Good --- Seeing the “New Face” of the Las Vegas Strip; Bad --- Experiencing Poor Customer Service in Chinatown

Las Vegas is in a big effort of making changes. I am glad that I have a chance to see the Sin City’s “new face.” I stay in the Grand Chateau, a Marriott’s Vacation Club, which is two blocks away from the City Center. I cannot wait to check out the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Aria Hotel. I talked about these new hotel projects in my classes and also on this blog, yet I have not personally visited these two properties yet. This week, I will update my experience in Las Vegas on this blog. Let’s see if we will find that Las Vegas has made a transformational change over the years.

When I was in Las Vegas, I also experienced poor customer service in the Sam Woo Bar-B-Q Restaurant in Chinatown. Here are the dialogues between the waiters and guests:

Case 1 (Dialogue in Cantonese)

I ordered a pan-fried Chinese vegetable with garlic, but it looked yellowish to me (should look freshly green) and did not seem to be an a-la-carte item. So, I asked the waiter: Sir, I don’t think the vegetable cooked right. It looks a little yellowish to me.
Waiter 1: What? It is very green. No vegetable can look as green as this!
Me: But it really does not look freshly green to me.
Waiter 1: Are you kidding? You ask somebody else then. It is green! You do not see it just because you are wearing glasses!
Waiter 2 stepped in, and added: It is indeed green. It is because of the (yellow) lights in the restaurant.

Case 2 (Dialogue in English)

Dialogues between Waiter 1 and Two Americans Sitting next to my Table; They are white and do not speak any Chinese.

Guest: I would like to order some dessert. May I see the menu?

Waiter 1: No need. We do NOT have any dessert in the restaurant.

I soon noticed that it would be useless or would actually make any bad guest experience even worst if one speaks to the waiters in this restaurant. I know I will not go back to this restaurant anymore. I went there more because of the Bar-B-Q duck and Bar-B-Q pork (with crispy skin). The skin of the Bar-B-Q pork was not that crispy either. Once again, service is extremely important in any hospitality business! What do you think of these two cases? If you are the manager of the restaurant, what will you do to correct the guest service issue?

The pictures were taken in the Rooftop Pool at Marriott’s Grand Chateau. For more pictures of my stay in Marriott’s Grand Chateau, please visit my album on Facebook.

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