Facebook user Jisoo Lee recently took to Facebook to voice her shock after finding her hotel that she stayed for her stay home notice infested with cockroaches. She was offered a change of room several times and each of the rooms had the same problem as they were all infested with cockroaches.
Here is the full story.
#SHNHorrorStories PSA to anyone planning on serving SHN in Singapore soon: If you get assigned to the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, LEAVE!! (TLDR; Cockroach infestation in the entire building.) Read below for my full account:
On Nov. 24 around 2AM, I took a bus from Changi Airport with the rest of the guests who flew from Japan to SG on our way to the SHN destination. We ended up at Grand Copthorne Waterfront, and after check-in I was designated to a room on the 26th floor. After taking a shower and getting ready for bed around 4AM, I saw a small cockroach crawling on my table and then started to look around; then on the bedside table I saw two more roaches moving about so I killed them and called reception for a room change. They were kind enough to change rooms for me immediately, so I settled into a room on the 30th floor.
The day went fine and I saw no roaches in sight, and felt comfortable eating my food in my room. I still kept everything clean and made sure there were no food remnants. Around 7PM that next day, I saw ANOTHER live roach crawling on the bathroom doorway so I killed it and called reception again. Their response was to just leave a Baygon spray at my door to deal with the issue. I got pretty upset and complained, and they offered to switch me to ANOTHER room. Third time’s the charm, right? After that, my friend told me I should call the SHN hotline for help but I was incredibly unlucky and my person basically told me, “Sorry, you have to stay in that hotel there’s nothing we can do.” Real helpful.
Next, they had their Korean employee call me (I guess they thought that would appease a fellow Korean better) and he offered to move me to another room where they will inspect and spray with Baygon first before I move in. I asked him what was going on, and he explained to me that since CB they had yet to pest control the place, and since they were rushed to host SHN guest they didn’t have time to pest control. But he assured me that pest control was coming the next day, so I shouldn’t worry.
With that, I entered a new room on the 22nd floor; although it reeked of Baygon, at this point I was desperate in trying to feel safe so I just sucked it up and slept the night. The next day I was less guarded given that they were working on pest control, and from the events of previous days I was pretty tired and slept at 10PM. At 4AM I woke up to use the bathroom, and LO AND BEHOLD there were two roaches on my table and on the wall! At this point I knew it wasn’t coincidence so I started to take pics (see below). I called reception again and they said the same apology, offered to move me to another room and I was BEYOND FRUSTRATED. This obviously isn’t going to get better by moving me to another room, at this point it seems like it’s a hotel-wide issue.
The next morning, they had another hotel manager call me and offer to switch rooms; she claimed that they have had pest control work and check on the room for me to move in, so I did. Meanwhile, I called SHN hotline again for better luck, and I did! The lady sympathised with my disdain for roaches and asked me to fill out a form, and she’ll try to expedite my request for a hotel change.
Later that day, I moved rooms to the 21st floor and at this point, I was skeptical. I didn’t even bother unpacking my things because I knew I was going to find a roach somewhere. I inspected the room for 5 minutes, and on the bathroom wall I saw one small live roach j’chillin (see below) and I called reception again. To them they claimed again that they thoroughly pest controlled and checked the room, so why did it take me such a short time to encounter one?! I was livid at this point.
I was livid because everyone serving SHN (including I) have to pay a fixed fee of S$2,000 for a 14-day hotel quarantine, and I can’t believe my money and time is being spent on a roach-tel! The reception told me that the best I can do is call the SHN hotline to try and see if they can move hotels for me quicker.
Later on, reception called again and offered to move me to a different style room on the 5th floor, where it’s more spacious and “bright” so that the roaches can’t get to me? When I went down the floors and onto the hallway, I was still sketched out and scoped the walls to see if there were still any signs of roaches; indeed, there was. On the wall near my newly-assigned room, I saw a live roach chilling on the wall (see below). This has got to be a joke at this point.
I’m currently still here, and although I’m now in a bigger and “nicer” space, it doesn’t matter because I’ve slept through the night with all the bright lights on due to fear that I’ll encounter another roach pal during my sleep. I’m writing this to reach out to anyone else that has perhaps stayed at this hotel thus far for SHN, or is currently staying here and is experiencing the same thing. At first I was gaslighting myself, but if it has happened this many times on different floors, it can’t be a coincidence.
Pretty bummed that if this hotel was not ready for SHN guests, that they still went through with it and it is still actively a hotel housing guests all paying an equal amount of money for this quality of experience. Not to mention, if I am perhaps to be positive, I could have potentially contaminated 5+ rooms in the hotel due to unfit living conditions, which is not in the hotel’s or my best interest.
The SHN hotline this morning said that the hotel has “addressed” my concerns and is pest controlling the hotel. But with this many roaches in various rooms, it seems like it won’t be a successful sweep, especially since pest control can’t enter rooms with quarantined guests present in them. For a 5 star hotel to get to this point is disappointing. If a hotel is not ready to serve guests, then don’t!! Have you had any similar experiences while on SHN? Let me know…