Poor customer service
My husband and I recently stayed at the Burgh Island hotel to celebrate our Ruby wedding anniversary.
The location of the hotel and access to it is unique and the Art Deco building and interior decoration, which extends to the bedrooms, are beautiful and lived up to our expectations of this famous property.
The restaurant menus were imaginative, the food was excellent at all meals and the waiting staff were efficient. Unfortunately this was frequently not the case elsewhere and it was difficult to find staff during the day. In the evenings cocktails were served in the Palm Court where the service, such as it was, was chaotic. There seemed to be plenty of staff but no management of them so that tables were left uncleared for a considerable time and, even having removed glasses etc, were not wiped off. We waited over half an hour before our cocktail orders were taken, by which time it was time to go in for dinner.
When we arrived our room was not ready so we walked around the island and then went back into the hotel where we explored the public rooms. On two separate occasions in under two hours, we were challenged, rather aggressively, by members of staff as to whether we were residents. While we understood why this might be necessary, we felt that their attitude was inappropriate and presupposed that we had no right to be there.
We were very surprised by how impersonal the service was and that, throughout our stay, no effort was made to make us feel like valued guests, with the notable exception of a couple of junior staff who were delightful and helpful. However, not once were either of us addressed by name and whenever we spoke to a member of staff we were asked to identify ourselves by giving the name of our room.
We had notified the hotel in advance of our special occasion, but similarly there was no recognition of our anniversary, apart from a card left in our room for our arrival. In such a small and exclusive establishment we had expected far more in the way of personal interaction with the staff and found this omission rather odd and very disappointing.
On our return we were sent a questionnaire by the Director of Guest Relations to whom we replied with our detailed comments. Some days later we received a reply from another member of staff, whose role was not identified, saying that the Director was away but would see our comments on his return. We have heard nothing from him in the three weeks since the holding reply. This has confirmed our impression that customer service is not a priority for the Burgh Island Hotel.
