Guest User
May 28, 2024
We are from London and on a 2 week holiday in Singapore and Malacca.
It is a lovely clean boutique hotel and situated very close to all the historical sites in Malacca. Very convenient. We stayed here about 15 years ago when it was run by the previous owner. It was then a very small hotel. Unfortunately it’s lost some of its old traditional charm. It’s very modern now. We still enjoyed our stay there regardless.
We got coach from Singapore and was dropped off quite away and had to walk in the afternoon heat to get to Babas with our 4 trolley bags and hand luggage. When my daughter and myself arrived and was checking in, a kind gentleman offered to arrange our bags to be taken to our rooms in a trolley. It was a nice touch and we appreciated it. He may have been the Duty Mgr on that day. Thank you. You are a true gentleman.
The breakfast spread was excellent everyday with variety. Some pots of yoghurt would be good at a breakfast bar. The staff at breakfast were all excellent and had very good customer service skills.
We would have given 5 stars for service but here are some of our views on how it could be improved and some of our bad experiences.
1. Was let down by one of your staff at reception on our last day. We packed and just before 12 rung reception to request if someone could help us with our luggage. We were told that the hotel does not provide luggage services. I was shocked as this was entirely the opposite experience we had on day one. We managed between us to drag our bags to the lift with very much difficulty. When we came to the reception to drop the keys the Chinese gentleman who spoke to me over the phone ignored us and carried on staring at his screen. The young cheerful Malay girl acknowledged us and took the keys from us. When I asked her why we were helped with our luggage on day one and not now. All she could say was, we don’t have luggage services.
Our coach was due at 2.30 so we sat at the lobby.
While waiting we could see at least 4 trolleys sitting behind the luggage reception. The staff were not busy at all and had all the time in the world to have a joke and a chitchat at reception, but could not help us with our luggage. I lived in Malaysia before and I could understand every word they were saying in Malay. We were disgusted.
2. Double standards - While waiting at reception noticed The same Chinese gentleman who ignored us previously, seemed to have all the time for a white family who turned up. Very polite and giving all the attention to them. We came to stay at Babas as it has good reviews but didn’t realise some of your staff had double standards when dealing with people. He showed old school colonial mentality which we did not appreciate. In fact he could have possibly been the Duty Mgr that day. He needs some training on people skills and how to respect every customer irrespective of the colour of their skin, especially this year Visit Malacca 2024. You should be showcasing your Malaysian charm to make visitors feel welcome in Babas/ Malacca. Unfortunately this experience on our last day put us off Baba Hotel.
3. Group bookings / Breakfast
We noticed priority is being given to group bookings where their bags are all taken and kept at the luggage area.
At breakfast we could not even find a seat that we had to come in late every day to be able to find a seat. We may not but he part of a group booking but we still paid for our accommodation and breakfast . Perhaps you should allocate an area for group bookings so that other clients can have peaceful breakfast as well.
When we came late after 9 to avoid the group bookings crowd, the egg/ omelette area is shut. I had to request for it to be opened
We are not interested in Trip coins but prefer an explanation / apology / and the learnings from our experience as we wouldn’t want someone else to have the have the
negative experiences we had
Mrs Elizabeth Pereira
Dr Rebecca Pereira