'We were shocked as it is a five-star hotel in Singapore, a country known for its high standards of service.
'They immediately alerted the management, who refunded their three night's hotel stay of $597 and waived their Internet charges.
The Electric New Paper : Hotel housekeeper cleans up... ...in more ways than one
Worker caught on webcam stealing alcohol from guests
She picks up bottle... unscrews the cap... ...and pours out the booze
THEY suspected that someone might be stealing alcohol from their whisky bottle.
By Veema Bharwani 16 October 2007
THEY suspected that someone might be stealing alcohol from their whisky bottle.
So three Hong Kong tourists staying at the Hilton Singapore set up a webcam to see if they could catch the culprit on camera.
The result?
A 20-second video clip of a hotel housekeeper pouring whisky from the guests' bottle into an empty water bottle.
She repeats the process by pouring more whisky from another bottle into a separate water bottle.
The video was recorded on a webcam attached to one of the tourist's laptops.
This was the last thing the trio from Hong Kong was expecting on their weekend getaway in Singapore.
'We didn't expect this to happen in Singapore. We were looking to have a good time here,' said Mr Manoj Budhrani, a 28-year-old businessman.
The three men were in town for a weekend getaway from 28 Sep to 1 Oct and stayed at the Hilton Singapore.
They started their weekend by popping open a one-litre bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky in their hotel room on Friday night. They said they had bought it for $237 from the airport duty-free shop. They also had a bottle of the less expensive Johnnie Walker Black Label.
They left the bottle in the room and went out clubbing later that night.
The next day, just before stepping out to lunch, one of the three men, MrJai Chulani, 28, remarked to the other two: 'Wow, we drank a quarter of a bottle last night. Not bad.'
But when they returned to the room at 5pm the same day, they noticed the level of alcohol in the bottle had dropped from the three-quarter mark to the half-way mark.
'We would not have noticed it if Jai hadn't remarked how much we drank before we left for lunch,' said MrBudhrani.
He said the others teased him saying he must have been drinking the alcohol on the sly.
'I told them it wasn't me,' MrBudhrani said with a laugh.
'We knew something was up because when we came back the room was clean. So someone had been there in our absence.
'We were convinced that someone was taking our alcohol.'
Not willing to let the incident rest, Mr Chulani suggested that since he had a laptop with a built-in webcam, they could leave it on to record what was going on in the room.
So on Sunday morning, just before leaving the room for the afternoon, the three men created the perfect setup.
They turned on the laptop and its camera, pointed it towards the side table on which the whisky bottles rested and pressed the record button.
They made sure that the laptop had its screen-saver on, so it couldn't be seen that it was recording.
Also, since they had almost finished the first whisky bottle, they opened a second and drank a bit out of it.
'We thought if someone was taking the whisky, they were trying to be careful about it and wouldn't take it if it was obvious - like when the bottle was too empty or too full,' said MrNavin Gaba.
Later that Sunday, when the trio came back to the room, they got a shock when they scanned through the five-hour long video recording.
CULPRIT CAUGHT
The camera caught a housekeeper, who looked to be in her late 40s, swiftly pouring some 20 per cent of the whisky from the first and second bottles into separate empty water bottles.
She did this without hesitation.
Added Mr Budhrani: 'We were shocked as it is a five-star hotel in Singapore, a country known for its high standards of service.'
Added Mr Gaba, 28: 'It's not how much she stole but the principle behind it.'
They immediately alerted the management, who refunded their three night's hotel stay of $597 and waived their Internet charges.
The hotel's general manager, MrAlain Mahillon said they had reprimanded the employee involved when asked what action was taken.
The hotel would not confirm if they have or are planning to file a police report against the housekeeper, or if the housekeeper had been dismissed.
They also declined to comment on whether they run background checks on staff before employing them.
He would only say: 'Guest satisfaction is key to our business and we strive to ensure all team members receive regular training and development to ensure they deliver the quality of service that our hotel name is renowned for. We regret that this isolated incident occurred.'
But the guests are not entirely satisfied.
Said Mr Budhrani: 'We are seriously considering filing a police report as we don't want other guests to go through what we went through.'
On complaints of theft and similar incidents in hotels, The Singapore Tourism Board's director of communications, Mr Muhammad Rostam Umar, said: 'STB does receive feedback from all sectors, including hotels. The Board is committed to providing prompt assistance to affected visitors by channelling their complaints to the relevant agencies for their necessary action.'
For example, if a tourist complained of a theft while staying here, STB could advise the tourist to file a police report.
Consumers Association of Singapore executive director Seah Seng Choon said that while it had not received complaints on thefts in hotels, there had been other complaints like unsatisfactory service and hotels over-charging for bookings made over the phone, among other things.
'The complaints were usually resolved by means of refunds, discounts or complimentary vouchers,' he added.
The irony in this case is that the staff may have got the liquor anyway.
Said Mr Budhrani: 'We would have never been able to finish the two bottles of whisky on our own. We would have left the unfinished bottles in the room for the staff.'
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Worker caught on webcam stealing alcohol from guests
She picks up bottle... unscrews the cap... ...and pours out the booze
THEY suspected that someone might be stealing alcohol from their whisky bottle.
By Veema Bharwani 16 October 2007
THEY suspected that someone might be stealing alcohol from their whisky bottle.
So three Hong Kong tourists staying at the Hilton Singapore set up a webcam to see if they could catch the culprit on camera.
The result?
A 20-second video clip of a hotel housekeeper pouring whisky from the guests' bottle into an empty water bottle.
She repeats the process by pouring more whisky from another bottle into a separate water bottle.
The video was recorded on a webcam attached to one of the tourist's laptops.
This was the last thing the trio from Hong Kong was expecting on their weekend getaway in Singapore.
'We didn't expect this to happen in Singapore. We were looking to have a good time here,' said Mr Manoj Budhrani, a 28-year-old businessman.
The three men were in town for a weekend getaway from 28 Sep to 1 Oct and stayed at the Hilton Singapore.
They started their weekend by popping open a one-litre bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label whisky in their hotel room on Friday night. They said they had bought it for $237 from the airport duty-free shop. They also had a bottle of the less expensive Johnnie Walker Black Label.
They left the bottle in the room and went out clubbing later that night.
The next day, just before stepping out to lunch, one of the three men, MrJai Chulani, 28, remarked to the other two: 'Wow, we drank a quarter of a bottle last night. Not bad.'
But when they returned to the room at 5pm the same day, they noticed the level of alcohol in the bottle had dropped from the three-quarter mark to the half-way mark.
'We would not have noticed it if Jai hadn't remarked how much we drank before we left for lunch,' said MrBudhrani.
He said the others teased him saying he must have been drinking the alcohol on the sly.
'I told them it wasn't me,' MrBudhrani said with a laugh.
'We knew something was up because when we came back the room was clean. So someone had been there in our absence.
'We were convinced that someone was taking our alcohol.'
Not willing to let the incident rest, Mr Chulani suggested that since he had a laptop with a built-in webcam, they could leave it on to record what was going on in the room.
So on Sunday morning, just before leaving the room for the afternoon, the three men created the perfect setup.
They turned on the laptop and its camera, pointed it towards the side table on which the whisky bottles rested and pressed the record button.
They made sure that the laptop had its screen-saver on, so it couldn't be seen that it was recording.
Also, since they had almost finished the first whisky bottle, they opened a second and drank a bit out of it.
'We thought if someone was taking the whisky, they were trying to be careful about it and wouldn't take it if it was obvious - like when the bottle was too empty or too full,' said MrNavin Gaba.
Later that Sunday, when the trio came back to the room, they got a shock when they scanned through the five-hour long video recording.
CULPRIT CAUGHT
The camera caught a housekeeper, who looked to be in her late 40s, swiftly pouring some 20 per cent of the whisky from the first and second bottles into separate empty water bottles.
She did this without hesitation.
Added Mr Budhrani: 'We were shocked as it is a five-star hotel in Singapore, a country known for its high standards of service.'
Added Mr Gaba, 28: 'It's not how much she stole but the principle behind it.'
They immediately alerted the management, who refunded their three night's hotel stay of $597 and waived their Internet charges.
The hotel's general manager, MrAlain Mahillon said they had reprimanded the employee involved when asked what action was taken.
The hotel would not confirm if they have or are planning to file a police report against the housekeeper, or if the housekeeper had been dismissed.
They also declined to comment on whether they run background checks on staff before employing them.
He would only say: 'Guest satisfaction is key to our business and we strive to ensure all team members receive regular training and development to ensure they deliver the quality of service that our hotel name is renowned for. We regret that this isolated incident occurred.'
But the guests are not entirely satisfied.
Said Mr Budhrani: 'We are seriously considering filing a police report as we don't want other guests to go through what we went through.'
On complaints of theft and similar incidents in hotels, The Singapore Tourism Board's director of communications, Mr Muhammad Rostam Umar, said: 'STB does receive feedback from all sectors, including hotels. The Board is committed to providing prompt assistance to affected visitors by channelling their complaints to the relevant agencies for their necessary action.'
For example, if a tourist complained of a theft while staying here, STB could advise the tourist to file a police report.
Consumers Association of Singapore executive director Seah Seng Choon said that while it had not received complaints on thefts in hotels, there had been other complaints like unsatisfactory service and hotels over-charging for bookings made over the phone, among other things.
'The complaints were usually resolved by means of refunds, discounts or complimentary vouchers,' he added.
The irony in this case is that the staff may have got the liquor anyway.
Said Mr Budhrani: 'We would have never been able to finish the two bottles of whisky on our own. We would have left the unfinished bottles in the room for the staff.'
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