Welcome, would you like Internet or breakfast?

By Yeoh Siew Hoon

I have just about an hour left at the InterContinental Bangkok before I have to leave for the airport.

The very spacious and well-laid-out room I have been given comes with breakfast.

I don’t have enough time for a full breakfast, nor do I fancy going down to the café this morning.

I feel like catching up on my work because the day before, I had been busy with a conference organised by the Thailand Convention & Exhibition Bureau, which talked about how Thailand needed to more aggressively promote itself and differentiate itself in the meetings and incentives market particularly in these depressed times and ultra-competitive market.

However, there is a charge for Internet access – yes, some hotels are still holding out on this. It’s 341 baht for one hour and 642 baht for one day.

I had already paid for one-day access the day I arrived. It ran out just after midnight. And I had topped up with another hour even though all I wanted to do at that time of the night was to access my Content Management System to upload and edit copy in time for a deadline. I went online for 15 minutes.

So I am torn – should I pay another 341 baht this morning? I don’t have to check my mails – I have my Blackberry – but it’d be nice to download some attachments in the time I have left and maybe do some longer emails.

I don’t think I am a mean traveller like I am told by the latest Expedia survey that the French are. I pay when I want to.

The night I arrived, I had an in-room massage which I gladly paid for because it put me to sleep like the baby I still wish I was.

I don’t like, however, being made to pay for something that I think should be as essential a requirement as a pillow in a hotel room. And if I have to pay, I don’t like having my choices limited to two options – one hour or one day.

I have a pillow menu that I haven’t bothered to look at – the pillows I have been given are divine enough for the two nights I am here. I have agreed not to have my linen changed because the hotel tells me “your choice makes a difference” in a card that contains the Green Globe logo.

I wish though they’d give me more choices beyond not having the linen and towels changed.

For example, wouldn’t it be nice if they’d offered me some choices at check-in? If I didn’t want breakfast, could I have Internet access instead?

And really I don’t need the pillow menu, could I have something else instead – like Internet access?

My needs are simple. I don’t ask for much, just for a better recognition of my needs.

After all, we live in an age of personalisation and customisation – there should be a way of understanding different customers’ needs instead of offering everyone a “one size fits all” model.

I understand this might take some work on the part of the hotel and it might inconvenience them, but it would be of great convenience to the customer.

In every other way, however, my stay was pleasant. The room service attendants were gracious. At breakfast yesterday, the service was attentive and efficient.

The chef who prepared my breakfast noodles was sweet – he offered to help bring my bowl to my table; I think he was afraid I’d spill his creation. The security guards by the lifts “wai” you everytime you take the lift up to your room.

At the TCEB conference, I talked a little about how our industry needs new thinking about how we do things in this new world where so much has changed and where customers are far more empowered and more savvy (and okay, demanding) than they used to be.

It would be nice to start with the basics.

Catch Yeoh Siew Hoon every week at The Transit Cafe.