Holiday Thoughts

I have recently returned from getting married in Mauritius. During my time there I stayed in 2 hotels, both very luxurious with many impressive touches of service.

From the moment we arrived many of the staff knew who we were, any time our paths crossed "Hello Mr Heath". There were approximately 500 guests in the Hotel so I truly take my hats off to the staff for this personal touch.

In contrast I returned to Heathrow (Sheraton Skyline Hotel) after a 12 hour flight where I was greeted by a reception who had no record that I had stayed there 2 weeks prior and had no idea where my car was; could we learn a lesson or two?

Back to Mauritius (I wish), we spent most of our stay at Sugar Beach Resort which I would highly recommend. To finish off our stay in the lap of luxury we visited Le Saint Geran which is marketed as one of the worlds premier hotels.

The main point of this post is where does service become oppressive, Le Saint Geran is a fabulous hotel but the service is a little over the top some examples:

- Personal Butler service
- Pillow Menu
- Room cleaned / towels changed 3 times per day
- You can never light your own cigarette
- Sunglasses cleaner (Literally a man walking around the beach who cleans your sunglasses for you)
- At dinner you cannot get in & out of your chair yourself ; someone has to do it for you
- You cannot carry your own plate
- My personal favourite was my wife took her handbag to dinner, she was about to place it on the floor, the waiter was horrified at this thought and immediately produced dedicated handbag stool which sat next to us at the table; on further observation all guests had their own handbag table.

There are a multitude of other examples that I am sure are meant as superior service, however, ultimately left us with an oppressive invaded feeling.

The lesson I have leant is that we humans do not necessarily like perfection, no matter how good the service is, we can find a way to complain about it.

Lets forget our quality planning, forget our statistics, forget process control, forget procedures, in fact lets forget to turn up to work.. (Can any one tell that I am still on Holiday wind down & havent quite got my business head on yet?)

Enough for now, I suppose I must at least catch up a little..

Regards

Richard

Richard,

I feel for you mate...it sounds like you had a really rough time.

Simon

It actually sounds and looks fantastic apart from the over the top service, which I personally hate. On a similar theme I avoid clothes shops at all costs because I cannot stand being asked if I need any help - JUST LEAVE ME ALONE FOR CRISSAKES!

Anyway if you have really been put off luxury you are always welcome to stay at the in-laws caravan in Blackpool next year, but not the last week in July - first week in August...

Le Saint Geran Hotel

Simon

In truth, for all of my moaning, I am sure I could learn to live with luxury.

Unfortunately my bank balance will not let me..

Good to see the website - if you look in the picture gallery you can see a picture of the handbag stool in Spoon des Iles Restaurant..