Just wanna share my experience with Changi Village Hotel. My HTB and I were sourcing for an outdoor/poolside venue for our solemnisation and had shortlisted CVH as one of the potential venues. However, we were pretty upset and frustrated with their "heck-care" attitude and poor service.
First of all, the catering manager was 45 minutes late into our appointment. We had thought that he would be punctual as he had called a couple of hours earlier to confirm the appointment. This left a bad impression as we felt that he could have at least called to inform us that he would be late. Being late for 15 minutes is still acceptable to us, but for 45 minutes? That's ridiculous and utterly unprofessional. Worse still, he did not even apologize when he finally arrived.
Throughout the discussion, he seemed uninterested and when we tried to find out more information, he brushed us off with a curt "No" or "Cannot be done" and did not offer any solution or alternative. We were made to feel as though we were taking up his precious time and were practically rushed through the on-site inspection. And before we knew it, the whole thing was over. We only managed to visit the infinity pool on level 8 and a quick glimpse of the function room. We wanted to have a look at The Creek (the pool outside Saltwater Cafe) too, when we felt that the infinity pool was too small for our solemnization (we are going to host about 50 pax), but when we enquired about it, the manager just said it was "not recommended" as the cafe is open to the public, and was reluctant to bring us there. So that brought us to the end of the appointment. We were a bit disappointed, to tell the truth, but in the end, we managed to explore The Creek all by ourselves when we decided to have our dinner at the Saltwater Cafe. Though a little upset with the service at CVH, we decided to use The Creek for our solemnisation as I really liked the place and felt it fits the theme I had in mind.
The days following the appointment, we tried to find out more information regarding having our solemnization at The Creek. However replies to our enquiries were slow and not forthcoming. We were tired and frustrated of having to chase after CVH for their replies and decided to arrange for an appointment to go down for a another round of discussion, to settle things once and for all.
Imagine our frustration when we were told that no one will entertain (yes, that's the word they used) us on weekends as they only work 5 days a week. Being busy executives, my HTB and I are not available on weekdays, and I believe that we are not the only couple with such schedules. Anyway, we tried to compromise by making an appointment on weekdays, but after office hours. Guess what? We were told that they cannot wait for us as they knock off at 6pm sharp!
Well, we can understand if they don't work on public holidays and Sundays or if they are busy with other events, but what we can't stand was their attitude when they told us this; it was almost like telling us "If you want to see us, you've got to make your appointment at our convenience!" After a lengthy discussion over the phone, they finally told us that if we really had to meet them on a weekend, we'll have to wait till they have an event then. And the next event would be 1.5 months later!
We felt that we were not valued as potential customers and hated the way we were treated. Since the first appointment, we already knew that the service was very bad, but because I liked The Creek so much, my HTB and I were prepared to take over the entire coordination for the wedding if worse comes to worst. However, this was the last straw, and we could not take it anymore. After much deliberation, we decided to bring our business elsewhere, though at times when I look at the pictures of The Creek I still wished we could have our solemnisation there.
Sorry for the long post; I just wanted to share our experiences as well as use this as a platform to vent my frustrations about CVH. We wanted to send a feedback/complaint to them but there was no email address provided on their website. When I called their customer service hotline, they referred us to use the online form but there's a limit to the number of words we can type!
Anyway, I just want to point out that the above is my personal experience, and I understand that every hotel has it's fair share of good and bad reviews.
