Holiday Inn Islamabad

Islamabad Hotel: Bad Experience

I stayed in Islamabad Hotel (Formerly Holiday Inn Islamabad) fro 26 days.

The hotel is ideally located and suited me well because of its proximity. The room was spacious and I simply loved it. The food was generally good and moderately priced. The staff was generally courteous and nice. But at times, the phone services (laundry, room service, reception, housekeeping etc.) lacked a certain degree of warmth and passion such as being soft, kind, and courteous. Usually I called the services and seldom I was greeted warmly and with compliments. Most of the times the voices are flat and mostly unaware of who was calling and from which room.

There were some serious problems I faced during my stay:
• I battled continuously and sometimes desperately with room temperature during my stay. The temperature was often warm if not hot. I had no control over thermostat. I complained many times about cooling but nobody cared to take serious notice of it until 3 days before I had to depart when they replaced the motor so at least the fan was blowing better but temperature remained at uncomfortable point and I simply gave up. Like stated before, I called up many times and heard every kind of excuses, apologies, and assurances but it all turned out to be shallow promises. Amazingly and interestingly enough, it started cooling well the last night of my stay but it didn’t matter anymore I guess.
• Another big problem I faced was rental car. The hotel has Avis car rental booth. There was only one time I was able to get the car on time. In my early days, when I called up reception for a car, they’ll transfer my call to Avis and Avis simply didn’t have cars on all occasions but one. Either they would ask me to wait for as long as 45-60 minutes or worse once they simply said that “the car isn’t available”. The hotel also has another car service called Moon Car Rental. Moon was a little better but have limited cars and I couldn’t rely on it either. I cannot comprehend the logic of giving 30-60 minute notice for renting a car in a hotel. I was on a business trip and I would need the ride anytime and it should’ve been available. Most of the times, the trips were unplanned and/or urgent. I remember one occasion when I had to attend the meeting and Avis gave me 10 minutes waiting time but it turned out to be over 40 minutes. Consequently, I had no choice but to ask four people to come to the hotel so we could have a meeting and that’s just one incident. The fact that once they simply said – “We don’t have a car” – should reflect how damaging and inconvenient it was. I asked the Duty Manager whether I’m the hotel’s guest or the Avis’? And if I’m the hotel’s guest then the car should be arranged by the hotel when I need it rather than transferring my calls to Avis. To make the long story short, after several failed car rental experiences I either asking my friends or colleagues for a ride or had to walk out of the hotel and take the street cab. THAT IS RIDICULOUS!
• The food orders, especially at night, was often messed up - in particular on three different occasions - when I had guests for dinner. Since the last meal order cut-off time was 11:15PM (too early for me to dine), I used to request room service to put it in the warmer but when the food would be served late night, the order was generally screwed up.

Oh and by the way, don't be surprised it you are asked to sign an unprinted or hand written bill because whoever prints the bills is out or not available. Have never seen anything like this before!!
• Housekeeping making the room was generally OK but for first several days there were shortage of soap, face towels, and hand towels. Three days before I left, the trash bin in the restroom was removed and nobody cared to put another one. I felt hotel was trying to save pennies by cutting off hygiene supplies. It got a little better when I harshly complained about such insufficient amount of supplies and that alone should be the point of a serious concern.
• The internet facility in the room was although complimentary but of zero value. The signal strength was either too low or no signals at all. The net was crawling slow in the net to the point of total frustration and consequently I cared not to use it much.
• One interesting example is when I called reception at around 1:00AM to give me a wakeup call at 5:00AM but by then I was very sure that it’s not going to happen so I ended up awake all night as I couldn’t afford a chance to miss my appointment with the client and guess what? NO WAKE UP CALLS! There are several other examples when folks in the hotel promised to follow up in “10” minutes but God knows it never materialized.

I’m not too sure if hotel staff really understands the needs of guests and the quality they expect.

I will not exaggerate if I say that I ignored or not cared to brought to hotel management some other issues as I felt it was falling on deaf ear. Like I said, I simply gave up as I felt like a cry baby. And the credit goes to hotel management to make me feel that I’m indeed a cry baby who is never happy. Thanks to the wonderful management of Islamabad Hotel for giving me such a feeling.

I don’t recall If I made so many complaints during my entire life staying at any hotel. I felt everybody at the hotel thought of me as a problem guest whereas my sincere intention was not to humiliate them but rather expecting a service quality hotel like Islamabad Hotel should provide.

Having spending my whole adult life in the services industry, I witnessed clear lacking of either awareness of the importance of services qualities or it may be a simple case of inadequate training as far as the services is concerned.

Regardless of affordable food and generally friendly staff, it is hard to recommend Islamabad Hotel with a confidence for people who believe in services. Staying in Islamabad Hotel proved to be a mission

It is therefore my sincere recommendation not to consider Islamabad Hotel for your stay.