Australia has some pretty fantastic properties these days. Venues like qualia on Hamilton Island, Emirates Wolgan Valley, Longitude 101 near Uluru, Saffire Freycinet (Tasmania), Southern Ocean Lodge (South Australia), and Hayman, are among those regarded at the pinnacle of resort accommodation in this country.
Having not stayed at all of these I can’t say whether one is better than the other. And quite frankly, they each offer different experiences, so comparing them isn’t easy. Or indeed necessary.

At over $1000 a night for the privilege of staying at these places you’d expect the service to be pretty good. In fact, you’d expect it to be damn near perfect. And, from what I hear, service at these properties is very high.
The cracks, however, start to appear in accommodation offerings in the next tier down from these so-called six-star properties. The problem from where I sit is a true lack of professionalism of some staff working on the front-line.

I’ll give you an example. Recently I had been staying at one property and was transferring to another. I asked the person at the front desk if they could contact the other venue to see when my room was going to be ready, which they kindly did. I thought if it wasn’t going to be ready within half an hour it was no use me checking out of the place I was staying in right then. So they did that and I was told that it would be ready within the hour.

Being the obedient person that I am I got to my new hotel at the allotted time where I was told that my room wasn’t quite ready and that I could sit in the lounge area and wait. Almost two hours later I was still waiting. I told the person on the front desk that I had been informed that my room would be ready two hours previously to which they replied that they had spoken to the person at my last hotel and told them no such thing.

So who was lying? It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that I was made to feel, in some way, that it was my fault.

And we’re not talking a budget motel here. In a budget motel you expect to be made to wait; you expect to have mistakes on your bill; you expect your food to be a little less fancy.

In direct contrast is the service in Asian hotels. Often the staff are a little green around the edges and things do get stuffed up but never, ever in my experience has it been suggested that any error or miscommunication is in any way my fault. On the contrary, those working in many Asian properties have the ability to apologise when an apology is warranted. They do so with dignity and grace, and you accept their sincerity because they are sincere. You actually don’t mind if there is the odd problem because they try so hard to rectify it.

Those working in Asian hotels and resorts seem to understand that they are working in the hospitality industry and that they are there to make your stay as comfortable and as pleasant as possible. The cost of your room is, after all, helping to pay their wages.

Isn’t that a nice thought for their Australian counterparts to ponder?














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