An Arranged Affair

chapter 70

The next day we went out for sightseeing.

As much as I had wanted our time here to have continued the way it was, I had a deadline and I was no closer to finding a way out of this stalemate with the staff and management.

We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, both of us observing as best as we could, looking for the cracks behind the illusion of a relaxed holiday environment with happy staff.

“ You’ve lived in a hotel all your life, what do you think is happening?” I asked Victoria quietly over my cup of coffee. “ What can you see?”

“ my parents hotel is tiny compared to this, and we always had our share of staff issues but there are some issues that I can see.” She said tucking into her omelet. We hadn’t eaten much yesterday and she obviously hungry. I wasnt surprised. Yesterday had been a workout for both of us.

“ care to elaborate?” I said as I stole a bit of egg from her plate. My plate of pastries didn’t seem so appetizing anymore.

“ Well for one, the are understaffed. There are over 30 tables here and only one person cleaning them. The chef manning the egg station is also making coffee and I suspect that the kitchen is in a bad state considering the limited buffet on offer.

To the unknowing eye everything looks ok, the hotel is beautiful , tasteful,  the staff seem friendly enough, but they look tired, their smiles arnt genuine and their uniforms are not crisp. In fact they look faded and old. Like they haven’t been replaced in ages.”

Her eyes motioned to the lobby where people where starting to pile up around the reception table.

“ There is only one receptionist handling the busy checkout period. There should be at least two.”

“ What else do you see?” I asked, truly wanting her perspective.

“ it’s a hotel with over 300 rooms plus the villa. But its almost 10am and I only see one cart ready to get on with the cleaning for the room turn over. If they don’t have enough clean rooms by 2pm then you will  have angry guests to accommodate. I would take a look at how many complimentary meals have been given out over the past few weeks.

In fact, I wonder how many complaints management and staff have been dealing with.  That would be a great way to start finding out what’s going on here.

I also googled the recent reviews and they have been dropping recently. Mostly due to service and cleanliness.

Also this late in the morning and the pool area hasn’t been cleaned and is still closed also doesn’t look good.”

We ate the rest of our breakfast in silence as we mused over our observations.  Initially I had thought playing secret agent with my wife would be fun, but it was turning out to be a depressing ordeal.

While the island itself was quite large , the main areas where fairly central.

I loved as she was genuinely delighted as the valet drove the two door convertible up and she giggled as I opened the door for her and motioned for her to get in before I drove her off for a day of fun.

 I took her to the local underwater world and  she laughed and giggled like a child as we stood by the preserved jaws of a huge shark, watched in awe at the brightly colored fish and stingrays swam in the man made coral reefs and I laughed as she made a comment wondering how some of the fish would taste deep fried in spices, at the end of the walk she pulled me into the photo booth, making us take about a dozen silly photos.

The next stop was the local handicraft market and we walked around hand in hand, watching as locals hawked their wares, as well as fresh vegetables and seafood. There was even a few chickens in woven bamboo baskets obviosuly meant for someone’s dinner table.