Bathroom Woes!

It is extremely difficult to find affordable hotels with spacious bathroom suites, in the destination of my not-so-secret vacation!

Besides location, an attached bathroom suite is a must for me prior to checking into any hotel. It doesn't have to be huge but decent enough to hold a shower or a bathtub. For the past week, I've been searching online and you would not believe how hard it is to find affordable hotels with decent bathroom suites and facilities where we're heading! Most bathroom suites in hotels within our budget are either too tiny, without doors, weirdly-shaped or just plain tiny!

"The shower is absolutely ridiculous. It is hard to get in because the door cannot open wide enough due to the toilet."

"The bathroom was a large glass cubicle which was only part-frosted; not especially pleasant to see, hear, and smell everything."

"Shower so small you can barely fit in it. Water runs all over the floor. Wash bowl faucet sticks out the full length of the wash bowl, hard to wash your face."

These 3-star and 4-star hotels should seriously consider upgrading their bathroom suites. I hear Better Bathrooms recently launched a new range of value bathroom suite packages, why not give them a visit?

Here, you can get all your bathroom needs including the popular ceramic toilets and basin sets as well as a huge range of bath styles. The sets start from just £199.95 for a complete bathroom suite. Home owners renovating bathrooms should also check out this fantastic deal as well as the thousands of high quality hand selected bath room products available. All products come with a guarantee for better peace of mind and better shopping experience at Better Bathrooms.

While we understand that in this particular part of the world we're heading, rooms are tiny and bathroom suites tinier; the negative customer reviews leave us undecided and we have yet to select a hotel. One thing's for sure, I doubt the bathroom suite in the hotel we finally book would be as spacious or as luxurious as the ones I'm accustomed to below. Am bracing myself for the worst now so I won't be shocked later!

Trader's Hotel, KL

Gardens Hotel, KL

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MONICA
ELAI
LADY JAVA

The Time I Received 36 Red Roses

Did I ever tell you about the time I received 3 dozens of beautiful red roses, delivered to my office by a red-faced hotel PR Manager?

You see, I was planning my wedding reception and dealing with a new PR Manager at a hotel here in PJ and spent weeks going back and forth to this hotel; discussing menus, dates, decorations, seating and so on. At long last, I managed to finalize everything with this PR Manager who verbally agreed to my rates and requests. Throughout my dealings, I offered to pay the deposit for my booking several times but he kept on insisting that I did not have to pay anything just yet.

A few weeks before the wedding, I received a call from the hotel saying my booking has not been confirmed! They asked me to choose a different date and sent me a new quote, charging MORE than what was initially discussed and agreed. What's worse, there was no record of my booking or discussions in their register!

Of course I was shocked and I threw a huge tantrum over the phone! I was the bride after all and why was I subjected to this tedious nonsense weeks away from my big day when it was the inefficiency of the staff that caused my booking to be mishandled? So I angrily wrote a 3-page complaint; quoting everything that went on in my meetings with the PR Manager including my offer to pay the deposit several times prior to this disaster!

The very next day, the Senior PR Manager dropped by office; bearing apologies and the beautiful red roses I mentioned! She apologized on behalf of her staff and said that everything had been rectified to the original quote and my wedding date was confirmed. As compensation, I will also receive a FREE 2-nights stay in the Honeymoon Suite, breakfast included!

I guess my tantrum worked but don't get me wrong! I don't make a habit of throwing tantrums wherever I go; only in places that treat me wrong. Anyway that was a nice wedding memory for me and moral of the story? If you are planning a wedding or a big hotel event anytime soon, make sure you get your hotel right first!

Holiday Inn for instance offers meeting rooms and wedding banquet suites in over 120 hotels in the UK and Ireland. If ever I do get to visit Baby Issy in UK, I'd definitely book a Holiday Inn room. You can of course hold weddings here too and based on the pictures online, the banquet suites are gorgeous!

What I like most is the service promised. Always aiming to please, Holiday Inn respond to your initial enquiry on the same working day and deliver a full meeting proposal within 24 hours. Now this spells efficiency for me and you can definitely avoid the unnecessary blunder I had to endure with my wedding reception. Dedicated Holiday Inn Meetings Hosts and Wedding Organisers are on hand to assist you in planning your meeting or wedding; ensuring all your event needs and requirements are met like refreshments, high quality flower arrangements, room layout, personalised menus and even taxis on departure for your guests; giving you the wedding of your dreams!

Sounds like a wonderful stress-free venue choice for your next hotel event. So if you're currently in the market for great sites to host your wedding or business event, drop by Holiday Inn. Happy planning and remember...only throw a tantrum when you absolutely have to!

-FC Scoreboard points for my first THREE commenters-

ELAI
LADY JAVA
HAAZIQ

FREE Night Stay on MasterCard!

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Syndacast. All opinions are 100% mine.

As a MasterCard holder, I receive news of their most recent promotions and one definitely caught my attention today - the MasterCard Cardholder - Exclusive Deal! From now until 31 January 2010, MasterCard holders like me are entitled to enjoy a FREE night stay at any of the 188 participating Accor hotels in Asia! All I have to do is use my trusty MasterCard to book a 3-night stay at participating hotels and the third night is FREE!

This promotion is indeed timely for I'm actually planning a weekend hotel getaway for B and me. B especially is seriously overworked and I know he'd love to check in to a fancy hotel in the city to unwind and enjoy the hotel lifestyle and facilities we both love so much. So naturally I am thrilled with MasterCard and Accor hotels for holding this awesome promotion!

I checked out the participating hotels which include Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Grand Mercure, Novotel, Mercure, Ibis and all seasons; and I am thrilled to see Novotel on the list! I've never stayed at Novotel Kuala Lumpur so this is perfect! I've already seen the pictures online and all I can say is ... Novotel, here I come!

Before I forget, there's also an awesome contest going on and if I book my stay right now, I will be in the running to WIN a 3-night stay valued at USD$1000 in a beautiful private villa at the 5-star Pullman Sanya Yalong Bay Resort! There are 10 prizes up for grabs and details are below. Good luck to me and I can't wait to tell B about this promotion tonight. Once he gives me the green light, I can happily pack our hotel getaway bag!

PRIZE
* A 3-night stay 5-Star Pullman Sanya Yalong Bay Resort
* 1 Bedroom Villa, 1 King Bed with Private Pool ( Complimentary daily breakfast for 2)
* 1 KING BED, spacious villa features a private garden with your own swimming pool, outdoor massage area, jacuzzi and separate living room.

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DEBBS
NESSA
LADY JAVA

Summer in Switzerland

When B enjoyed a brief Zurich getaway without me last year, I was naturally upset. I don't blame him though because work is work and sometimes there's just no room for me to tag along. It was a great football adventure for B however, being able to witness a live EURO football match in Basel so of course I shared in his joy. He did come home with plenty of perfumes and gifts for me so I didn't feel too bad. Plus his photos were spectacular so they made me feel like I was right there alongside my darling.

If I ever get to visit Switzerland with B one fine summer, I already know which hotel I'd love to stay in. Among the many Swiss Hotels available online, Hotel Schweizerhof looks the most appealing.

Centrally located in the famous shopping street Bahnhofstrasse, Hotel Schweizerhof is a 4-star hotel situated a mere 12 minutes away from the main railway station. We'd be right smack in the middle of all the main attractions and shopping and dining area which is an added bonus of course.

If fine hotel dining is what you desire while on vacation, Hotel Schweizerhof Zurich offers just that too. Indulge your taste buds in delicious fine dining at La Soupiere for French & Swiss cuisine and Cafe Gourmet et Sa Boutique du Caviar, which serves selected delicacies.

Aside from a luxurious bathroom with a huge bathtub for me to soak away my fatigue after a day of shopping, sight-seeing and dining, this hotel also provides electrically adjusted bed for extra comfort. When it comes to hotels, I place utmost importance on comfort so that's another plus point for Hotel Schweizerhof. And by the way, this hotel also allows pets, which is great if ever we're rich enough to bring our cats along on our trip!

A typically Swiss hotel offers impeccable first-rate personal service and tantalizing food within a beautiful authentic ambience. And Hotel Schweizerhof has it all - great location, shopping, dining and entertainment all within easy reach!

For more information on the best authentic Swiss hotels, drop by MySwitzerland.com. Meanwhile, I will leave you with more beautiful pictures of Switzerland, courtesy of B and his trip. Have fun planning your Swiss vacation!

-FC Scoreboard points for my first THREE commenters-

SHEMAH
DEBBS
NESSA

Blog, Tweet and Fan for Charity!

Have you heard of Hotels Combined? Well apparently it is the number 1 hotel search engine, which provides users like you and me, access to the best hotel rates worldwide. Here, you can conveniently search multiple hotel reservation websites simultaneously to find the lowest prices in one single search on the same screen.

With over 900,000 global hotel deals from over 30 merchants, and access to over 1.5m consumer reviews, 3m hotel images, 2m hotel descriptions and maps, this is the only site for you to visit for all your hotel needs. I've already bookmarked this site for future reference. Who knows if my vacation plan to visit Paris comes true one day; I'd surely want to find the best rates for my stay in such an expensive city!

Anyway, Hotels Combined is on a charity mission and they need my help to promote their current Spread The Word For Charity program. Every time someone blogs about Hotels Combined and their current charity promotion, which is what I'm doing right now; the good people at Hotels Combined will donate $20 to charity! If you tweet this promotion on your Twitter time-line, they will donate $10 to charity and if you become their fan on Facebook, they will donate $5 to charity!

I think this is a wonderful cause to blog, which is why I'm doing my bit for charity by letting you know about this promotion. If you feel like giving back to those in need by helping this charity cause, please visit www.HotelsCombined.com for more information. All it takes is a simple post, tweet or a minute of your time to become a fan on Facebook.

Have you done your bit for charity lately? Why not start today.

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MONICA
BILL
LJ