This was our first ClubMed trip. I had a certain expectation after reading the review from trip advisor. Unfortunately, We are disappointed the moment we arrived. The check-in process was just too long.
The receptionist was receiving a Chinese family when we arrived with another Singaporean family. The receptionist decided to process our check-in altogether (3 families) by asking all our passports while we seated at the lounge being served with warm tea and hot towels. That’s very nice but what we needed more was our rooms and dinner after travelling for 18hours and our boys missed their lunches due our transit flight at Beijing. Anyway after 15min, we were given our room numbers. We paid for 2 rooms but we were allocated only 1 room. So the receptionist had to check again. That’s another 15 mins of waiting. The other 2 families waited behind me till they also got very impatient. I was told that the 2 rooms allocated to us were across opposite each other (3029 and 3030) however, that’s not the case. I guess he knew that we all waited for too long so he had a very quick brief: meals venue and time, and how/where to book ski/snowboarding lesson for next day - that’s all about the briefing. We didn’t know where to rent gear equipment/ski wears and we didn’t know there’s Annex B and night activities.
The next morning, after breakfast, we asked around about rental of gear equipment and ski wears. After finalising the sizes we needed, to my surprised, both counters asked for my white cards which I had no idea what was that. After much checking, then I realised it’s a card that was stapled with my 2X RMB 5,000 deposit which I left it in my room. The receptionist didn’t tell me about the purpose of white card when I check-in. Without the white cards, it just made the rental process longer when we were rushing for our first day first lesson. Also, when I wanted to purchase the ski gloves, I was told cash is not acceptable and nothing else work when we don’t have WeChat pay or Alipay. Not till Alice, the Boutique Manger came to my rescue, otherwise I would have to skip my first day snowboarding lesson with my family.
Next, is about the guest rooms. On our first night, after dinner, we smelled cigarette smoke in room 3030 though this is a non-smoking hotel. The housekeeping came to check and said that might be due to the earlier guests who checked out. Shouldn’t the housekeepers ensure all checked out rooms are cleaned and cleared for next check-in guests?
Now it’s the room temperature in my boys’ room (3029). My boys had to suffer hot and stuffy room throughout their stay in ClubMed, esp for my younger son who has eczema. I called the reception and was told they would turn off the warmer that run underneath the floor but that it would take 3-4 hours to cool the room. We opened the windows to cool down the room. Question was should we leave the window opened throughout the night? What if another guests smoke at the window? What if the warmer was turn off and the room would be too cold with the windows open. After suffering for 3 nights, we were happy that our feedback had finally heard and the ordeal was finally over. Unfortunately they only enjoyed 1 night of comfortable cool temperature, the hot and stuffy room was back for the rest of our stay. I’m wondering why the floor heating was turn on again? In fact, there’s a warmer just below the TV. I had requested for a change of room but was told they would adjust the warmer. Are we just being too patient to wait for the miracle to happen that the warmer would be turn off? We are just disappointed that our first ClubMed experience has turned out to be an unpleasant one. It wasn’t cheap to stay in ClubMed but yet my boys had to suffer to sleep in a hot and stuffy room. Would you agree that a comfortable temperature controlled room is the basic of all hotels, esp for any 4/5 star hotels. I would love to hear your response the above.
Nevertheless, I have to commend the wonderful GOs we met to make our stay a little more pleasant despite the above unpleasant experiences.
Special thanks to the following friendly and helpful GOs:
Brandon - snowboarding coach
Alice - Boutique Manager
Helen - Reception counter
David - Reception counter
Black - Gear rental
Brandon and Alice joined us for our last meal at ClubMed. It feels wonderful to have the above GOs to send us off. The GOs were the ones that made our stay a pleasant one. Unfortunately I have to mark down the rating due to the guest rooms.
