I’m really kind of pissed off now. Iceman and I took a look at Swissotel Merchant Court just now and we concluded that our preference would be to go with Hyatt. However, 3 things that the banquet manager at Hyatt (Ms. Brilliance) said / did is making my blood boil.
Firstly, she told Iceman and I that she has blocked the dates we want and the deadline is 13 June 2008. This deadline then shifted for no reason to 9 June 2008, but I got it changed to 10 June 2008.
Secondly, Brilliance told me today that to secure our booking tomorrow, we need to pay $5k deposit, followed by 50% of the outstanding balance 1 month before the wedding dinner, and the rest the night of the dinner.
I felt that this was strange because no other hotel has any requirement on payment to be made 1 month before the dinner. I did a check with 4 other friends and confirmed that this is unheard of.
Thirdly, Brilliance told us previously that when we confirm the booking with Hyatt, she will prepare the documents required for us to sign. During our tele-conversation this afternoon, I asked Brilliance to prepare the said contract. However, 2 minutes after we ended the call, Brilliance called me to say that there’s nothing to prepare since we negotiated the terms of the contract over email and thus everything has been captured.
I told Brilliance frankly that I’m not sure what is the norm when it comes to booking a wedding dinner venue but if this is the norm, then ok. However, having done a check with friends, it seems that this is absurd because w/o a contract, how will we verify what the hotel has agreed to provide? Moreover, my concern is that if Brilliance resigns or gets terminated (given how stupid she appears to be), will Hyatt honour email exchange with an ex-staff? Email exchange, while providing some form of "evidence", is not an enforceable contract.
So now I’m thoroughly annoyed with Brilliance, who I suspect is a really really new staff. That’s probably why there was a more experienced staff supervising her presentation to us last Tue.
I must say she spoke eloquently and has pretty decent English. Sadly, her "brilliance" blinds me.
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P.S. Should I call Hyatt’s main line and ask for the more experienced staff to serve us?
i want a bottle of white n red wine on my table…
Mai like that leh… K requested to be seated at a “white wine” table. 😛
call the banquet manager….or whoever that she reports to – it’s your wedding so they may have done weddings many times over, but you’re doing it once – and you’re entitled to get things cleared, before any payment.