CROWNEDGE HOTEL IKEJA; UNDOUBTEDLY CREATING AN EDGE....

Minnimal parking space and location in an area some may perceive as mildly notorious might count as some of the drawbacks of this 16-room, pocket-friendly budget hotel. However for prospective guests willing to look past these factors, Crownedge Hotel looks set to make its mark in Lagos' hospitality sector.

The rooms are clean and spacious, service is friendly, the surroundings are well kept and the food is probably the hotel's best offering. Their wide of range of tasty, innovative and well-prepared dishes is simply unrivalled amongst most hotels in Lagos, including the household names. 

Opened to customers less than a year ago, Crownedge has set a standard that budget hotels in Lagos should strive to attain. It is hoped that the Nigerian syndrome of starting strong and fizzling out does not affect this potentially excellent hotel.

WURA'S RATINGS: ****

ORANGE RESORTS, CALABAR: CLEARLY PROVES THAT NOT ALL THAT GLITTERS IS GOLD!!!

A word of advice to impending travellers to the city of Calabar; if your stay entails hotel lodging, it's imperative you stay at a hotel that's been recommended to you by someone who's stayed at the hotel you have in mind; or one which you have seen personally and approved. Checking out hotels on-line is not a safe bet, no thanks to photo-shop. 

A recent trip to Calabar for the Festival took me to Orange Resorts on MCC Road, recommended and booked for me by WAKANOW.COM...well, the hotel turned out to be nothing close to the pictures I was shown. I distinctly remember asking the WAKANOW Agent whether or not they had properly vetted the hotel by visiting and approving it.....in response, she went on-line to flaunt great looking pictures of the hotel. 

I still had my doubts, but I decided to place my fate in WAKANOW's hands. Wrong move it turned out! On arrival at the hotel, I simply could not stay, despite the fact that I had paid N78,000 for a 4-night stay. Incidentally, I met other disappointed guests who also felt short-changed by WAKANOW's lapse of judgement. Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot they could do about it, as hotels during the festival period were fully booked.

Orange Resorts is not all bad. The staff are certainly very friendly and accommodating.  And, the truth is with a few touches here and there, the hotel has a lot to offer prospective guests. Mouldy rooms, unkempt surroundings, and a generally run-down looking facility are things which can easily be rectified. In spite of its lack-lustre state, it probably still remains the hotel of choice for their loyal customers. However, hotel owners in general, owe it to guests to ensure that they avoid misrepresenting material facts about their establishment to prospective guests.  It helps guests make an informed choice when scouting for a hotel to stay. 

The owner's response to a request for refund was less than friendly. He is quite happy to pocket my N78,000 even though a guest occupied the room I rejected that same day. Well, Mr Owner, the hospitality business requires that you be hospitable....and this includes being fair and decent when dealing with your customers. We hope you take note. If by next year's festival, significant improvements have been made to your hotel, we would be more than happy to write about it. Our focus is simply to shape Nigerian's customer service culture. Period! There's no vendetta going on here.




WURA RATINGS: **

WAKANOW.COM-HOW FAR NOW?

If anyone out there knows someone who knows someone at WAKANOW.COM.....kindly get them to spare a few minutes to tell Nigerians what procedures (if any at all) they adopt to vet the hotels they so gladly recommend to unsuspecting guests. I ask this because a recent experience with a not-so-appealing hotel called ORANGE RESORTS along MCC Road in the city of Calabar, so enthusiastically recommended to me by WAKANOW Staff really raised questions about WAKANOW's professionalism and more importantly, their commitment to excellenct customer service delivery. I will tell you more about my unpleasant experience in a later blog. Stay tuned!

WURA RATINGS: **

ETISALAT CUSTOMER CARE ATTENDANTS: NOT SO GEEKY AFTER ALL!!!

Confident that their Customer Care Attendants ooze product knowledge from head to toe, Etisalat uncannily calls them 'Geeks.' Well...it turns out that may not necessarily ring true. On the contrary, Etisalat should perhaps consider undertaking a massive clear-out of its Customer Service Attendants.

My brother recently purchased one of their SIM cards for his newly acquired blackberry phone. Two frustrating weeks into loading the phone with his Sim card, with numerous fruitless trips and calls to both their service and call centres, his data services remained inoperable. All the attendants he spoke or met with simply did not have a clue what the problem was. At every turn, he would get fobbed off with the excuse that it was a network problem and that he should remain patient.

He was on the verge of pulling out the sim and ripping it up, when he instinctively decided to give it one more go. Luckily he got through to a Call Centre Agent, a certain Mr Arinze, who sorted out the supposedly insoluble problem within minutes. What was the problem? The Agent enquired from my brother whether or not the phone was branded to which my brother answered in the affirmative. He then instructed him to go into the phone's settings and check the TTIP-IP settings. He did and discovered that it was set on T-Mobile rather than Etisalat. The Agent further instructed that my brother remove T-Mobile and type in Etisalat, after which the phone was to be switched off and turned back on within moments. To my brother's amazement and delight, all data services immediately kicked into life. Within minutes, problem solved. 

The Agent requested that my brother give the names of the agents he had spoken with, but my brother declined on the basis that he did not want anyone losing their job on his account. I disagreed! I think he should he have given those names if indeed he knew them. It is typical of Nigerians to condone or accept mediocrity. My take is rather simple; if you don't know the job, you don't deserve to keep it. At the end of the day, who is getting short-changed? We the customers! His refusal in my opinion amounted to misplaced sentiments. If after all the product knowledge training those agents obviously received, they are not able to solve problems, why on earth are they working as customer service agents or attendants?

Incidentally I have an Etisalat line as well as an Etisalat modem; and I have to confess that I find the network far more reliable than others out there, especially MTN. Nonetheless, it is evident that the telecommunications provider should go back to the drawing board and work out viable solutions to ending the proliferation of customer service agents or attendants whom are simply ill-equipped to offer the quality of service that a telecoms giant like Etisalat can and should consistently deliver.


WURA RATINGS: ***