A World of Difference

#188

Recently, I booked a one-night stay at a 5-star hotel followed by a 4-star hotel the next month. What a world of difference! The 5-star hotel had way better customer service, rooms, room layout, restaurants, food, spa, and more!

It may be possible that these 2 are very specific examples of the 5-star hotel raising the bar while the 4-star hotel could improve in a lot of ways. It'd be good to gather sample data on both by visiting more 5-star and 4-star hotels for better metrics to compare.

Delving a little into the details of the difference, the first thing was the location and size of the bath tub. The 5-star hotel, which we'll call Hotel A had a much bigger tub situated right in the middle of the big room with a sliding door separating the bedroom from the bathroom while the 4-star hotel, Hotel B, had a smaller tub squished to one corner of a small bathroom with a regular door. The price difference between both rooms was less than 2k.

Another thing I observed was the omelette at breakfast. Hotel A had a beautifully wrapped professional masala omelette while B served with a home-made-like ordinary-looking one. Maybe because I was biased, the taste seemed different too, but I don't really recall now.

On entering the room in B, there was water on the floor and the power kept going out. Though someone came to fix it, the resolution was to ask for another room and move there. The beds and pillows were fluffier in A and the in-room amenities also differed a tad.

Finally, the spa experience with A was customer-obsessed as opposed to an unenthusiastic, uninviting experience received in B. However, B scores brownie points for having a steam room, a great first-time experience.

Overall, might be too harsh a judgement on B since it was a one-time visit. Will I go there again? Nowhere in the short-term, for sure. Long term, maybe, who knows? I reckon I'd rather spend a bit more for an experience I know for certain is going to be more enjoyable.

Have you had a good vs not-so-good hotel experience you'd like to share?