We are sincerely sorry that this guests felt his expectations were not adequately met. Gauged by the overwhelming number of positive and continually improving reviews, it is evident that this is an unfortunate aberration, not a reversal of trend.
To ensure that guests have a happy vacation, Alta Cebu does more training- up to 1 to 2 hours of daily training per department- than most. Our staff are also better compensated and more seasoned than many other hotels. Even so, no hotel is perfect, even the most expensive ones.
Our staff is authorized by the booking company (GDS) to swipe the credit card, since he agreed by booking terms of the contract with them. We were only the intermediary for the collection of payment. GDS bookings provided us with both authorization and card details before his arrival. There was no need for the night auditor to authorize a third time. She is trained to catch mistakes and to be sure billings are correct- in this case an apparent undercharge. Perhaps she was fatigued and forgot to compare the incorrect bill with the correct amount on the charge slip. Honest mistakes happen at even the best of hotels, especially during peak season. Our GM spoke with her and she understands her mistake and promised to be more careful in future. There was no malicious intent – only a human error.
Normally our GM would handle money mistakes directly and personally. During his stay and even as he was leaving, he said he was happy with his stay and had no problems to report-so on one thought to get our GM involved. Service industry workers are expected to be polite, even if a guest is unreasonable and rude. Though this guest seems to understand that our staff’s cultural politeness probably made for a more difficult resolution, it seems that he is guilty of the same fault; he also favored politeness, which in this case got in the way of a more efficient solution.
Immediately after discovered the mistake, our GM did try to call the guest (3 times) and also sent him emails explaining the mistake and alerting him that we had processed his refund that same day. He did not respond to any of our attempts to keep him informed.
We bank with the largest in the Philippines. Unfortunately, Banks in Phil are very slow to process refunds.
Our complimentary breakfast is more than adequate in size and comes with two types of juice plus tea, hot chocolate or coffee, and fresh fruit. No resort that I know of offers complimentary (real) orange juice. By popular demand, we do offer non-complimentary alternatives to these free offerings (such as gourmet coffee, cappuccino, fresh orange juice, etc.), as do many other resorts.
The room was not cleaned because the guest had hung a do not clean/ do not disturb sign on his door.
Room check problems were a combination of a too heavy work load during peak season as well as the problems of the transition of duties to a new department head.
All hotels and resorts in Cebu do conferences. Whenever possible, we offer free upgrade to our best and quietest rooms in the quietest part of the resort during functions to all foreign guests. His room was in the quietest part of the resort. Some foreign guests like to join in the function festivities, having fun alongside the very amiable function guests.
As with all resorts, there will be times the internet provider temporarily can’t provide uninterrupted service. Unlike most other resorts, there is almost never a time when there is no access somewhere on our 3 hectare resort (we have 7 hot spots and 5 lines in with 2 different providers of internet Wi Fi broadband access)
There is a notice posted outlining various alternative internet access options both in his room and at various locations within Alta Cebu Resort or he could have asked any of our staff about connectivity problems.
We do thank this guest for giving us the chance to become even better with his helpful suggestions.