Mr (Shitty) Egghouse Busan, Korea - don't let this trap of a tourist hostel make your Korean trip a total disaster
I wish to highlight my extremely
bad experience (bad would be a total understatement) at Mr EggHouse which
happened recently on 15th September 2013 while I was in Busan. I
made a reservation about a month earlier and everything seemed to go well when
the reservation was confirmed on 1st September 2013
.
This, was the email my friend was forced to write:-
We arrive in Busan in the
afternoon around 12 pm, and went straight to Haeundae to check into the hostel. Upon arriving there, without even any proper registration or confirmation
of room, the manager in charge, John (we didn't know his name when we first
arrived there), immediately took our luggage and sent it to our room, which was
located on the 3rd floor of the building. I booked a room for 3 people.
The first time we saw our room, I initially thought there were only 2 beds, not
noticing there was another room connected to it with 2 more beds, so I asked
the manager in charge while he was carrying our bags to confirm if we were
shown to the correct room. I wouldn't want him to waste his time carrying our bag
if it happened that our room was mistakenly switched with another booking. He
was unresponsive initially, but after further asking, he told me there were “4
beds, 4 beds”. I asked him again, that there is only three of us checking in.
He said that yes he was aware of that; that he knows my bookings through the
email I sent and the room was correct, even though there was 1 extra bed.
Although the response I got was somewhat short, it
seems that there was no problem with my booking arrangements.
He later told us that there is no
need for registration and that we can pay ‘anytime we want’ as long as we are
staying in the guesthouse. Here we thought, ‘cool, that’d be convenient for us’
as we can just pay the full amount upon checking out. However upon further
surveying the room and the facilities it provided, we were somewhat baffled
with the condition of our room. The amenities provided was as promised as what the website claimed. First
of all, the website mentioned that shampoo and shower gel is provided, however
there are only two almost empty containers that was not refilled before we
checked in. There is no tissue provided inside the toilet, for some reason the
pantry area was covered with spider webs, the walls seemed to be growing mold everywhere,
one of the room is provided only a fan instead of an air-con as promised in the
website and worst of all, there were human hairs stuck on my pillow, a definite
sign that the room was not properly cleaned when we checked in. The air in both
rooms smelled really stale & moldy that it was also uncomfortable to breathe
in. It was totally different from the photos of the room we saw online (my
guess was that the photos in the website were taken only at angles deemed cute
and presentable).
We were slightly appalled by the
condition of the room, and, judging from the way the manager of the hotel , John seemed nonchalant about the questions we asked earlier on the room bookings, we
decided that upon settling down we would survey a few more guesthouses nearby
and found one that was quite cheap and very clean for us to stay in. It was
about 2:00 pm at this point, and rather than requesting the manager to provide
better amenities, we decided to just spend one night there and move to a new
guesthouse during the rest of our Busan stay. We went to the reception / common
area and there was John, so we decided to tell him that we plan to just stay
there for one night due to some unforeseen changes in our plan. John seemed
somewhat unhappy with the news, so we told him that we understand if
we need to pay one night including some extra charges if need be. He asked us
when do we plan to check out, and we told him that it would be around 8 am. He
nodded his head and told us that he will let us know if there needs to be any
extra charges at 8 am the next morning. It was slightly an awkward situation,
but we thought it would be fine, since we did inform him properly of our
intention, despite him sounding somewhat disappointed with our decision.
We went walking around Busan
leisurely after that, thinking that there were no longer any problems with the
guesthouse arrangements, but while going out, we decided perhaps it is OK to
spend 2 nights there as planned earlier, as we will only be there at night to
sleep and go sightseeing most of the time. We arrived back to the guesthouse at
10 pm, and decided to tell our intention to John again. John was not at the
reception / common room (the reception was supposed to be opened from 9:00 am
to 11:00 pm), therefore we assumed perhaps it would be OK to inform him the
next morning at 8:00 am as that was the time he promised to inform us regarding
the payment arrangement.
Now this is where things took
turn for the worst and my impression towards Mr EggHouse took a 360 degree
turn. I have been travelling to a lot of countries since 2009, and I have to
say, never in my life have I experienced such bad customer service ever, to the
point that I was deeply determined to send a formal complaint to ALL relevant
parties, and to warn my friends and the public of the nastiness that I experienced
in this guesthouse so that no one will have to experience the disrespect,
humiliation and absolute aggravation that we experienced.
It was about 12:30 am and we were
asleep, when there was suddenly a loud, violent banging on our hostel door. We
were so shocked waking up that we stayed silent at first; not quite
understanding what was going on. Then I mustered up the courage to open the
door up, thinking that it was perhaps someone who was in need of urgent help.
It was only John the manager. He got straight to the point and told us that he wanted
us to pay him the money for our stay now; right in the middle of the
night. Then it occurred to me that we've
yet to tell him that we wanted to stay for 2 nights as originally planned,
which is perhaps why he was requesting it now, so politely I told him that we
went to the reception to search for him earlier to inform him that we had wanted
to stick to our earlier plan of staying.
That, apparently, was to his
dismay, and he told us that he ‘may’ already have given our room to other
guests, since the guesthouse is ‘busy and schedules changes all the time’. Not
that we were that upset with the arrangement, it was quite understandable as we
decided to change our plans again at the last minute. We didn't mind changing
rooms, but where and when or if we are even getting a room the next day was
still in question. It would have been better if we were given some
enlightenment on the arrangements so we can plan properly on moving out and
book another guesthouse if needed, and since he bothered waking us at 12:30 am
in the middle of the night, surely he could just inform us on the arrangement
right now. He informed in a somewhat
rude manner that the rest can be discussed the next morning. I thought, fine,
if you say so, until his remarks after that REALLY irked me that I could
literally feel my blood starting to boil.
“We’ll talk about this later,
later next morning not now, because I also need sleep as you need sleep”.
If I may ask anyone, if they
have ever experienced being waken up rudely in the middle of the night, by the
hotel/ hostel/ guesthouse manager to settle a petty matter, only to be told
later that they are disturbing the hostel manager’s sleep? That, to me, was a
serious insult to my rights as a customer. I decided I wasn't going to settle for
this. John left, and I got back to my room, and in an attempt to calm myself
down, I decided to give John a piece of my mind. So without hesitation I went
to Mr EggHouse’s Facebook page and gave my two cents regarding the shitty
service that they have provided us thus far. I didn't stop there. I wrote a
long email, detailing the account of what happened so far as a formal feedback
to Mr EggHouse's management, and requested that they allow us to check out
without any problem (the way John behaved so far pretty much warranted that we
may not be able to check out without some ensuing drama the next morning).
Below were the details of my
email:-
"Dear Mr Egghouse,
"Dear Mr Egghouse,
We checked in today afternoon on 15/09/2013. We were informed by the staff in charge that there is no registration required and payment can be made anytime during our stay. Earlier in the afternoon today we have informed your staff that we may only be able to stay for one night instead of two nights as booked.
We were told that we will get confirmation from the staff by 8 am tomorrow morning on 16th September 2013 (it was also the time we planned to check out). We agreed to the arrangement. During the day we there was a change of plan that we decided to maintain our stay for 2 days. We went to the reception/ lobby room to inform the staff in charge @ about 10 pm but there was no one round, therefore we decided to come down at 8 am tomorrow to discuss further regarding our change of plans.
However at about 12:30 am today, 16th September 2013 we received some very loud banging on our door from your staff requesting us to make payment immediately because the reception is only open at 9 am. We informed the said staff that we have decided to stay for 2 nights as earlier planned, however it seems that our room for the next night may have been allocated for other booking, which, is understandable considering that we have informed earlier today that we may need to check out.
However when we tried to discuss with the staff in charge whether we may need to change rooms tomorrow morning, or how the payment should be made, our queries went unanswered under the pretext that the staff who knocked on our door needed sleep as much as we needed sleep. This has quite caused some upset among my travelling members due to the shoddy arrangement, and I wish to highlight the following:-
a) We have informed the change of travelling plans as fast as we can (right after arriving at the guesthouse), however arrangement on payment was informed to us at an untimely manner (12:30 AM in the morning, despite the hostel rule that 11:00 pm is the quiet time).
b) We are appalled by the sudden banging on our door at 12:30 am midnight, requesting us to make payment immediately, instead of meeting the person in charge as the reception in the morning at 8:00 am as previously discussed. We noted that the reception is only open at 9:00 am, but we have discussed the matter in the afternoon and he agreed to inform us at 8:00 am in the morning. In addition, when we tried to discuss further to sort out the arrangement despite being woken up in the middle of the night, the staff refused to discuss further the details, and simply told us to come to the counter at 9:00 am as he needed 'sleep', eventhough we were woken up by his loud banging at 12:30 am in the morning. This has caused quite some upset among my travelling buddies, as the arrangement was very unclear.
As such we no longer feel secure and safe with the guesthouse arrangement, and we are appalled greatly by the treatment we received as customers. We wish to inform you that we no longer wants to stay in this guesthouse further. We will pay for the one night stay. We shall discuss with your management further on the arrangement tomorrow morning and we hope that you will be able to process our check out professionally.
Thank you."
Despite his claims that he ‘needed
sleep’ that night, John was apparently up reading my fb post and also my long
winded email. Needless to say, John being the unprofessional egocentric bastard
he is, decided to reply my fb post with such pathetic English:-
John did not stop there. About
2:30 am he came to our room again with a vengeance. Once again he knocked violently
on our door as if ready to kick it down, scaring the shit out of my
travel mates. At this point, there was no way I was going to back down and let
him do as he pleases. I opened the door, and started asking him what the hell
is his problem. He went on ahead ranting about how rude I was, and that he was
the manager of the hotel, so he has the right to do whatever he pleases. He
kept on asking us, where we were from, and went on ranting that all Malaysians
are stupid and rude for always checking out after only staying there for one
day. I told him to get lost. I wasn't going to spend even a second talking to
him until the next morning as agreed earlier. I quoted how we too have the
right to sleep as much as he is. John kept on shouting, screaming in his lousy
English that we should leave. He said that we had no rights to complain as we
haven’t paid yet, and that there was no contract in place.
That racist bigot
then started asking again, “Why Malaysians are always like this?”, to which I snapped and replied back, “have
you ever thought it’s because of your shitty service that nobody wants to stay
in this dump?!”
He was so enraged with my remarks
that he pushed his way into our room in an attempt to drive us out of the
hostel by force. My friend, totally freaked out by what was going on was
practically down on her knees begging and apologizing to John not to do this.
It was almost 3:00 am in the morning, we had nowhere to go. My friend begged me
to shut up. I wasn't in the wrong, but John was becoming extremely aggressive,
and they didn't want it to escalate further. With John’s going batshit crazy, there was no telling what he was going to do next. So for the sake
of my friends, I backed down, retreated and slammed my room shut, leaving my
friend to talk John out of his threats.
A while later John retreated, but
not before knocking on our door again and forcing both my friends out of their
room for another ‘talk’. About half an hour later, my friend came in, and told
me what happened: John was lamenting again on how rude Malaysian was, and was
threatening my friends over and over again that he was determined to kick us
out right then right now. Despite my friends’ plea that we were just 3 young
girls in a foreign land at 3:00 am and there was no transportation around and
no place that was open to receive guests at 3:00 am in the morning, John was
determined to kick us out.
After much apologizing and negotiating, John
agreed to let us stay until 7 am with the following conditions: 1) I am to
delete my ‘rude’ facebook comments on his hostel’s page and 2) my friend is to
write an email to him, apologizing for us Malaysian’s ‘bad behaviour’ which caused
this ‘huge misunderstanding’.
This, was the email my friend was forced to write:-
Despite getting scared shit of John's threats, my friend couldn't be bothered with writing a truly apologetic mail after all.
My friends also offered to pay for
a one night stay, to which he declined, as I believe he does not want there to
be any proof of us staying there. Apparently he was scared that upon our
departure that we may complain to the Korean Tourism Board, therefore he
required an email from us apologizing as proof that WE were the party causing
the trouble, and not him. At this point, John's ego has ballooned to the size of his KPOPwannabe head, that he HAD to give me one last insult:-
To think he was dumb enough that by
doing what he requested he will get away with it, I did as was told, but not
without screencapping all the proofs of our conversation, and then taking
photos of our lousy room. We left at 6 am but not without taking a final photo
of Mr Egghouse’s shitty abode:-
Not so pretty like the site claims isnt it?
So here I am, back in Malaysia,
ready to strike back, not with vengeance, but with the honest intention that I
was not going to let neither my fellow Malaysians nor other travelers, to be
treated the way me and my friends was treated. I have written to the Korean
Tourism Board, TripAdvisor, and every single accommodation sites out there, to
give fair warning to fellow travelers regarding this trap of a hostel.
The hostel was recommended to me
by a colleague, who never stayed at the hostel but found its website by
accident while browsing for accommodation in Busan. I didn't bother to check its
review when we first planned our trip, and after what happened I took some time
to search about the hostel further. Apparently it has been receiving quite a
number of bad reviews from other travelers and also Koreans in TripAdvisor and
other sites. There was even one whole blog entry by a Singaporean lady detailing
her account about her terrible stay at the hostel.
It also occurred to me that after
reading all the bad reviews, this has been the modus operandi of the hostel in the
event that you as a guest is not satisfied with the service provided or want to
leave after one day:-
a) They
do NOT take feedback lightly. Somehow they seem to always feel the urge that
customers deserve repercussions no matter how mild the feedback was.
b) They
will start provoking you by knocking on your doors in the middle of the night
and making nonsensical requests. This way, should things take turn for the
worse, you will be at a disadvantage as you can’t move out since no other
hostels/ hotel are open for you to check in the middle of the night. This
leaves you no choice but to stay.
c)Since
you have no choice but to stay, this is where they will threaten to kick you
out unless you do what they say, ie: write an apology email like we did.
John was so determined to cover up the proof that we DID stay there for one night that he threatened us to send an apology email, delete my fb post and refusing our payment. Either he has extreme amnesia or he was so desperate to cover up that he didn't even tell his colleagues about that night's incident, thereby causing his colleague to send me an email below as confirmation that we DID stay:-
Beware of John. Don't be fooled by his appearance. He really is a fucked up racist sexist dickhead who cares more about the fixing size of his already shrivelling balls than offering good customer service:-
I leave it to you to make the
decision whether you want to stay there or otherwise, as I believe I've done my
part of giving sufficient warning by sharing my experience.
Korea in all was a great
experience for us except for this shitty hellhole masked as a tourist accommodation,
so don’t let this retard of a hostel manager, John and his shady hostel
management make Korea a terrible experience for you.
This is the website of Mr (Shitty
Hellhole) Egghouse if you'd like to see further how different the they portray their hostel compared to the real thing.
http://www.mregghostel.com/
http://www.mregghostel.com/xe/mregghouse
http://www.mregghostel.com/
http://www.mregghostel.com/xe/mregghouse
posted by Harle @ 08:13
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