Night At The Mariott

We had a complimentary stay at the Pune Mariott on SB Road pending for almost a year, and decided to finally avail of it this weekend. We got a nice room, with a lovely view of the city spread out in front of us, on the 16th floor.

I liked these switches - it's the small things like these that bring class to a decor.

Lovely view from the room early morning...

We have always been thrilled with the service there, and last night was no different. We had been to the Italian restaurant, and having just had room service an hour or so earlier, weren't really too hungry. When the time for billing came, I offered by Membership card, on which I was expecting a 30% discount on the total bill. The waiter came back a few mins later expressing regret at being unable to offer a discount, since it required a min of two main courses, and we had just had starters, one main course and two mocktails. I said OK, and told him to get the cheque.

And to pleasant surprise, when the bill came, they had waived off the mocktails - to compensate for being unable to offer the discount.

Being in the service industry myself, this was absolutely wonderful to experience. So, what was so great about it?

1) They have rules, and they stuck to those - since their systems wouldn't allow exceptions
2) They still found a way to reward their customer
3) The person at the billing counter was empowered to take that decision - remember, this was not a usual request/scenario

Kudos to you, Pune Mariott!