Marina Bay Sands

  With its intricate interior design and architecture, stepping into the lobby of Marina Bay Sands is a magical moment for many. Or at least, it ought to be. Sadly, for the general majority, the butterflies of excitement in our stomachs are brutally trapped in webs of bad traffic, generated by the resort itself nonetheless, before we even reach the resort. That was how my blood-boiling experience at Marina Bay Sands began.

  The occasion was my friend’s 18th birthday party, which happened to be on a Saturday. Making sure that the cheesecake I had specially baked for the occasion was in good condition, I hopped into my mother’s car and set off for the resort. There is bad traffic and then there is Marina Bay Sands. It is not just a typical traffic jam; it is war of taxis and cars. The sound of cars honking was practically a background noise and rude hand gestures were exchanged more often than a car was parked by the valet. In the midst of crossfire, I resorted to getting off at the curb and drag a cheesecake, a duffle bag and 5 bottles of wine into the resort. Thankfully my friends were there to do what the hotel staff did not, help me with my bags and I made it to the hotel room without any cake on my shirt. Getting out of the bad traffic though, did little to appease me as on the way up,  I listened to my friends’ recount of the disrespectful lady at the reception interrogating him if he had ‘stolen his dad’s credit card’, if ‘his dad knows he’s doing this’ repeatedly during check-in and had handed over the room card haughtily. Just so you know the card was my friend’s.

  Already rather miffed about the terrible traffic and discrimination towards the birthday boy, it was only natural that I blew up at the concierge when situation called for it. Once in the room, we needed to put the cheesecake in the fridge. Of course this was made impossible by the mini-bar filled to brim with drinks and had pressure sensors installed. There’s a saying that ‘concierges can do anything’, staying true to that, we dialed for one and asked if the birthday cake could be placed in the hotel’s fridge. What we got was a ‘no we can’t do that’ because of ‘regulations’ against ‘contamination’. Regulations are regulations; hence we asked if they could clear our mini-bar for us so we could at least place the cake in there, what we got this time was ‘yes, it will cost $20 to clear the mini-bar’. After minutes of arguing that it makes no sense to pay to clear the mini-bar if we are not even consuming the drinks and that we should pay to solve the hotel’s problems, I demanded to be put through to the manager. The manager was equally inflexible and basically repeated what his subordinate had said word for word. The least they could do was offer to waive the fees for clearing the min-bar or alternatively offer a cake from one of the restaurants if we have to pay for something anyways, seeing as it was the customer’s birthday. In the end, to not ruin the birthday atmosphere further, we resorted to paying the $20, not without grudge though.

  Then dinner rolled about and we decided to order room service, food was expensive, as expected and was nothing to exclaim about taste-wise. What was worth exclaiming about however was the after-service. Staring at a huge mess of half-finished food is not appealing and with the table too big and heavy to move out on our own, we called priority service to clear the room service for us. Priority service came, food was cleared, 45 minutes after the call was made. It makes you wonder if calling regular housekeeping would have been faster. The frustrations did not stop here I assure you, wanting to take a walk to the helix bridge at night, I asked the concierge for directions. Following said directions, I ended up on the road on the opposite side of the bridge with no means of crossing. Trudging back to the hotel again, I asked a different hotel staff for directions and was instructed to go back to where I was and cross the road. ‘But there is nowhere to cross the road,’ I insisted. What the hotel staff replied had me sputtering in disbelief. ‘J-walk,’ the hotel staff said. Naturally, I was partially bewildered and partially angered. The hotel staff had the audacity to tell his customers to J-walk at night. It was not just inappropriate but a direct display of unconcern towards the customer’s welfare.

  Never mind, moving on. Morning finally came and with check out at 11am, we decided to grab a quick breakfast at 10.30 am. Heading to the lobby where all the restaurants are located, our plans were cancelled as the queue for complimentary breakfast measured from the entrance of once restaurant to another and was quickly growing. There are, if I am not mistaken, 4 restaurants to seat customers in the lobby, so you can see where I am coming from about efficiency. Dragging our hungry feet back to the room, one of our friends joked that Marina Bay Sands is a 3 star hotel with 5 star décor.

  This marks the end of my terrible experience at Marina Bay Sands, but do you know what the most infuriating fact about it all is? The room cost $500 a night. I had my fair share of high end hotel frustrations, such as Meritus Mandarin hotel taking 45 minutes to deliver a simple towel to the executive suite, but this is hands down the worse experience I have had at any hotel. Shangri-la Sentosa opens up their ballroom when the breakfast crowd gets too big, Mandarin hotel staff actually offers to heat up my take way when they saw my cold food while delivering room service and Starz Restaurant at Hard Rock Hotel provided a birthday cake alternative because we would not bring our own on my birthday. Just a short story to conclude it all, my friend left his iphone charger at the resort and when asked if he wants to go back and get it, his reply was, ‘I’ll buy a new one, I’m not going back there again.’

  If this is the Singapore’s best, I’m worried for the future of our service industry.