I promised to write about my experience in Sheraton Chennai so here it goes...

I chose to stay in Sheraton Chennai this time since it's closer to the office and I liked what I heard about their membership benefits.

My first night in the hotel, however, was not very postitive. They put me on this "Lady Only" floor which was unusual but I didn't mind it. The air of the room had a stale taste. The TV was fuzzy. The air conditioner was loud and it woke me every time I was about to fall in sleep.

By the time I got up from my first night of sleep I was ready to change hotel to Taj where I had stayed and liked last time. I felt annoyed because I wasn't sure I could find a room in Taj.

At breakfast, I was again a little disappointed because the food was average. 

Just as I was about to finish my meal, a very pretty young lady came to my desk and asked how I liked my breakfast.

I said "It's good. Thanks." I wasn't really expecting much from her thinking she was just there because she was told to be there and she didn't mean to do much, just like in the case of most hotels.

She went on to ask, "Did you have a good sleep last night?"

I hesitated but then decided to say, "Well, actually I had some problems last night. I'll talk to the reception."

She said, "You can talk to me."

I was skeptical so I asked, "Did you say that I could talk to you about the problems?"

She moved her head in the peculiar way that Indian people did to say yes.

So I said, "Cool! Well the air conditioner was really loud and it made this louder noise and woke me up every time I was about to fall in sleep. The air in the room was stale. The TV was fuzzy."

As I was talking, she took out a lillte notepad and started to take notes. She then promised to follow up and fix all the issues for me or find me a better room if needed. She then asked about when it would be a good time to send people to work on the room. I told her that I was planning to leave at about 9am.

At exactly 9am, someone knocked on the door of my room. It was the air conditioner technician.

I told him that there was a small change of my scheduel since my taxi wouldn't be here until 10:30am or maybe 10:45am. He then asked if he should come back by then. I said yes.

At exactly 10:30am, there was another knock on the door. It was the air conditioner technician coming back as agreed. I said my taxi should be here soon and he could check on the air con if he liked. He started to work on it. About 10 mins later. He found the problems and a solution. I could reduce the noise by using low fan. He showed me how to do that and the result was good enough. At that moment my taxi arrived and I left the hotel while the air con technician called and was waiting for his colleague to come and fix the TV.

In the evening I returned to the hotel. There were two young ladies standing behind the hotel door. This was nothing unusual since most hotels had similar arrangement and most of the time the greetings were half-hearted. One of the young ladies here, however, greeted me warmly. She also asked for my room number. Once I told her she knew that I had reported the problems with the room and asked if she could accompany me to my room and check together if everything was good now. This surprised me nicely.

Back to my room, I found that the TV now hadr sharp pictures except a few local channels which was not a concern for me. The air con continued to work well. The air was much better. She asked if I was ok with the room or if I preferred to change the room. I said this was very good and I didn't need to change my room. She left her business card with me and asked me to call her should I need anything at any time.

The rest of my stay there was uneventful but I enjoyed it.

On the day I was leaving. I asked if someone could help me getting my luggage down while I was checking out. The check-out didn't take long but as I turned to look for my luggage, they were all there at the concierge. As I walked to the concierge, the guy with my luggage greeted me with no hesitation. Somehow he knew who I was. He asked if there was anything that I thought the hotel could improve to make my experience better. I said the service was the best that I'd ever experienced but the facility could use a little bit of renovation. He thanked me and reminded me that a survey will be sent to me the next day and suggested that I put my recommendation there.

As I left the hotel I knew that I was going to stay with Sheraton Chennai again next time I visit.