bathroom looks like something come from Mandarin Oriental or Four Seasons.
They are divided shower and bathtub space and both of them are divine. I don't know if it's because of the white marble or the super-instgramable display art piece on the wall. I fall in love with the bathroom at first sight.
Bedroom bathroom overview.
Bathroom amenities displayed next to the sink counter. The Thann Branded amenities across Marriott chain is from Thailand. You can also see the towels stocked under the sink.
The shower amenities set above the bathtub.
The shower amenities inside the shower.
As you can see now, every bathroom amenity in the suite came in pairs with the size of 40ML, everything was so except the body lotion next to the sink counter, there's only one of it, as I was thinking of this, I thought I could rang up the guest service and ask them to deliver one more, as It's very practical to keep one of those with you and use it to moisturise your hands when you are inside a dry airplane cabin. So I requested it by calling the service desk and they promised to deliver.
The bathrobe is already prepared next to the bathtub in case you need to take a shower and a second one is stored in the closet.
Everything was perfect about this stay, until a middle-aged housekeeping lady came knocking on my door, at first I was communicating with her in English, she seemed confused, so I tried Cantonese judging by she must be local. I said thank you for the small 20ML body lotion she delivered; and asked her if she had any 40ML body lotion since everything in the suite is in that size. She stuttered in Mandarin Chinese:"Huh? I will go get it for you, when you asked for turn-down service later? Or now?" And then, without saying anything, she turned back and prepared to leave. I said in Mandarin Chinese:"Xie Xie."
I thought the housekeeping cart is right in the hallway, I might as well just hold the door and wait for her coming back, and I had some coins gripped in the palm of my hand as I was ready to tip her when she come back, what I heard next was the most outrageous remark a housekeeping staff can make behind guests.
I suppose she didn't know I kept the door open and thus, without even walking to the cart, she started yelling across the hallway to another younger housekeeping lady who is a local and speak Cantonese:"He's so greedy/avaricious(贪心 in Chinese), I've gave him one already, should I give it to him?" All of their conversation was done under the impression that I've locked the door.
I was shocked by her remarks and literally feeling cornered during that moment, and then she started walk back to me and noticed that the I've been there listening to her the whole time, she started to get nervous and didn't said a word as she handed me the 40ML body lotion. I didn't feel like making a scene and made up my mind to just let it go, so I took the thing from her hand and shut the door. Here's only part of the story.
Amenities:
The complimentary water and ice bucket is heaped at the back on the living room TV, it looked fine, but felt somewhat overcrowded.
The mini bar display, with only soft drinks and beer available.
The tea and coffee bags came in large size, and it's from the famous TWG brand. Though everything was stored under the TV stand.
Snacks and wine glasses.
Executive Lounge:
This property also came with a sizeable executive lounge, taking a decent proportion of one entire floor level. The staff there was more quiet and minding their own business at the front desk, so nothing out of the ordinary greeting and bowing, but that was totally alright.
There are only soft drinks and coffee plus some fruits available during daytime, and during cocktail hour, you would be able to enjoy several dishes and liquor and some desserts.
There are many seating area inside the executive lounge, and during daytime, it's never crowded there, but you can keep seeing people coming in and out. Besides, you get a great view of the runway of Hong Kong airport which every other minute you can see a wide-body aircraft land onto the runway.
The Pool:
The pool was never busy and you do see people use it from time to time, it looked clean and well-maintained.
After Check Out:
As I was thinking of what actually happened during the stay, everything was great except the dehumanising remarks by one of the housekeeping staff, she had every right to judge hotel guests behind their back, but it's definitely unacceptable when I accidentally heard it. What am I suppose to believe if she told me next time that the room is clean while she might actually like one of those internet videos coming from China in which the housekeeper use a toilet brush to wash the mouthwash cup, how am I suppose to believe she wouldn't have more issue with it when I asked for something more out of the normal when I am in need.
I felt like I showed enough consideration for her, as she might be one of those workers immigrated from mainland China and might be depending on this job to support her family back home, thus I didn't want to make it difficult for her. Besides Hong Kong right now is in labour force shortage. What still kept irritated me til this day is that she showed no consideration to me while I went out my way to think in her shoes; thus I've decided to write an email and demand an explanation from their duty manager, the email was concise and expressed my concern in a calmly manner, and I got a decent apology email and a compensation plan in 10,000 Marriott rewards points.
I tried to reply to that email and emphasise on my stance of asking them to do what is right instead of asking them to treat me like one of those guest who will have an attitude towards everything just to get points out of the program, however I never got a reply forwarding that email.
Bottom Line:
Basically, the story here taught us one important value, never ask for extra amenities at Hong Kong Skycity Marriott, or else you might get brutally-criticized as a human being. Haha, just kidding, as I am sure I would have no choice but returning to that property when my next early flight comes up, but did I mind anything else regarding the quality of service during the stay? Absolutely not. The front desk staff has to be one of the friendliest I've encountered in my life, and they are all capable of communicating perfectly in numerous languages which is a tough quality to find among them these days.
Overall Ratings:
Check-in Experience: 7.6/10
Staff Experience: 8.3/10
Status Recognition: 7.9/10
Room Comfortability: 7.6/10
Lounge Experience: 7.2/10
Housekeeping Experience: 1.9/10
Overall Experience: 6.75/10
If the dreadful incident did not happened, it would easily be one of the top hotel experience I've ever reviewed on this website. I am sure I would be able to experience something more realistic towards their normal service standard in the future, however I would definitely leave a note in advance to the hotel to not assign me any rooms on the 10th floor. Oh, did I mentioned that she worked on the 10th floor? Because why not, she said what she said.
Thanks for going through this emotional journey with me, and just so you guys know, I believe I am quiet genuine in every hotel stay report I write. I can see myself making a brand new video stay review on youtube next time, maybe that one will do them justice.
Thanks for reading and leave a comment.
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