First World Hotel Genting guest ‘annoyed’ by brown tap water, 'horrible’ service and slow Traveloka refund
A guest was horrified by her recent experience at First World Hotel, where she allegedly experienced long waiting times and brown water running from the tap in her room.
Stomper Aun said she checked into the hotel on July 5 during what she described as a non-peak Sunday-to-Monday stay in Genting, Malaysia.
She had booked two Y5 Deluxe rooms in Tower 3 — supposedly the newest tower at the hotel — through online travel platform Traveloka for about $100 in total.
Although the hotel’s official check-in time was 3pm, Aun understood that guests could pay an additional RM5 (S$1.56) for early check-in from noon.
Aun said she arrived at about 12.15pm and attempted to use the self check-in kiosks.
However, she claimed there were no Y5 Deluxe rooms available at the time and was directed to take a queue number for the manned counters instead.
“We eventually got our rooms at around 2pm,” she said, adding that they were assigned one room on level 14 and another on level 18.
After dropping off their luggage, Aun and her family left the hotel before returning at around 5pm to freshen up. That’s when she said she discovered brown water flowing from the taps inside the room on level 18.
According to Aun, she approached the reception area but was told to take a queue number before she could speak to customer service. Based on the queue ahead of her, she estimated the wait could take several hours.
“At 5.20pm, our queue number is 2370, and current queue number is 2253,” she said.
Instead of waiting, Aun said her family showered in their other room on level 14 instead.
She added that she was travelling with two 75-year-old relatives, one of whom uses a wheelchair, making it difficult to move between rooms.
‘Horrible’ customer service
Aun, who described the entire queueing process as “horrible”, said she emailed the hotel to share her feedback about the tap water and long queues.
According to Aun, First World Hotel had this to say about the brown tap water: “Regarding the reported water discolouration, our follow-up inspection did not reveal any water discolouration occurring and the water condition was found to be in normal condition.
“Nevertheless, we have taken your feedback seriously and will continue to monitor the matter closely to ensure that we provide the best level of services to our customers.”
Regarding the waiting times at its front office, the hotel told Aun that it was “operating at full occupancy” during the day of her arrival and hotel staff were attending to “exceptionally high volume of guest hotel arrivals and service requests”.
Aun said she also contacted Traveloka on the evening of July 5 to seek assistance. However, she alleged that she was repeatedly told to wait for updates while she dealt directly with the hotel herself.
On July 23, she said the hotel offered to refund one of the two rooms booked — amounting to RM134.30 (S$42.40) — and a complimentary one-night stay for any future booking. However, these were subject to her signing an indemnity form.
Aun questioned why she had to liaise with the hotel herself instead of having the matter handled by Traveloka, the platform she had booked her stay through.
“I had to do all the work myself, email the hotel directly, since Traveloka kept on asking me to wait, wait, wait,” she told Stomp.
According to Aun, Traveloka processed the refund for one room on July 27 only after she shared with them the hotel’s email as “evidence”.
She added that after informing Traveloka that she had approached Stomp, the platform also offered her a $5 goodwill voucher on July 28.
“Guess what? It’s only $5, might as well don’t give,” she bemoaned.
In response to Stomp’s queries, a representative from Resorts World Genting — which owns the hotel — said First World Hotel is in direct communication with the guest and will continue to do so.
“In view of guest privacy and confidentiality considerations, we are unable to comment further or disclose details of our engagement with the guest,” added the representative.
Stomp reached out to Traveloka on July 27 and August 3, but did not get a response.
When asked if she would stay at First World Hotel again, Aun told Stomp: “I highly doubt so.”
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