What Sam says about_____?: The Perfect Hideout - Hotel review- Mussourie- Actually an imperfect hideout - 2/5

Well I was so excited when I saw the reviews of the place on trip advisor, and the place just sounded perfect. I had sadly not read the only one negative review, later to realize that this single negative review may be the true picture of this place. If not the review, I should have definitely not missed the harsh, rather inhospitable response and comments of the owner that followed, on a customer's complaint on tripadvisor, and I should have realized that they don’t take feedback or complaints very constructively.

We reached this place very late than we had anticipated owing to rains, but the location seemed perfect and it was valley facing with low lying clouds and everything. We parked our vehicle, and realized there was no real parking space per say, and I seriously din’t mind that as well.

The owner was sweet to assist us during check in, but alas, I was so sad only to realize that the valley view was on the rooms located on the Ist floor, and all I could see from our room was trees. I am not complaining because obviously the rooms on the Ist floor were priced a little more, so they deserved the valley view, more than us. But the series of unfortunate events unfolded as soon as the door of our room was opened. It seemed that the rooms hadn’t been let out in a long time. They had a bad musty smell of dampness. I am still not complaining, We left the door open and asked the bell boy to spray an airfreshner or something. In some time the smell got better, but I could still see the dampness on the walls, and somehow the musty smell from the loo dint go at all, despite an exhaust fan. I am still not complaining. I wanted to call room service for some tea, and intercom was way too dusty and I only realized it was not working. I had to ask them to change it. I am still not complaining. Such small problems happen all the time. The welcome drink came, it had a small ant in it, which I obviously didn't drink, but I am still not complaining.

I went to the loo to wash my hands only to realize that the insides of the western closette or the pot was muddy beyond comprehension, but I am still not complaining; I realized the flush was out of order. We spoke to the owner and asked him to get this changed and we handed over the keys to him and left for dinner around 4.30. When we were back around 7, we realized that the flush had not been attended to, and suddenly we had to complain again and the plumber came for rectifying the same around 9 and the disturbance went on for one hour till 10.30. What a way to holiday, I thought? Finally the flush was in order but the loo was still stinky.

We slept and woke up the next day and I wanted to make myself a cup of tea in the tea maker in the room, only to realize again that it wasn't working. So I ordered tea, but I am still not complaining. I decided to take a bath around 8, only to realize there was no water. My sister was taking a bath in her room next door, and had shampoo on her head, when the water went off midway. And now was the time I thought I must complain, I called the owner, who wasn't there, and said they have called the plumber who is coming any minute, and the problem was there only on our floor. But the point was that my sister was in the middle of shampooing, and we called housekeeping / room service (even though there is no clear demarcation because the same guy came as a bell boy, then as a plumber, then for room service). It took them more than half hour to arrange for 2 buckets of water. And finally we left the hotel at 10.30, and the water still was nowhere to be seen. I think the plumber got lost midway since he was nowhere on the scene for almost 3 hours.

It was now that I opened trip advisor and read that only one bad review, and the owners harsh comments surprised me. In the owners defense, I would like to say, yes every hotel / establishment has bad hair days, and unfortunate events. But we must be gracious enough to accept what went wrong and empathize with the paying customers. I think these are basic customer etiquette you expect from any service establishment as a paying customer. You will not get repeat business if you don’t treat customer’s with basic respect and decency, whether on face or in written communication, especially on a public platform such as tripadvisor.

We left and came back in the evening and bumped into the owner who was funny / weird enough in asking us “So did the water problem get sorted?”. I was amazed, and I wanted to tell him, dude I should be asking you that. Its sad because wasn't apologetic for this inconvenience, neither did he clarify what went wrong. Rather than assuring us that finally there was no water problem and there will never be, he was asking us. Funny, I thought. Well, this doesn't end here. We had asked the house keeping specifically if the mineral water on the next day is complementary or chargeable, and he mentioned complementary. Well, after the series of events in the 2 days, I wasn't surprised that we were billed for those bottles. It’s ok to pay 100 bucks extra I told myself promising never to return.

I am not trying to fill anyone with a negative image of the place. I assume rooms on Ist floor and service could be better and may be the rooms on the ground floor may be sold by them rarely, but only one request to the owner to be more empathetic to paying customer’s. I do appreciate you being friendly with the customer’s, that’s nice, but you also need to treat them as customer’s not as friends, and you need to take personal interest in the comfort of paying customers. Also in such single owner run establishments you must personally check rooms prior to check in if everything is in order. Rest is in your hands friend, its your property, and a great concept, which you need to nurture with a few changes here and there, but you have lost this one customer - Sam.

Over all a beautiful property which bears the brunt of bad service and unconcerned management. A wide scope of improvement