Compensation Clinic – Holiday Inn Singapore Little India

This week compensation clinic visits the Holiday Inn Singapore – Little India, where I ran into several issues. This property was originally the Park Hotel Farrer Park and was recently renovated and reflagged as a Holiday Inn.

After waiting in line to check in, I was disappointed to find out that since the hotel was sold out, I wouldn’t be eligible for a late 2 pm checkout as a Diamond Ambassador.

You can access Holiday Inn Singapore Little India’s website here.

READ MORE: IHG One Rewards Rate & Bonus Points Offers

I was pleased to be upgraded to one of their loft rooms on a higher floor which was nice for a change from the typical one-floor layouts of most hotels.

The unfortunate reality of these loft-style rooms is the steps take up a lot of space, and there really isn’t anywhere to unpack your luggage. There is absolutely no room up on the second level to unpack anything, so everything needs to stay on the main floor. It also leaves a very small living space on the main floor, and the narrow back and forth steps can be a bit of a disaster to try and navigate at night.

When I left the room for the day, I had turned off the do not disturb sign and turned on the housekeeping sign. When I returned later in the evening, I was disappointed to find the room had not been cleaned. I called down three times over half an hour to the front desk, and each time it just kept ringing, and nobody answered. I went down to the front desk and asked why the room had not been cleaned, and they said they would investigate and let me know in the morning. There appears to be a systemic issue at this property with the scheduling of housekeeping, as I had the exact same issue with the room not being cleaned on a stay the previous month.

The next day two out of the three elevators were out of service. This resulted in wait times of over 10 minutes every time you requested the elevator, and there really wasn’t any clear path to take the stairs up or down from the 14th floor without setting off the fire alarm. This perhaps was the most frustrating part of the stay, resulting in the needless loss of time, which you can’t get back.

At breakfast, all tables were full, and there was nowhere to sit and no staff available to assist with finding a table in the buffet restaurant. Many of the food stations were empty, including the juice station. After eventually finding a table to sit at when one of the staff came around later to take away the empty plates, they crashed into the table accidentally as they were walking away, and everything left went flying.

There were a couple of other minor issues which on their own wouldn’t be a problem, but they all tend to add up and become more of an issue like, for example, the bedside lamp with the broken switch that wouldn’t turn off and I had to remove the bulb at night.

Checking out of the hotel, there was a long line. I spoke with the manager on duty, who apologized for the issues and the housekeeping not being done. After an investigation, they said that housekeeping didn’t clean the room because the Do Not Disturb sign was on when I clearly turned it off. They promised the General Manager would reach out to me the next day with regards to some points for compensation.

Why is this hotel advertising and asking for high survey scores on signs around the property like this one in the elevator if they are unable to deliver?

I didn’t hear anything back from the hotel even after emailing General Manager to follow up, so I opened up a case by emailing IHG Corporate. It’s frustrating when hotels refuse to deal with these issues on the spot and end up wasting even more of your time by having to follow up with headquarters.

Email Sent to the Ambassador Service Center:

Hello I stayed at this hotel for two nights and there were several issues with my stay which I brought to the attention of the manager on duty. He indicated that the General manager would get back to me to follow-up the next day regarding compensation, but I never heard back from anyone at the hotel.

The first issue was no housekeeping was provided during my stay. Additionally, one or two of the elevators were out of service resulting of waits between 10-15 minutes!

Breakfast was a disaster. The juice dispensers were all empty along with the fruit and several other items were not replenished. When the person was clearing my plates from the table they walked right into the table and everything went flying.

My request for late checkout as a Diamond Ambassador member was denied.

The lamp beside the bed would not turn off despite rotating the switch and having it flicker on and off.

Delay and wait in line for check in and check out.

When I attempted to reach the front desk to report the lack of housekeeping, I had called 3 times and there was no answer despite letting it ring over 10 times each attempt.

I am very disappointed that the general manager refused to follow-up to address my concerns. I am requesting 20,000 IHG points for compensation.

Response from IHG Corporate:

My name is ….. from IHG Hotels and Resorts Guest Relations team. Wishing you well. Thank you for reaching out to share your experience at Holiday Inn Singapore Little India.

Having you as our valued guest, providing you with a comfortable and relaxing stay experience is an ideal commitment of our brand and I am sincerely sorry your experience turned out otherwise with the number of displeasing issues you encountered.

I recognize your concern has been brought to the manager on duty’s attention and I am truly sorry that you have not been responded to. We never want to give the impression that we ignore our guests’ concerns as providing you with a lasting positive impression matters.

Given the nature of the issue, this matter needs to be addressed directly on-property, and I have shared your concerns with Hotel Management. The hotel has agreed to contact you directly within 48 hours, we may just allow giving the management enough time to look into the situation.

Thank you for bringing your concern to our attention. We sincerely appreciate you as our valued IHG One Rewards Diamond Elite Ambassador Member. We will continuously strive to deliver a seamless and rewarding stay experience to all our guests as we value your loyalty. We look forward to having the opportunity to welcome you again to a stay experience you truly deserve.

All the best,
Case Manager
IHG® Hotels & Resorts – Guest Relations
United States and Canada

Response from the Hotel:

Greetings From Holiday Inn Singapore Little India.

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback on your recent stay, and please allow me to apologize for the inconveniences you encountered and the delay in a resolution.

We pride ourselves on providing all our guests a most enjoyable experience and I am disappointed that we let you down.

I have credited your account with 20,000 IHG One Rewards points as a gesture of our sincere apologies. I hope this gesture, restores your faith in our services and that you will give us another opportunity in the future to provide a more enjoyable experience.

Please allow me to be your point of contact for any future stays or for any queries you may have, I will be more than happy to assist.

My team and I truly hope to have the opportunity to welcome you back in the future.

Kind Regards,

Conclusion

There were several issues with this hotel, perhaps mostly due to staffing issues. This property is expensive for a Holiday Inn, charging upwards of $300+/night or 25-30K points which sets a level of expectations.

The points were posted to my account the same day, and I felt the 20K was reasonable for all the time wasted.

After the second night, I had enough, checked out of this Holiday Inn, and moved to Westin Singapore, where I had one of the best hotel stays in years with amazing service in such a nice property. It’s nice to see that some hotels can still get things right.