Originally Posted by
Pickles
This is old-skool Asian service. I experienced it in Japan in the 1980s, and at places like the MO Bangkok. Scariest of them all is the guy who would step into the elevator with you at lobby level and press your floor button and step right out. Not just any random floor button, the one corresponding to your actual floor.
I would take it one step further: at MO Bangkok, on occasion they would not only press our floor button in the elevator, but accompany us all the way to our room and unlock the door for us without having to even say what room we were in to begin with. They just knew.
Originally Posted by
Nagasaki Joe
OK, but wouldn't that be an example of excellent service?
Exactly. If I had to use the word "scary" it would be to say "scary good" service.
Regarding staff walking away in the hallways my interpretation is that they do not want to be a disturbance and they let you have the way. I never interpreted it as a negative, but more that if it's housekeeping then they have been instructed it's not their role to guide guests to where they are going. However if it's a manager in the hallway, it is indeed their role and they do not walk away, quite the opposite.