Normally, the housekeeper brings me two bath towels and two small hand towels each day. After I "damaged" the two hand towels, new towels stopped coming. The first day I thought the housekeeper had just forgotten them. By the second day, I suspected the towel boycott had something to do with the coffee towels. In an American hotel, you'd just go to the desk and ask for clean towels. At this hotel, if you make a request at the front desk, the clerk calls the Premiere's office in Beijing to resolve the matter. Best not to make inquiries or requests at the front desk.
I wait one more day. Then I get a telephone call in my room. A small Chinese voice says that she'd like to come to my room to talk to me. It's the voice of the Teaching Assistant who has been posted in the hotel round the clock to help us with problems. She is obviously very reluctant to have been chosen as the messenger. The hotel desk clerks speak almost no English. They really have no need for it. This is a very modest hotel, and an American tourist would be very unlikely to stay here. All the guests are Chinese businessmen (I've yet to see a Chinese businesswoman), Chinese teachers from outlying districts here for summer school, and African tourists.
The T.A. tells me that I must pay for the coffee towels. I say how much (wondering why it has taken four days to let me know)? 10 yuan (about $1.50). It's a bargain in my book. I pay instantly. One of the housekeepers brings one hand towel about half an hour later. I thought I would get the usual two towels (what I don't know is that $1.50 was for one towel). I ask for a second towel. I should have known better. The housekeeper has only been empowered to bring one. She uses her cell phone to call one of the other housekeepers. The two of them confer in the hallway outside my room. Now I'm really sorry that I asked for two towels. Finally the two housekeepers call their supervisor. When she arrives, we work it out somehow that one towel will be fine. About two days later, I start getting my usually allotment of towels.
The point of this story is that in modest hotels, hotel personnel inventory the rooms daily and the day before you check out to make sure that nothing is missing. In addition, if you soil a towel noticeably, expect to pay for it. Don't wait a few days, just go to the desk and pay (I would gladly have done so. I just didn't know the rules). If you take anything out of your room (for example, we bring cups of coffee to the lobby when we are working on the Internet computers), you'd better take it back. You will pay for that coffee cup if it's not in your room. You won't mind paying for the cup, because it will be very cheap. However, you will mind the "fuss" that will ensue.
My class is giving a play early next week and there are some sheer white curtains in my hotel room that would be a perfect backdrop for our play. I am seriously considering spiriting them out of here for half a day, but it's dangerous. If you don't get any more posts, call the American embassy in Beijing.
I wait one more day. Then I get a telephone call in my room. A small Chinese voice says that she'd like to come to my room to talk to me. It's the voice of the Teaching Assistant who has been posted in the hotel round the clock to help us with problems. She is obviously very reluctant to have been chosen as the messenger. The hotel desk clerks speak almost no English. They really have no need for it. This is a very modest hotel, and an American tourist would be very unlikely to stay here. All the guests are Chinese businessmen (I've yet to see a Chinese businesswoman), Chinese teachers from outlying districts here for summer school, and African tourists.
The T.A. tells me that I must pay for the coffee towels. I say how much (wondering why it has taken four days to let me know)? 10 yuan (about $1.50). It's a bargain in my book. I pay instantly. One of the housekeepers brings one hand towel about half an hour later. I thought I would get the usual two towels (what I don't know is that $1.50 was for one towel). I ask for a second towel. I should have known better. The housekeeper has only been empowered to bring one. She uses her cell phone to call one of the other housekeepers. The two of them confer in the hallway outside my room. Now I'm really sorry that I asked for two towels. Finally the two housekeepers call their supervisor. When she arrives, we work it out somehow that one towel will be fine. About two days later, I start getting my usually allotment of towels.
The point of this story is that in modest hotels, hotel personnel inventory the rooms daily and the day before you check out to make sure that nothing is missing. In addition, if you soil a towel noticeably, expect to pay for it. Don't wait a few days, just go to the desk and pay (I would gladly have done so. I just didn't know the rules). If you take anything out of your room (for example, we bring cups of coffee to the lobby when we are working on the Internet computers), you'd better take it back. You will pay for that coffee cup if it's not in your room. You won't mind paying for the cup, because it will be very cheap. However, you will mind the "fuss" that will ensue.
My class is giving a play early next week and there are some sheer white curtains in my hotel room that would be a perfect backdrop for our play. I am seriously considering spiriting them out of here for half a day, but it's dangerous. If you don't get any more posts, call the American embassy in Beijing.
No comments:
Post a Comment