Billy Bird

Monday, April 24, 2006

100% Customer Satisfaction - Radisson Falconer, Copenhagen

For the first time ever I am in Denmark and there is no snow. I see Copenhagan in the spring through the window of a taxi as I make my way from the airport to the office. A taxi, I might add, that took a while to find since all taxi drivers were apparently on strike at Copenhagen airport. What they didn't tell us was that they were only on strike at the airport. Walk across 6 lanes of traffic, trailing cases behind you (remember Frogger?) to the nearby Hilton and the same taxi driver who was on strike at the airport was more than happy to follow us round and pick us up from there! Oh, the joy of industrial action.
A 4am start and a hard day at the office necessitates a good hotel for the night. Unfortunately, in the day and age of corporate cost cutting, a Radisson is the only option. Not so bad, I've stayed in far worse and at least the front lobby no longer doubles as a car forecourt as it did last time I was here.
Alas, no gym, and as someone who is supposed to be training for Race for Life, I was gutted enough to resort to a glass of wine from the minibar to drown my sorrows. Amazing how 150 emails can seem less stressful after a glass of wine. TV was broken and I was told that a room change was the only option and I could have my minibar wine for free "for the inconvenience". Cool - I can cope with that type of inconvenience.
Dinner was a farce. Half way through our starters, my colleague felt something fall into his lap. A delightful look of disgust on his face and his dinner was nearly returned to his plate. The "thing" on his lap was a cockroach! A small cockroach admittedly, but a cockroach all the same. Its presence was met with general amusement by the waiting staff who politely asked if we had ever seen "Victor/Victoria". Once convinced that we hadn't planted the creature ourselves, they were happy to stamp on it and serve our main courses. Sadly, appetites were somewhat diminished, despite the free glass of wine "from Mr Cockroach" (still a squashed mush on the floor next to our table).
Further compensation followed with the offer of a free movie in our rooms. Sounded good at the time until I switched on the TV. A choice of porn, porn, porn or porn. Not my cup of tea. But I guess they meant well. Sheds a new light on the card I had previously ignored, strategically placed on my pillow: "At Radisson we guarentee you'll be satisfied". Ho Hum.

2 Comments:

  • At 2:01 PM, Blogger Mary Cross said…

    Hi, I'm also a business woman from the UK working in Copenhagen. I've been here every week for the past 6 months. I'm also training for the Race for Life, there's a nice run round the lakes of St Jorgen which is 5km and good training!!

     
  • At 3:34 PM, Blogger tash said…

    Hope you did well in Race for Life. An awesome experience.

     

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