toenail clippings and glass chards

I didn't mention this in my review.

However, on our cruise we got a notice that our carpeting would be cleaned on a certain day between 10 and 3 pm.. If there was a problem we should call.

We called to say that there wasn't a problem, however, while you're here could you clean up the balcony,there's toenail clippings out there and there was a glass shard that dh picked up...there may be more.....

Next day we were scolded by our cabin steward....

He said we should have discussed our concerns with him first....

We got him into trouble....

We did feel bad ... and after thinking about it I told my husband that, perhaps, I shouldn't have said anything...

Were we wrong?

BTY: the toenail clippings were still there and remained there for the rest of the cruise.

I didn't mention this in my review.

 

However, on our cruise we got a notice that our carpeting would be cleaned on a certain day between 10 and 3 pm.. If there was a problem we should call.

 

We called to say that there wasn't a problem, however, while you're here could you clean up the balcony,there's toenail clippings out there and there was a glass shard that dh picked up...there may be more.....

 

Next day we were scolded by our cabin steward....

He said we should have discussed our concerns with him first....

We got him into trouble....

 

 

We did feel bad ... and after thinking about it I told my husband that, perhaps, I shouldn't have said anything...

 

 

Were we wrong?

 

 

BTY: the toenail clippings were still there and remained there for the rest of the cruise.

I would always, always start with the room steward. If he doesn't follow through then you are absolutely justified in reporting the situation to the front desk. The room steward should have cleaned your balcony before boarding, so you do have the right to expect it to be clean. His supervisor was probably right to scold him for not having done his job. Working from the bottom up often gets quicker and better results than working from the top down. There are usually less hard feelings that way too.

I didn't mention this in my review.

 

However, on our cruise we got a notice that our carpeting would be cleaned on a certain day between 10 and 3 pm.. If there was a problem we should call.

 

We called to say that there wasn't a problem, however, while you're here could you clean up the balcony,there's toenail clippings out there and there was a glass shard that dh picked up...there may be more.....

 

Next day we were scolded by our cabin steward....

He said we should have discussed our concerns with him first....

We got him into trouble....

 

We did feel bad ... and after thinking about it I told my husband that, perhaps, I shouldn't have said anything...

 

Were we wrong?

 

BTY: the toenail clippings were still there and remained there for the rest of the cruise.

No, you did nothing wrong but it is easier to mention a problem to the steward first.

The steward was definitely out of order to attempt to scold you.

In this case I hope you reported the matter again. Not cleaning balcony to remove the 'clippings' was unforgivable. 99.9% of HAL's cabin stewards do a first class job but you sometimes find one who is not up to scratch. Your steward deserved to get into trouble.

Stephen

Cabin stewards should NEVER scold the passenger -- PERIOD.

Cabin stewards should NEVER scold the passenger -- PERIOD.

I agree with you totally. The cabin steward was way out of line in scolding the passenger.

I agree with Grumpy

You should have started with the steward .

, while you're here could you clean up the balcony,there's toenail clippings out there and there was a glass shard that dh picked up...there may be more.....

 

 

 

BTY: the toenail clippings were still there and remained there for the rest of the cruise.

eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww !!! :eek:

I'd blame that on the slob who was in that cabin before you.

But all kidding aside, I'd mention it to my cabin steward 1st. Not a 'demand' like some enjoy doing, but a discreet "look at those ... someone forgot ! ... can you use the vac when you get a chance?"

Hopefully the steward is no longer telling passengers how to clean their room. I hope the comments from the room steward were also passed on. I don't want this person on my cruise.

As well some stewards are never around......never available to talk too except at tip time, which is now "automatic" on most cruises.

Griswalds

Next day we were scolded by our cabin steward....

He said we should have discussed our concerns with him first....

We got him into trouble....

 

 

Were we wrong?

 

 

BTY: the toenail clippings were still there and remained there for the rest of the cruise.

An appropriate response: A letter to the Hotel Manager telling him that you didn't need lectures from the cabin steward, then a followup call asking why the h*** your balcony was still contaminated.

You're a paying customer. How long would you put with that in a hotel?

But what I would like to know is, was it 'really' a scolding??

Maybe the way the steward was talking, it sounded like that?

I mean, did he have fire in his eyes? ... Was he yelling? Because facial expressions say a lot.

:confused:

Stewards should not be "scolding" pax, period with or without fire;) ! He should have made sure those body parts were removed from the balcony before that cabin became "yours" for your cruise! I would have mentioned it to him first though:)

Follow the chain of command. You should have gone to the steward first. Just think what it would be like if everyone went over your head to your boss when something is wrong. I know I try and do my job to the best of my abilities every day , I also know I some times do miss stuff. I would rather hear it direct so I can fix the problem instead of it coming from the higher ups.

Were we wrong?

 

BTY: the toenail clippings were still there and remained there for the rest of the cruise.

No, you were not wrong at all. The cabin steward clearly was not doing his job for those clippings and glass chards to have remained out there for so long. He should have had them cleaned up prior to your embarkation.

And, if they continued to remain out there after he was informed of their existence by the front office, I would have complained yet again about them ... and about his work ... to the front office. I also would have deleted his auto-tip in a New York minute over it.

Blue skies ...

--rita

Follow the chain of command. You should have gone to the steward first. Just think what it would be like if everyone went over your head to your boss when something is wrong. I know I try and do my job to the best of my abilities every day , I also know I some times do miss stuff. I would rather hear it direct so I can fix the problem instead of it coming from the higher ups.

If it's just a request you have, and you go above the steward's head ... yes, I see your point. But in this case, the problem should have been attended to long before the OP got into her cabin. The steward clearly was not doing his job if he left such things out on the OP's balcony. I am sure checking/cleaning the balcony is a part of the steward's job description ... especially on embarkation day when the room's previous occupants could have left a mess.

No, the OP merely "innocently" mentioned the problem to the front office. But regardless, it represented a service lapse that, at least to me, goes far beyond something that the cabin steward may have innocently missed. If he got into trouble because of it, he got into trouble because he clearly wasn't performing up to the standards of his job.

Blue skies ...

--rita

Follow the chain of command. You should have gone to the steward first. Just think what it would be like if everyone went over your head to your boss when something is wrong. I know I try and do my job to the best of my abilities every day , I also know I some times do miss stuff. I would rather hear it direct so I can fix the problem instead of it coming from the higher ups.

Exactly how I feel.

Where I work we call that "Bagging" someone.

I am not talking about some gross infraction that should be reported to a higher up.

If everything else in the cabin was in order , then the toe nails on the balcony could have been a simple oversight . Maybe the steward got tied up with something else and it slipped his mind . Like I said hardly a gross infraction of anything.

I feel the OP should have first mentioned it to the steward , if he took care of it right away, fine. If not or if he gave an attitude, then you go over his head

The situation was innocent. There were carpet cleaners coming and wanted to know if there was a problem during the specific hours. I think the call asking for the extra care was in innocent request. If the cabin steward were doing his/her job, he would have shown up, introduced him/herself, and asked if there were anything that needed attention. It is the cabin stewards error not the poor customer! Is there a booklet given out when checking in on whose job is what and who to request what service from? Who is on vacation here? Just my opinion. We all want to be friendly with our cabin steward and give them the benefit of the doubt but they should know their job and be aware of the cleanliness of their areas without being told. I suspect that if the customer had been asked if all were ok, they would have asked to have the clippings removed by their steward before the other notification for cleaning came up.

eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww !!! :eek:

 

 

I'd blame that on the slob who was in that cabin before you.

I wonder if said nail clippings were visible to someone not seated on the balcony? This might explain why they were missed. It's not like they were empty glasses or overflowing ashtrays or something obvious. I mnean, does one look out their balcony door and go OMG, there are toe nail clippings on the floor?

Who knows, they might have been swept there from a balcony above. If it had been me, I probably would have taken care of it myself and cursed the slob who did this.

I really like to give the employees the benefit of the doubt but if one complained to me about what I did and how, I would not be happy. The customer is ALWAYS right. The steward should have apologized and ask that any future problem be brought to his/her attention without the customer being made to feel at fault for their error.

It sounded more to me like the op was merely trying to let the desk know there were no problems with the carpet cleaning and they happened to mention it. I am sure at the time they had no idea that telling the desk instead of waiting for the steward, would cause problems for him. IMO the steward, if he approached at all, should have said "please come to me in the future. Speaking with the desk instead of me does not give me a chance to rectify the problem and could negatively impact reviews on my service." I would understand, accept and appreciate that more than being chastised. The toenails maybe I wouldnt have made a big deal about and swept off myself (although that could just result in it falling on someone elses balcony) but the shard of glass is unacceptable.

Your cabin was way out of line!! He doesn't have the right to scold a passenger.

But if we found anything like that, we would our cabin steward first. Then if it wasn't taken care of, we would go higher -- in our case we would then mention it to our concierge and explain to her/him would we found, that we had mentioned it to our cabin steward but the problem wasn't taken of. In your case you have to go to the front desk.

I'm the OP.

Let me reiterate and/or explain further.

This was not the first day of the cruise, it was more like the second.

We came back to our cabin and there was a notice that tomorrow we'll be cleaning your carpet between 10 and 3. If there's a problem, let us know, and we won't do it. So I called to say while you're here, could you clean the balcony too....etc. I didn't even think I was going over the steward's head, because I just thought it was easier for them to just do it since they would be there.

After the request the furniture on the balcony was moved, so I guess they were out there, however, maybe the vacuum or whatever wasn't strong enough to pick up the clippings.

On the last day, they were out on the balconies with pressure hoses, so I'm sure the clipping were washed away for future passengers.

Our cabin steward did a good job with our stateroom, so I guess I thought well maybe he doesn't go out on the balcony.

There was no "fire in his eyes."

He probably was a little nervous over this because when he delivered the surveys he said "don't kill me, I could lose my job." And then he offered to deliver them to the front desk for us....LOL.

If anything, I was more annoyed that he brushed off our complain that our cabin was too warm by saying maybe the previous people had left the balcony door open. If he had been proactive about that, we might have not had to go to Mr. Deering at our CC meet and greet. That was resolved to our satisfaction.

unfortunate set of circumstances

think confusion may have come about because of notice "to call" if you had any questions about carpet cleaning .. the notice in all likelihood didn't say to contact your steward with any questions

on the other hand, since you probably saw your steward daily (or at least knew where to find him at certain hours), you probably should have talked with him first

at the same time though, totally agree with Prinsendam: your steward had no right whatsoever to criticize or "scold you" ..

had that happened to me, I would have reprimanded him directly; if I didn't receive an immediate apology, the phone would have been picked up

in more than 25 cruises on HAL, I've had only 1 bad experience with a room steward .. even then, like you, I ignored it

hopefully this your first and last bad experience

all in all, IMHO you did nothing wrong; certainly, nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about

How to resolve your problem........next time you cruise, just don't have a balcony :-)

Firstly, the stewards neither sweep the balconies, nor do they clean them daily. They do tidy up the balconies on a daily basis (removing dishes & towels, cleaning ashtrays, etc.) but only hose them off about once a week - and generally not on turnaround day. Secondly, there's a rather wide gutter beneath the balcony railings to catch most of the water & debris and direct it all towards a drain just so things like this won't come raining down on the lower decks.

My guess is that our poor hapless steward wasn't so much 'not doing his job' as he was 'following standard proceedure' - which obviously wasn't sufficient given the circumstances.

My feeling regarding the "scolding" is that our steward wasn't angry with our OP for reporting this to the front-desk, but wanted to convey to the guest that they should feel free to come to him first so that he can take care of these things directly - and that his message got somewhat lost in translation.

:(

I still don't understand how anyone (be they the previous occupants of the cabin or those in the cabin above) could expect someone else to clean up their toe nail clippings! :eek: DISGUSTING!!! The cabins DO have trash cans.