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2003-05-20 - Shimla (Day 34)

Returning to the same hotel I was at previously in Shimla, I found they only had one room left, which happened to be the one that the monkeys seem to love. I wasn't able to sleep and got up at 3:00am and worked till 6:00am on photos and catching up the website. During the night the rain was coming down hard leaving me to worry that the next day would be wet making travel out of the question and even moving hotels a pain. The monkey's showed up early and started walking on the tin roof, climbing outside the windows and being a general nuisance. The monkeys were were one problem but even more bothersome was the door which while it had three slide locks on it, only one was able to fit into the slot. It unfastened in the night probably due to the wind on the door, and at 7:00am, I awoke to a guy inside the room cleaning the plates from last night's dinner. This I found very disconcerting. In every hotel I've been in so far, the hotel staff seems to naturally just walk into the room and I've only stopped that from happening by keeping the door locked at all times which seems to frustrate them as I hear them walk into the door since they expect it to be unlocked all the time.

When in India...so I just turn over and leave him to his cleaning and go back to sleep. The manager shows up at 10am asking about my plans - translation, "when are you leaving?" You will remember this is the guy that showed up at my door at 8:00am saying the next guests had arrived and would I be so kind as to leave now. He did tell me the day before they had no rooms so I say I'm planning to leave by checkout time, unless he has other rooms. He says he does have a small room and takes me over to see it. Its truly a hole, on the inside of the hotel so it has no windows, and is just a small box. Now the highest priority for the day is to get into Shimla and change money and find some bungee cords so I can leave the next day and moving hotels will take time I just don't have. Even though its a horrible room, its probably better to take it then spend time trying to change hotels.

I ask about the price and the manager says 550 rupees with which I look at him like he's nuts. He offers 500 and then I just lay out some frustration on him saying this room isn't worth anything more then 350 and that he is just over charging me because I'm a foreigner, just like he did with the other room. I ask, so what are you charging Indians for this same room? He replies, but sir, I can show you the brice book, it will show you the price is 500 rupees. There he slipped up and I was really mad. The price book is the "maximum price" the room can be rented at as controlled by the government but there is usually at least a small discount in high season and a major one when its slow. So even on a total slum room, he was still trying to charge me above the maximum allowed price - I'm sure the mark up on the other rooms I'd stayed in with them were even more.

Unfortunately, this attitude has been representative of a good number, perhaps the majority of people I've done business with here so far - get as much as one can in the short term, reasonable and fair or not. While one comes across that sort of attitude anywhere, taxi drivers who take you way out of the way just to make a bit extra - in every other country I've been in those situations have always been the exception, here they seem to be the majority. Looking back at most of the hotels I've been in so far, I've always felt that I was being gouged one way or another - clearly overcharging at the Pine View, the "extra generator fee" added on at the Gevordan Tourist Complex, the hotel in Delhi which said all taxes were included then try to sneak them in on the bill along with a 200 rupee "notebook" charge. What is a notebook charge you ask? When I asked they replied - "well, you were using your notebook computer!" It just seems amazingly shortsighted to do business this way as I've been very few places or to very few shops that I would willingly go back to or recommend to anyone else and instead I'd encourage those I meet to avoid. I'm thinking of the old business school saw that if someone is satisfied with your business or service they will tell 2 people, if they are dissatisfied they will tell 17. With the power of the internet expanding our ability to communicate with people we haven't even met that last number may even be low. This being the case, and with the general mind set I've experienced with Indians doing business with foreigners, I again have reason to question how this country will fare in a global business market.

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