Two fail marks and an enterprising laundry operator

In Hue, there was an Italian restaurant just two doors down from our hotel.  Our tour guide recommended it so we decided to try.  Wendy’s warm salad arrived so I suggested that she start it while I was waiting for my steak.  Big mistake!  Wendy had finished before my steak had even left the kitchen, and when it came was it medium-rare?  Nope, it almost moo-ed when I stuck the fork in.  I sent it back twice before I lost it and refused to pay.  The manager tried to salvage the situation by offering free desserts and a 10% discount for our next visit but there was no way we were coming back, and even more certain, we spread the word to the other 18 passengers on the bus.

When we arrived at the Rosemary Hotel in Hoi An, Mrs Dung met us with a smile as we left the bus and gave us a card.  She operated a laundry service a few doors away.  We needed laundry done so took advantage of the offer.  We were blown away with the price, the service and the quality; and recommended to others on the bus that they take advantage of it. Two other couples that we know of used Mrs Dung’s services.  What a great return for very little cost effective effort.  3-4 laundry bags for the 3 buses a day which arrived at the hotel is a great return for a small investment in time.

Then there was our hotel in Phnom Penh.  One lift for 16 floors, a restaurant which couldn’t cope with the simplest orders and a manager who really couldn’t have cared less.  We were on this tour in order to assess how we could put an escorted tour together for our Skylark Tours company.  We always assess a tour before we start selling it and guess where we would never stay with any of our groups?

So, two fail marks and a big tick for Mrs Dung.  There were many other examples but these three stood out.