Poor crisis handling
Mar 27, 2020 mugearsuk London, United Kingdom
The idea of a General Manager is to work under pressure, in times of extreme challenge and difficulty. This is the difference that substantiates the responsibility and larger pay pack. Unfortunately, the GM at The One & Only in Cape Town is unable to work efficiently under this pressure, as clearly identified in the recent Covid-19 outbreak. Upon…
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The idea of a General Manager is to work under pressure, in times of extreme challenge and difficulty. This is the difference that substantiates the responsibility and larger pay pack. Unfortunately, the GM at The One & Only in Cape Town is unable to work efficiently under this pressure, as clearly identified in the recent Covid-19 outbreak. Upon delivery of the President Ramaphosa's lockdown from Thursday 26 March 2020, the GM's decision was to simply cancel all bookings for this night (and subsequent nights) and simply blame the Governmental mandate (yet ignoring elements of the Mandate whereby Hotels were not locked-down, and Foreign travellers were required to stay in their hotel for a minimum of 14 days, which would have been One and Only in our case). Now I don't blame Hotels for this business decision to close (since the Governmental rules were extremely unclear and contradictory), but when you're a luxury hotel charging upwards of £650/night, the minimum expectation is that Guests are at least contacted with an explanation and apology, and considering the brand, some effort to re-house the guests at alternative accommodations. I was instead required to call the hotel (several times) and when I spoke with the GM (who was less than apologetic about our plight), he told me to book somewhere else and then hung-up on me (twice). I was in Cape Town with my wife and 1 year old Son, but it seems the GM was more than happy to leave us homeless on the streets of Cape Town. We stayed in this Hotel previously and could not find a single fault - it's truly representational of the Incredible One & Only brand. But quite frankly, the treatment of guests on this occasion is both appalling and cowardly, by a GM that has clearly spent his time coasting yet as soon as a real challenge presents itself, he collapses under the pressure.
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