Giotto's Lodge in Bangkok

Unfortunately,I can't commit to any specific dates but will try my best to attend. May right now looks good but my trips are never formalized until last minute.

Sorry to all.

I found a terrible review in Agoda today, a young Australian couple rated us "not recommended" and added the following comment:

"We must finally emphasise how horrible and difficult the reception staff have been. The level of respect shown to us was so low as to border on contempt, and this is honestly no exaggeration - it must almost be experienced to be believed. It is a very, very far cry from the expected Thai way of smiles , politeness and respect. These girls seem very unhappy and are terrible at their jobs. We do not recommend this hotel."

Wow...that's a clear message. In a report in the Bangkok Hotel thread about us I also found side note about our front desk staff (in this case the indian staff member).

In many other reports the Front Desk staff (especially the indian lady) is mentioned for her exceptional service, friendliness, smile...

How different the impressions from customers are.

Anyway, we hired two more Front Desk staff recently, and today I had a meeting with them and talked about "smiling faces". Most of our front desk staff are women, and as we all know those female animals are sometimes moody (especially indians). Front Desk staff should not be moody, a customer always deserves a smile.

I take this report seriously, such a review is not good for our reputation. And I will watch the Front Desk staff from now on personally - we obviously have to improve in this department.


Giotto

[QUOTE=Giotto]My friends,
PS: Did we already agree on date for a Board Meeting? The weekends in May:

03./04.05. ,
10./11.05. ,
17./18.05. ,
24./25.05. ,
31.05./01.06. .[/QUOTE]



The dates that work best for me are:

10./11.05.
17./18.05.

[QUOTE=PassinThrough]The dates that work best for me are:

10./11.05.
17./18.05.[/QUOTE]
As of right now, that works for me.

[size=-2] PS. That will probaby change by tomorrow, though[/size]

Sorry to hear of your loss.

[quote]Anyway, we hired two more Front Desk staff recently[/quote]Have we also lost Nancy? :( She best front desk staff any hotel :)

Indo Phile thinks staff treat customers same as customers treat staff. Some customers think hotel staff are servants and should do everything. Hotel staff are there to serve but not servants. Also some customers are thinking that they dont need to be nice to staff because its their job.

Have to accept staff cannot always do what customers want and hotel dont have always what customer wants. Indo Phile stay in several hotels that are having bad reports of staff on Agoda or TripAdvisor but never have problems with staff in these hotels.

The only problem Indo Phile ever have with Livingstone staff is they keep winning at pool :( Next time, want to stay in a room with own pool table so can practice.

[QUOTE=Indo Phile]...
Have we also lost Nancy? :( She best front desk staff any hotel :)
...
[/QUOTE]Indo Phile,

No, Nancy still works here, and obviously she is the one targeted by this reports...

I am quite confident that we can fix this.


Giotto

[QUOTE=Giotto]
Nancy still works here.....

I am quite confident that we can fix this.
Giotto[/QUOTE]
Send "The Pipe" in to do the dirty work, and whip her into shape. He can slap her around a bit, and she will be fine.

[size=-2] I'll take pictures...[/size]

I knew Giotto would look after Nancy. She's a great asset to the Lodge. Maybe she'd had a bad day - happens to all of us. She's a little shy but always smiling when I see her. 1Ball knows I'm in love with her (and thanks to Auntie Guido, Nancy knows this also). ;)

[QUOTE=Payfornoplay]...

If you are looking for hotels in the caliber fo JW Marriott, you should perhaps try the Davis at the end of soi 22 where it meets soi 24 or the Dream hotel on Soi 15.

1Ball mentions livingstones, but truly, that is nowere near the class of the aforementioned locations. Plus, there is no drama with Davis or Dream. Livingstones is a has-been old lodge on a has-been old street. Nothing good coming out of there, for sure.

You may also want to consider a serviced apartment. There are many discussed here. And you will have complete privacy with all the pampering of a first class hotel.[/QUOTE]Payfornoplay,

I moved this over to this thread, because it is related to Livingstone's Lodge.

Now I don't know what is old here at Livingstone's, the rooms are 3 resp. 2 years old, approx. same old as the Davis and Dream hotel, but much "younger" than JW Marriott. And the road Soi 33 should also be same old as Soi 22 ... don't really understand all that.

Why nothing good is coming out of here, for sure - is that a Livingstone's problem or a Soi 33 problem? Weird, somehow ...

-------

Payfornoplay, you wrote another report about the Hi-Esarn restaurant in Soi 22, and a report [which I deleted] about Mrs. Giotto in the TT Kindergarten thread. I don't want to call it an agenda already, but I got the message.

Background:

Mrs. Giotto opened a restaurant in Soi 22, called "Hi-Esarn", in January 2008, with full support of equipment and staff from Livingstone's Lodge. It is nicely decorated and offers Thai and Isarn food. She was hard working setting all this up, and the business is picking up already. Once the start-up problems are fixed I will write a longer report about that restaurant in the Bangkok thread, to support her business and recommend a good Thai/Isarn restaurant to the readers of this forum. But it is not so easy to do that, there is a thin line between recommendation and spam, if you are personally involved in a business.

As most of our readers and visiters may know there are some private issues ongoing in the background, which I was writing about when all the story started, but I stopped to mention this here immediately thereafter because it simply got too private for all involved parties. Today I consider it as a big mistake that I wrote about that story here in the forum.

Payfornoplay, please do me a favour, report about the good places in Bangkok, support Mrs. Giottos restaurant with factual information, we all want her to run a successful business. We send our customers from Livingstone's over there, if they want to try a different kind of food - I know that Mrs. Giotto is an excellent cook.

If something is wrong with Livingstone's Lodge or Soi 33 let us know what it is, and I will comment on that, too.

Finally - please let us keep all personal problems out of this forum.

Thanks,


Giotto

[QUOTE=Piper1]I knew Giotto would look after Nancy. She's a great asset to the Lodge. Maybe she'd had a bad day - happens to all of us. She's a little shy but always smiling when I see her. 1Ball knows I'm in love with her (and thanks to Auntie Guido, Nancy knows this also). ;)[/QUOTE]Piper, you are always welcome :)

I guess everyone can have a bad experience when staying some place other than home. But I have to agree that the lodge is a good place to stay. I was there last November for 10 days. Everything was good. The room was clean, the front desk (mostly Nancy) was very helpful, and Guiddo and his assistant helped out with information when needed. The location was easy to move around from and soi 33 offered many opportunities. I will be returning in March to Bangkok and will again be staying at the lodge.

Mackin

Giotto
Couple of posts on other threads about more elections and an alchohol sales ban this weekend? True/false? Are you affected?

Please say no!

[QUOTE=Giotto]Indo Phile,

No, Nancy still works here, and obviously she is the one targeted by this reports...

I am quite confident that we can fix this.

Giotto[/QUOTE]

During my stay in November .... in defence of Nancy, it never even occurred to me she wasn't even thai.

as quote from Piper1 "Maybe she'd had a bad day - happens to all of us"

The room maids tried to help me set the code on the safe, but her with very little english and my almost no thai, I was bound to fail.
she was more than very helpfull and courteus - she was the one who was finally able to 'train' me on programming the room's safe. All with a genuine smile!!

[QUOTE=Sonic Bam]...
Couple of posts on other threads about more elections and an alchohol sales ban this weekend? True/false? Are you affected?
...
[/QUOTE]Sonic Bam,

Yes, we are affected - we cannot sell alcohol on Saturday, Sunday are the elections. And the police is very serious about this, they come in to check.

Officially we also cannot sell on Sunday until midnight, but usually this eases up around 6 pm, the polling stations close at 3 pm alreaddy.


Giotto

Gnaaaahh!!!!!! Bxxtard politics!!!!!!

First part of my arrival plan, a couple of cold beers, is screwed then.