Letters From Management

For the last two weeks, we've been staying at the Hotel Apollo in Ramsburg. Ramsburg isn't exactly the ideal location to stay in Johannesburg but it's done the job. We were originally supposed to stay at another hotel but at the last minute were changed to this one. Apparently the other hotel didn't actually exist. Ole Ole told us that they booked the other hotel four years ago; the hotel then was an office building and supposed to be converted into a new hotel for the World Cup. For whatever reasons the hotel was never finished and hence we ended up in the outskirts of Jo'Burg.

The Hotel Apollo is a nice hotel but seems like it isn't 100% ready for business either. For example, my bathroom is missing a toilet paper ring. Another person's room was missing outlets. Also, all of our sheets and pillow cases seem to be right out of the packaging; they smell and feel like they've never been washed. The staff was also putting more furniture into the common areas the other day and even yesterday they were painting the staircase.

The other indication that this hotel hasn't been up and running for a long time is the unintentionally comedic letters the hotel keeps putting under our doors. Here's the first letter we received, the day after checking in, which lambastes all the hotel guests for apparently eating in the rooms:



The irony of this letter is:
a) Um, don't people always eat food in their rooms? Has this hotel never heard of room service?
b) Upon check-in, the hotel had a welcoming spread of cookies, jerky and drinks in the lobby. People were taking some food, getting their hotel room keys and going to the room.
c) In the room is a hot water heater and coffee/tea packs.
d) There is also a cabinet in the room which is clearly meant for a mini-fridge. I would bet that the lack of a mini-fridge is only because the hotel isn't 100% finished yet.

The second letter wasn't quite as ridiculous. However, the punctuation is embarrassing (says the guy who constantly has grammar/spelling issues on his blog). On top of that, it's sort of strange for a hotel to tell its guests when they should leave their rooms in order for them to be cleaned.



Anyway, after living in hotels for basically three weeks, I'm ready to return to my own apartment where only Huyen can tell me what to do!