Yesterday, I wrote about my check-in at the Hyatt Regency Chandigarh. The hotel is a new hotel which just opened last year, and as such wear and tear should not be happening here. But somehow, the room I was checked into was missing an Emergency Evacuation Plan.
Missing Fire Safety Plan
Now, as someone whose actually had a fire alarm go off and had to evacuate once, I highly value the presence of such stuff in the rooms. On my post, I had two kinds of views:
- I sounded entitled, too full of myself, pompous, making a huge deal out of nothing, silly, lazy and was fishing for a compensation. The interesting one was the guy who wrote I was in India, not Indiana, implying hence I should not feel the need for a safety card.
- I was entitled to my views. In the words of someone, If one has to pay extra for late check-out or that extra coffee after breakfast is over, the hotel sure as hell should pay for not having mandatory signages.
I did not really get a response yesterday, in fact through this afternoon from the Hotel. That is when the phone rang for the first time, and it was the Rooms Division Manager of the hotel on the line. We talked about what happened, and she explained that the situation wasn’t as bad as I imagined. Most rooms do have these emergency exit plans, and they would be investigating as to why did the one in the room I was assigned go missing.
Now, my concerns with this hotel were multifold. One, this missing piece of paper at the back of the wall, and then the lacklustre attitude of the management, who eventually took 16 hours or more to even start a conversation on how to fix this situation.
I asked them to fix the map in the room, and then we were good to go. But I was told that the room I was occupying was going to be immediately taken out of service, now that the management knew that there was a safety item missing, and the room was not going to be sold or occupied till the issue was resolved. And that it would take time to get the map redone for this room and fixed up there.
Since I could not stay in the room I had to pack up and leave, which can be a pain with all the wires we carry for our work.
In an honest attempt to make it good, I was offered an upgrade to a suite, which I politely declined. Now, I am not a Globalist anymore, and there are hotels such as the PH Goa who host us in a suite all the time, and I don’t mind. There have been incidents where we were booked in a suite and put up in a room, which I mind. But at other hotels, I’d like them to determine their love for me ahead of time looking at my loyalty to the group over the past years, rather than when there is a problem. It is my firm belief that Hospitality begins at the door.
I eventually have been transferred into another room of the exact same room category I was originally allotted, and I’m told that there is a Suite kept aside in case I wanted to try them out. Which I don’t think is happening on this trip.
For the moment, I’m just happy that I have this picture behind my door.
Hyatt Regency Chandigarh Evacuation Plan
That is the current update. I do see the hotel has some well intended people, but the hospitality industry is only as strong as their weakest link, and I sure do hope the hotel works on fixing the gaps in their team. The GM just moved on from the hotel a while ago, and it seems there is no new determination for a General Manager at the moment.
I’m curious to hear what are your views the best resolution to this situation we’ve landed ourselves in. Clearly it was an error, and now the hotel is trying to be nice and all, and I appreciate the gesture, but I can’t accept it.
Hi Ajay ,
Ignore these stupid comments from people calling u by names!!
they are jealous of ur First class Life style & Regarding the hotel safety.. Ohh hell yeah.. ur damnn Right..
U have rightly mentioned the late check out scenario and am sure some Super Damage has already been done to this Hotel bcos ur Blog is being read by many & the trust u have earned over the years
Keep up the Good Work Man .. U rock!!
OK people calm down ! As always, I’ve seen people being careless about safety & security. Ajay IS RIGHT ! I don’t want to risk being trapped in the hotel if a fire broke out with me running in the wrong direction just because someone got careless about safety. Safety First Always ! On another level one can just hope that the fire extinguisher system is working at this place. Since the evacuation plan is missing it goes to show that no regular safety inspection was carried out for something so critical. When you are paying for a room in an international hotel of repute you are right to expect some standards and even more so for safety.
For those with negative comments…. read about the Air China plane which caught fire because a technician missed out putting a washer on a bolt, so much so that if fell loose and punctured the fuel tanks causing a leak which led to a huge fire and a subsequent explosion eventually destroying the plane. Every time you fly you hope people are doing their job and every hotel you stay, you wish the same. Stay safe !
Such a pathetic hotel to in…..Ms Ena , the rooms division manager is too such a fake….it takes these people half an hour to get a pair of glasses n ice bucket delivered…and then they ask about the building….great way to have a feedback at a time when after such a lucid experience she failed to reply about the prices and availability for further dates to stay….
Look at all these white people flaunting their white privilege and telling the poor brown guy to STFU because it’s “India, not Indiana”.
Jack Rivers, bet you’re a real delight at parties. Why don’t you shut up and worry about how the West still invades countries, after centuries of slavery, instead of wasting our time on a travel blog? Fuck off back to your KKK meeting, won’t you?
Ajay, you’re right to be worried about a missing evac board. I wouldn’t want to walk down the hall to figure anything, any more than I would walk up to the kitchen to get a fork at a restaurant. I pay for a service and an experience – hotels are not DIY.
Fuck these Hyatt trolls.
I’m trying to imagine being in this situation and spending any time out of my travels on it, beyond making staff aware of an item missing from the room, then walking down the hall to confirm the location of a stairwell.
The tweets at Hyatt and all the ink spilled on this blog confirm for me this is all about compensation. Your bizarre refusal of an upgrade for “reasons” hardly covers for the real purpose of being such a DB about a missing placard.
I guess the comments of some readers are too harsh to some extent. Ajay is just putting across his point, his experiences that he shares, and that’s what this blog is about. There are certain views he expresses which even I don’t agree to (including this article where I think he clearly overreacted specially after the Hotel was trying to make good on their fault and kept a suite aside, even though he declined).
However, if we as readers don’t agree to his views, we may either ignore it, or put across our points. But being personal in targeting is uncalled for. And regarding one comment on the UP issue, I guess this is a travel blog and not a blog discussing current affairs. I’m sure every sensible soul in our country is pained by the loss in u.p but there are other forums to discuss that issue.
We all know how fussy foreigners are about the safety issues.
So looking at the names of commenters below, I can make out that all these are fake comments and are posted by hotel itself.
@Pratik I am not going to react about what the others said but lets get it plain since you’re a regular around here. I was not trying to be difficult with the hotel. There was a safety violation. The hotel reacted sloppily to start about it. Now they are trying to make up for it. I appreciate their generosity, but all I needed was a room with the safety violation resolved. When you’re in my place, you’ll notice it is a difficult place to be in and all we try and do is be neutral. So, when the hotel delivered the words that they’d move us out and make the room we originally got inoperable for a period of time till fire safety standards were not met, it was good and we moved on. I hope that clarifies.
Hi Ajay! I completely respect your point of view. Its just that I felt the situation a bit different (maybe because you have experienced evac once and I have not), but some of the comments here were totally uncalled for. Pls don’t use the words like clarification and all. You don’t need to clarify your point of view to ANYBODY. Personally speaking, I entered into the world of FFP, CC, miles and rewards only due to your blog. I can co-relate my first CC and first registration with a FFP after reading your blogs. And its only me who knows the benefits I have derived from it (and my father of course who traveled business class ‘n’ number of times for free). I also have had situation where I got some help from you rather than the airlines on some doubts. So just keep blogging and keep sharing your experiences. We need it.
I really appreciate your time and effort to make your review of Hyatt place sounds great!!!!!
Okay let’s start:
How can you imagine one missing paper equal to your safety, when you touched not only one stuff come over for help. The presence of stuff make you 100% safe and secure, better than knowing the exit.
Late reply is it really sound latr I don’t think so, if you are working with 15 students can be okay, however theirs jobs plus the 100 emails regarding how is it really take times. That sound good review but are you working and reading, reply, fixing, your issues with your email.
You get the chance for upgrading it’s sound great to see your family enjoying that.
you should take the suite — their suites are lovely
“I’m curious to hear what are your views the best resolution to this situation we’ve landed ourselves in. Clearly it was an error, and now the hotel is trying to be nice and all, and I appreciate the gesture, but I can’t accept it.”
Read both posts from yesterday & today (uuummmm thanks Google “News” Feed) and still the only summation is that clearly you are an idiot and an arse to boot.
Ajay, you should start using Disqus or the comment APIs that require Facebook logins. You will have far less of these trolls name calling you on your blog, and a lot more constructive criticism and discussions
Honestly, it sounds like you’re a snooty ass. Instead of bringing thw issue immediately to the attention of the hotel management, you instead wrote a blog article whining about it and then even furthered it by complaining that they took too long to hear about the issue…
Vandalisms happen, and you clearly didn’t have the patience to understand that. Every Hyatt I’ve stayed at has had a wonderful staff and always seeks to go above and beyond on their end.
So to see to a solution for their hospitality, try fixing whatever stick is up your ass and opening up your heart to these people trying to make you happy and feel welcome.
God this was annoying to read.
I don’t know. Much Ado about nothing? Moreover, you are indignant over the gracious offer to upgrade you for your troubles? Me thinks I’ve already given you 3 clicks too many.
I think you should move on and be less “unforgiving”. The world is not perfect and when people are trying to reconcile with you there’s no need to “not accept” it because they didn’t meet your “expectations.” Standards vary around the world, so when traveling get rid of your ethnocentricity. You are not the center of the universe.
I think Super 8 or Motel 6 may be more suited to you. All their rooms exit directly to the outdoor. Just a recommendation.
Woof… remind me never to travel with this squid. Get over yourself dude. These poor people have enough to deal with running their hotel. Now they have the likes of you running around.
Instead of worrying about trivial American short comings, you should pay attention to the reason why the hospital in uttar Pradesh allowed 30 children to die senselessly because of the hospital’s inability to pay for oxygen! Now that’s something you should be outraged about!
True that!
God forbid everyone should stop complaining about their problems because there are always bigger problems in the world!
And why don’t you dedicate your life to solving the likes of the problems you just mentioned?…Yes, right, because throwing sarcasm on the internet while sitting on your comfortable chair is all you can do.
Also, Fire Safety Plans are required to be on each floor by the law, his complain was quite valid.