When travelling either on business or leisure, I would in most cases stay in hotels. I don't particularly pay attention to whether it is a five-star or B&B outlet. As long as it is clean , comfortable and having basic amenities and those having room service would be a bonus. On short business trips and hard pressed for time, I would normally patronise the room service for meals. Recently in Kuching, the company booked me at the Hyatt. It is a nice hotel ( overlooking the waterfront ) and most importantly, the hotel employees make you feel welcome with their smiles and will go out of their way to please you. And on this occassion, I was on the Energetic mode ( highspirited, fully charged-up after a successful meeting ) and so I did call for room service for a late lunch of Bee Hoon Goreng Pedas ( hot fried noodles) and Catherine of Room Service repeated my order and informed me that the meal would be ready within 20 minutes. Sure enough, the food arrived within 16 minutes ! It was a huge portion, enough for two people and indeed it was value for money; and yes indeed the Bee Hoon Goreng Pedas lived-up to its name and it was pedas which I thoroughly enjoyed - the prawns were just right, the sliced chicken were great and the slices of squids were equally excellent. Mind you, Catherine ringed me and asked how was the food , and is there anything else that I wanted and whether I was pleased with the service given by the room service staff that delivered the food to the room. I rated it 5/5 without hesitation.
The following day, I was in Kota Kinabalu and was booked at another hotel which I am quite familiar with but had not tried their room service. This time around, I did. I ordered Nasi Goreng Api Api ( hot fried rice ) and a desert. The food arrived in 25 minutes flat. It was a normal portion and it was not hot at all as promised and to use the word Api Api was an embarassment of the first degree ! It had 3 pieces of shrimp ( not prawns), an upside-down under-developed fried chicken wing and a small mini dish ( you can imagine how small it is ) of pickled cucumbers which I suspect was at least 3 days old. And to add salt to the already gangrene-like wound, my room had no bath towel. After calling housekeeping 3 times, a single towel arrived a good 45 minutes later. Both hotels are rated 4 or 5 star status but definitely one has lost its glitters.
