LK Empress - scam attempt or honest mistake

[formulaonefan]

So I've stayed here happily twice before and always had a good experience. Guest friendly with joiner fee for second lady, but otherwise hassle free.

Today my experience soured a bit.  I get a ring of my doorbell and some lady is there with a walkie talkies, she says something in thai on the mic and say ok ok goodbye.  Five minutes later another ring and it's a manger and two housekeeping staff, claiming that one of the lamps is broken and that it happened in the past 24hrs, and that I had to pay for it.  It's a glass table lamp that did in fact have a piece missing, but I did not break it.  He tries to claim it wasn't broken yesterday, but maid reported it as broken today.  He wanted me to pay 20k baht to replace it.  Fuck that.

I counter with if I broke it last night, where is the missing piece and the glass debris?  Even if I took the big pieces, where are the small ones?  Can hk produce the evidence it was broken and they cleaned it up?  He counters with a discount price, and I refuse and start packing, ready to check out 3 days early and move hotel, cancel my upcoming trip in September, and tell my friends who have also booked here to cancel.

He gets on the phone with someone as I'm packing, and eventually relents.

Begrudgingly I'll stay her the next few days, but will likely book a different hotel for next trip.  What a buzzkill experience from a formerly good hotel experience.

 

[formulaonefan]

Here's the offending lamp...not sure how I could break it and not remember....

[Fire Bar Matt]

At a guess perhaps it was broken by the previous person staying in the room. 

When they checked out and housekeeping did their look in to tell reception all is ok they missed it and now they want to pin it on you. Perhaps the housekeeping staff are penalised for not picking this kind of stuff up. 

[overseas516]

I sell a very similar product and cost is around £100.  I thought you handled the situation well. Enjoy the rest of your stay.

[Red-Devil]

It certainly sounds as if it was a previous guest in your room,  but after the confrontation by the hotel staff, I was hoping you were going to say that you did in fact vacate to another hotel.... enjoy the rest of your stay Mate.

[DaffyDuck]

Well done.

So, here’s a customer who stayed there previously, already has his next intended stay booked, and would be my more customers in.

Sacrificing all of that for some ephemeral “saving face”, which ultimately cost them all the face.

[formulaonefan]

Almost certainly a prior guest and hk staff missed it.  My use of the word scam was a result of being fuming mad after they left, but now that I've calmed down it was likely standard procedure, but applied to the wrong guest.  Even so, 20k baht for a hotel lamp?  Some how I doubt they paid 1/10th that price.

[ireland2012]

42 minutes ago, formulaonefan said:

Here's the offending lamp...not sure how I could break it and not remember....

Maybe hotel staff broke it while cleaning room and passed blame on to you ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,either way I was looking at that hotel for my next trip                 not anymore   thank;s for telling us

[Toddler]

It sounds like you ran into staff that had poor skills when dealing with a good customer. I stayed at the LK Empress for over 2 weeks last February and enjoyed my stay. I will be back this February. I found that the staff was excellent but there were a couple who were not very friendly or helpful. 

I tried to put myself in your shoes in this situation and decided that I too would be very upset and fuming at the way the situation was handled. After I cooled down and composed myself I would probably let it go. It really wouldn’t be worth the effort to seek out the hotel management and complain only to confirm that they know,  you were not responsible for the damage. That’s just me maybe you want to take it to another level.

I will be back this February and will book again at the LK Empress because of the good price, location and the ease of bringing guests back to my room. I wouldn’t let an incident like yours sour my vacation.

[formulaonefan]

I don't plan to escalate any further unless it happens again.  They didn't have a new lamp, so it's still broken.  If a different hk person reports it and they try to say it's my fault, then I will escalate.  At this point I'm neutral on if I will stay here again in September...

[ironville]

Even if a guest did break the lamp, and the hotel wants to charge this outrageous price, anybody would be fuming. It's even worse because you didn't do it...

For sure it's case by case with hotel staff, not everybody would behave the same way. But it would definitely leave a sour taste and not make me want to go back to that hotel in the future.

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[neilri2001]

1 hour ago, formulaonefan said:

I don't plan to escalate any further unless it happens again.  They didn't have a new lamp, so it's still broken.  If a different hk person reports it and they try to say it's my fault, then I will escalate.  At this point I'm neutral on if I will stay here again in September...

Did you sign a blank credit card slip on check in? If so be careful they don't charge to your card after you leave

[formulaonefan]

1 hour ago, neilri2001 said:

Did you sign a blank credit card slip on check in? If so be careful they don't charge to your card after you leave

If they do, I'll contact the cc bank and stop payment on the entire bill, room fees and all.  I have one of those cards that protect the consumer to the end - I'll say it was fraudulent and they'll cancel all payment.  I've already had to do this for a hotel bill in China where they stated the total in yuan, then charged that amount in USD...no paperwork and no fuss.

I didn't pay a single dime for the entire stay.

[dontpanic]

Outrageous price, I'd say it was either cleaning staff or the previous guest and was missed on their checkout. I usually do a quick check of the room after I check in, if there are any problems I report them to reception quickly. It's a bit like checking your bin tab every so often, it just lets them know you're aware of things.

[skink]

I have friends scheduled to stay there in a couple months. Did you notice if a new building is under construction across the street from the LK Empress?

[likeaking]

The cleaner. Neither the previous cleaner nor you had noticed it until after she had cleaned the room that day. If she "fessed up it would probably come out of her pay.

[Soda11111]

20,000 baht or $625.00 US for a lamp?   ridiculous ,  I would have vacated immediately. 

[Tarl]

Think you handled the situation really well. They will know you as well now so I think all is good for current and future stays. If you like the place just let it go and continue to use it.

[Sloracer]

I had a somewhat similar experience in a Bangkok hotel. I stepped on the glass bathroom scale and the thing just exploded ( no I’m not a fat bastard) 

i call room room service to clean it up and when I get back to my room there’s a large bill under the door. 

I did a web search on these scales and low and behold many others had reported similar incidents. Armed with this information I asked to speak to general manager of the hotel, I refused politely to consider any argument from other support staff.

after making my request to see the manager for the second time he’s PA came to see me and apologised, said the the bill they gave me was a mistake made by room service staff.

 

[onehunglo]

15 hours ago, formulaonefan said:

So I've stayed here happily twice before and always had a good experience. guest friendly with joiner fee for second lady, but otherwise hassle free.

Today my experience soured a bit.  I get a ring of my doorbell and some lady is there with a walkie talkies, she says something in thai on the mic and say ok ok goodbye.  Five minutes later another ring and it's a manger and two housekeeping staff, claiming that one of the lamps is broken and that it happened in the past 24hrs, and that I had to pay for it.  It's a glass table lamp that did in fact have a piece missing, but I did not break it.  He tries to claim it wasn't broken yesterday, but maid reported it as broken today.  He wanted me to pay 20k baht to replace it.  Fuck that.

I counter with if I broke it last night, where is the missing piece and the glass debris?  Even if I took the big pieces, where are the small ones?  Can hk produce the evidence it was broken and they cleaned it up?  He counters with a discount price, and I refuse and start packing, ready to check out 3 days early and move hotel, cancel my upcoming trip in September, and tell my friends who have also booked here to cancel.

He gets on the phone with someone as I'm packing, and eventually relents.

Begrudgingly I'll stay her the next few days, but will likely book a different hotel for next trip.  What a buzzkill experience from a formerly good hotel experience.

 

you say that you pay a joiner fee for your lady , when i book i do for 2 people and NOT for 1 as it is the same price in my experiences therefore you eliminate them charging you for the 2nd person . try it next time you book .

[barmatt]

Dont know how they could justify 20k for that lamp sure it wasnt 2k? 

I broke a glass cover to a outside lamp at the D hotel last trip. It had been raining and as I was walking up the ramp with my suitcase when I lost my balance a bit and grabbed the lamp cover to steady myself but it wasnt screwed into the base, which it should've been. Sure enough the cover feel to the ground and shattered into a million pieces cutting my foot slightly btw, had my japanese safety boots on . Now the ramp is directly in view of reception so they heard the cover shatter. I get to reception and the girl, just doing her job, says " have to get manager about glass". I said "ok but I'm not paying because it should've been secured to its base".  Fucked  if I was paying for it. Anyway heard nothing more about it and continued on with my holiday. They could've gotten petty about it but didnt so good for you D hotel.

[LOTTELLEE WINNA]

2 hours ago, likeaking said:

The cleaner. Neither the previous cleaner nor you had noticed it until after she had cleaned the room that day. If she "fessed up it would probably come out of her pay.

Yes, staff can and are expected to pay for unnoticed losses or breakages. A few years back I was a regular at Nova Gold, staying there for 4 weeks every 3 months (2 months work Sydney 1 month fun in Patts). I was on great terms with all the staff and management, always joking and dropping sweets off for them.

Anyway I go to check out one day and they demand 200 thb for a lost teaspoon. I told them that I hadn’t lost it and point of fact I don’t do tea or coffee in the room. Still had to pay as the cleaner would have to have done had I refused.

I was pissed off and considered never returning. Glad I did though, as on my next trip I managed to leave behind in my room my emergency cash stash containing 600GBP in crisp, new 50 quid notes....yes, I was contacted by the hotel, the cleaning lady found it and my cash was returned.

[Billy Shears]

44 minutes ago, Sloracer said:

I had a somewhat similar experience in a Bangkok hotel. I stepped on the glass bathroom scale and the thing just exploded ( no I’m not a fat bastard) 

i call room room service to clean it up and when I get back to my room there’s a large bill under the door. 

I did a web search on these scales and low and behold many others had reported similar incidents. Armed with this information I asked to speak to general manager of the Hotel, I refused politely to consider any argument from other support staff.

after making my request to see the manager for the second time he’s PA came to see me and apologised, said the the bill they gave me was a mistake made by room service staff.

 

Holy crap! It's a miracle you didn't cut your feet. In the u.s. you could have sued the hotel.

[LOTTELLEE WINNA]

10 hours ago, neilri2001 said:

Did you sign a blank credit card slip on check in? If so be careful they don't charge to your card after you leave

I only ever leave a small cash deposit, never my credit card details.

[LOTTELLEE WINNA]

23 minutes ago, onehunglo said:

you say that you pay a joiner fee for your lady , when i book i do for 2 people and NOT for 1 as it is the same price in my experiences therefore you eliminate them charging you for the 2nd person . try it next time you book .

No he says joiner fee for second lady.