China Service And One Tiny Tiny Hotel Comment. Meaning Versus Nothingness.

I think your email buddy is seeing something that ain’t there.  The manager didn’t call the guest a liar; he is informing the guest that they don’t have a record of these types of complaints and he is trying to figure out why the complaint was made.  He doesn’t blame the guest for choosing the wrong home; he makes a suggestion for making future stays more comfortable and putting the world on notice of how to make their stays more comfortable.

Maybe when one is abroad in a ‘different’ environment, the ‘morality’ of the different people you’re living with is highlighted.  But your local US newspaper will let you know exactly how moral folks are at home.

First i would say that Chinese and western customers are generally treated differently in China with Lao Wai given far more respect than Laobaixing. I think it is fair to say that Chinese firms trust customers far less than western firms. Try to return a good at a retail chain anywhere in China. You’d think you were on trial. The level of paperwork, hassle and obvious suspicion is significant. This comes from 2 things: first,there is a lot of fraud in China and commercial firms must create policies to prevent being hurt from scams; thus, the Draconian processes that go with responding to just about any customer issue. Secondly, clerks are generally not empowered to make spontneous customer decisions (ala Nordstroms). They are taught to follow procedure and they will not deivate outside what they think is policy no matter how obvious the solution might be. In fact, most fuwuyuan will tell you “not company policy” and expect you to understand. Mainlanders usually accept this. But say that to a westerner and they will say “i don’t give a flying &$%* what your policy is.”

East meets west.

I can only comment on Chinese hotels, as my travel takes me 90 % of the time to some smaller Chinese hotels, often far way from the big cities.

The staff simply does not care, they know that most likely you will be back, because they are the only hotel in that city.

In other places they don’t care, because they get their salary despite their lousy service.

Same goes for banks, China Mobile and Unicom etc etc.

Is it better somewhere else in the world? I don’t know! But I often gave up on commenting, as commenting has the same effect as explaining Einsteins Theory of Relativity to a barnyard animal.

The majority of the comments have this right, perception is not reality. This emailer’s perception is the tail wagging the dog. What the manager is saying is that there was no “report” of any noise problem (such as an argument or disturbance out of the “ordinary”) so it was likely from a “normal” source such as the lift. Besides, this post doesn’t state where the noise was coming from at all. Were the workers laughing and talking in the hallways? Was construction going on in the area? Is it on a busy street with lots of traffic and horns blowing?

Honestly, I’d rather get a thoughtful honest response like this manger gave, recognizing the “normal” and from someone who actually thought about the source of the problem, than some foreigner who “knows what to say” or gives the “proper accepted response” and then does nothing about it.

If you ever read hotel reviews by Chinese websites, this is pretty much the standard response.  First deflect the criticism and make it the customer’s problem, and then say something about you will look into it or fix it, and tell them to come back next time.  

Also, I am pretty sure the hotel manager did not write it.  Most likely it is a paid service by the hotel chain to monitor and reply to online review sites.  Someone most likely earned about 50 cents RMB for posting it.  

Seriously, foreigners will understand China so much better if you learn a little Chinese and use it.  When I see “experts” that say they have lived here for ohsomany years, I just laugh, then quietly curse my bad luck because they invariably think they know China so well, but then here is a typical example where laowai are just clueless because they don’t know Chinese.  

I agree with some of the other commenters.  The manager’s response sounds like he is trying to identify and solve the problem.  Perhaps he could be more apologetic, but it doesn’t read to me like a “blame the foreigner” response.  I find this response more genuine and personal than an effusively “correct” response. But perhaps that is because I am British and have a very strong aversion to insincere bullshit along the lines of “your call is very important to us…”

Agree with the majority here. Don’t see how this is obviously the manager calling the guest a liar. He’s diagnosing the problem and suggesting a way to fix it. This is not blaming the guest; it’s thinking about how to deal next time with a problem neither guest nor hotel anticipated. There’s no way the manager can honestly say, “We’ll look into the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen again,” because there are always going to be some rooms near the elevators.

The amount of China hate being flung around in the U.S. right now is startling, dangerous, callous and plays on the very large and completely ignorant American impression of China. Only in America do we have educated congressman who believe the world is 10,000 years old, and only in America do we have a population that can be driven to damn the worlds second largest economy, because even if they have traveled to China, they take the very regular stance that America is Christian, majority white, democratic, and Western, and therefore by every margin far better than the Mandarinate. We have allowed ourselves to be distracted into the position that China is Evil. 

I could point out that the average Chinese person has one sexual partner in life, and the average American has 14. I could toe the economic line and remind everyone that the savings rate in China is close to 30-40% annual salary, whereas in the United States its closer to 0%. I could remind everyone that the United States is number one of the list of nations by incarceration rate, and that China is number 121, well behind Taiwan. I could point out that gun violence is much rarer in China, drug abuse much less common, and thievery startling lower. We could point out the rising standard of living in the China and the falling standard of living in the United States. I could emphasize how religion is used as a tool of disenfranchisement and a vehicle of hatred domestically – I could name the massive amounts of American religious leaders that have lead there congregations to ruin, and I could remind everyone that China has the only female Imams in the world. The list is endless and the point is this…

America and China are different nations. We are different culturally, ethnically, even physically. Neither of us are superior or inferior, we are simply not the same. We each have our individual strengths, and our individual weaknesses. 

Most importantly, we must both be very cautious of branding each other, we must avoid the necessity of conflict, and we must reject the notion that difference means dissonance. 

China will be the world’s largest economy. For many years it has not been a question of if, but of when. With the likely collapse of the European Union, and with double dip recessions, possibly depressions seeming much more probable throughout the West, China’s ascension has been slowed, but not stopped. 

We as Americans have a choice. We may embrace the ideals that our great nation was founded upon, beliefs of freedom – freedom of religion, the freedom to choose one’s destiny. If we accept these freedoms we must accept China’s ability to choose its own. And make no mistake that China will control its direction, in whatever way and in whatever time the Chinese people will. 

I for one have chosen to embrace the better angels of my nature, to accept the things about China I will never understand, and to instead focus on the areas of mutual success and opportunity. But I fear for the safety of the future when my countrymen seem to be unable to do the same. 

My father always said to me, “remember son, that when you point your finger at others, three fingers point back at you.” 

Let us not be a nation of fingers, but of thumbs. Thumbs are a lot more constructive. 

That response reminds me of the book by Bill Bryson, the American travel writer, on the UK… in the 70s! 

I have no idea how anyone can interpret the manager as being amoral, nevermind extrapolate to Chinese society! Look at their attitudes to family…

A broad-brush suggestion: Chinese bad apples are more prominent than Western ones, but otherwise equal in volume. Chinese bad apples are not generally ostracised from society, so long as they have something to offer (albeit cash or influence in the right places). Family will usually support them. Undeserving people get jobs through connections.

In Western society, criminals are locked up, jobs are lost – bad apples are not necessarily supported through thick and thin by their families. Undeserving people do not get the jobs. They stay undeserving, and can be identified as such. Western societies have underclasses. Is it that Chinese are not so good at sweeping their bad apples out of view? Class (UK) and segregation (US) are part of Western cultures.

I’ve found generally that whenever you make a comment about service (or lack thereof) that the Chinese person on the receiving end interperets as lashing out or barking at them,  their viceral reaction will be to retaliate and defend themselves and the company they represent.

Perhaps the writer of said comment would have had a different experience if they had lowered the tone of the statement posted online.