Golden Showers

Hello all out there in Ternet land,

Hope all is well.

Busy people are often...well, busy. I tend to be one of these "busy" types and as such I don't post very often, but when I do I want to at least say something of interest...



Golden Week 2005 @ Twin Ring Motegi

The following is the letter I sent out to the English Information Line the put on the English version of their web site. The letter should speak for itself.

Horrible experience at Hotel Twin Ring

To whom it may concern,

I hope this message finds its way to the right person. I would like to tell you about what my family experienced during your Golden Week Carnival. This was the second time my family has attended the Golden Week event, and things have changed drastically. We were very shocked and dismayed by the horrible treatment we received at your “resort style” hotel.

On your English web site, it states;

“At Hotel Twin Ring, a resort-style hotel, all the rooms are spacious twin rooms where you can really feel at home and relax.

There are restaurants where you can enjoy Japanese, Italian and Chinese (Sichuan style) cuisines, and there is also a bar lounge and a karaoke room.

We hope you will enjoy a very pleasant stay in the beautiful natural setting.”

Last year, my son was only 2, and we felt it was a good experience for him to visit the race track. We reserved a room at the last minute and were treated very nicely. The food was great and the atmosphere was wonderful. Our son loved it so much that we decided to go again this year, even though the cost has increased. This year, however, we felt more cheated than relaxed. The only comfort we received at the hotel was from the bar and the gift center. There are four main happenings that really bothered us, and actually made my wife cry as we returned to our room on the night of May 3^rd.

First, upon arrival at the hotel, I was with my son and carried most of our luggage. At the time I was asked if I needed assistance, and I said that I was waiting for my wife to come back from the parking lot so that we could check-in. I was not sure which room we were to stay in at the time. My wife came into the lobby about 5 minutes later and we proceeded to check-in. After doing so, I was still with our baggage and we had to ask before being assisted with them. My wife felt uneasy about this.

Second, my wife had made a reservation over the phone, instead of over the internet. She felt more comfortable making the reservation this way. One of the first things she asked for was if course view was available, and we were told “yes.” We requested the course view as our 3 year old son loved it so much last year. However, we were placed in room 341 this year. What difference does this make? Well, please take a look out the window, and see for yourself the beautiful view of the second floor walkway to your lovely parking lot. Not the race track, not even the mountain. Thanks for nothing. My son was really excited to see the back of your building. This made us all unhappy.

Third, at dinner, we were again not too happy. We were asked when we would like to start our meal during check-in, and we asked what a good time would be, we were told that at 7:30, things were quieter. We should have said 6:30 (the earliest time).

We were shown our seats and began to get our meals. The buffet this year not only seemed to lack in quality, it was poorly maintained. It does not matter that 7:30 is the latest time to start; quality should always be a concern. As I started, there was no salad dressing, the sushi looked about a day old, there seemed to be only one worker rushing to fix things, and there was a lack of labels. If I am correct, there have been several Golden Week buffets and I assume you offer it at other times too. You are a hotel, and you have reservations. You know how many people you are going to have to feed. We all pay. If there is leftover food, it happens.

As we returned to our seats, our son tried his best to sit in the seat provided. We had to ask for a child’s seat. We received it, but then I had to ask for a child’s fork and spoon as my wife went to get some steaks for us. Great service!!! This was certainly world class treatment.

When my wife returned, she was very unhappy. It appears that your steak cook was very busy. My wife waited in line behind one lady. This lady was asked if she asked for two steaks then received them. Then, the cook looked past my wife (as if she wasn’t worth serving) and asked the man behind her how many steaks he wanted. Don’t you think this is insulting?

My wife was so angered by this that she called over a server to explain what happened. The server apologized and said she would talk to a manager. A manager did appear and listened to my wife’s complaints. My wife also mentioned the baggage and room problems which occurred earlier. The manager said that he would look into the problems and that we would be contacted by phone. After this, the steak cook visited our table, apologized (very weakly), and gave us a freshly cooked steak.

At this point, my wife was about to cry. She felt better that she had explained her disappointment, but the stress of a stay that had not been more than 2 hours till this point (we had checked in a little after 6) had already started to sink in. Not to mention that the steaks last year seemed of very high quality. This year, they seemed freezer burned and were so fatty that my son had to spit it out.

Fourth, we returned to our room and waited till about 10:30pm for a call. After, deciding that we had had enough, we went to the bar/lounge. There was only one of the other tables being used and the jazz music playing on the speakers was very comforting. The service here was great, and after my wife and son retired to our room, I had a nice time talking to the bartender. However, as I mentioned, the bar and the gift center were the only places we enjoyed.

I returned to our room before midnight and asked if anyone had called. No one had. We stayed in our room until about 7:50am and still no call. Breakfast was alright, and we returned to our room. We waited till around 11am to leave because my wife was stressed and for the call that never came (a waste of our time that could have been spent enjoying the attractions…we didn’t have nearly enough time to help our son finish the “dream adventure” course for kids). We finally checked-out and my wife again explained what had happened to the lady at the desk. The lady at the checkout counter said that she would check on the problems and that we would be contacted. We are still waiting.

You could contact me in English; however, since my wife was insulted, I suggest you contact her, in Japanese. We are both teachers and are used to respect and correct students when they make mistakes. Apparently, we need to correct older generations too. Perhaps we expected too much from your hotel. I wish we could say that we enjoyed ourselves. You made our stay, our Golden Week, something we would like to forget. I cannot recommend Hotel Twin Ring to anyone and I am hesitant to recommend anyone to even visit Twin Ring Motegi. I still can’t believe how many times we have had to explain ourselves to you without proper response.

Sincerely,

Donald Vinn Kerns

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Was it that bad? Yes.

Did we have a good time? We didn't gloom around, but it could have been much much better.

Were they actually at fault, or were our standards too high? We did go there last year and paid more this year.

What did they do (after someone translated this and gave it to the Hotel Twin Ring's management)? They called my wife and wanted to go to our home to appologize. In the end, they asked us to give them another chance and sent us coupons for free rooms. We are in no hurry to return.