Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) deputy president Melanie Chia said international hotels should have a certain level of standard, terms of reference or code of ethics which they should adhere to.
"These hotels should treat their guests better than other players in the service industry," she said.
Chia was commenting on two Hong Kong tourists who claimed that a male housekeeping staff had attempted to violate their modesty during their stay at a five-star island resort at one of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Parks off Kota Kinabalu on August 31.
A male staff of a five-star island resort at one of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Parks off Kota Kinabalu, has allegedly tried to violate the modesty of two Hong Kong tourists during their stay at the resort.
The victims said the male staff had allegedly entered the toilet knowing that both of them were in there, and blocked their exit.
Worse, the victims claimed that the resort seemed to shun responsibility and did not offer an apology or compensation on the incident.
The two female tourists, Chow, 22, and Chen, 26, as they wished to be known only by their surnames, who both work as receptionists in a Hong Kong hotel, arrived in Kota Kinabalu on August 28 for a vacation. The trip included a two-night stay at the island resort starting from August 29, which they paid HKD7,000 (RM2,800) for.
Chow said they booked the resort because they were attracted by the beauty of the resort and the resort was built on the sea.
On August 31, before the victims checked out from the resort, they went for a swim in the morning. At around 10.30am, Chow noticed that their breakfast, still left in the room, had attracted birds, ants and insects, and she asked one of the two housekeeping staff, referred herein as Staff A, at the corridor to clear the plates.
Soon after, the duo went to take a shower in the bathroom together as they were rushing to check out to avoid the late charges.
When they were done, they were surprised to see Staff B still in the room. Staff B signaled to them that it was alright to come out, although the women only wrapped their bodies with towels.
The victims immediately retreated into the bathroom but Staff B still refused to leave the room.
“I told him that we were supposed to check out today. Usually the housekeeping staff will not tidy up the room on the day guests are supposed to check out. My intention of telling him that was to ask him to leave,” Chen said in a press conference here yesterday.
However, the housekeeping staff ignored them and kept knocking at the bathroom door.
Pressing for time to check out before 12.30pm, the women decided to dash out, wrapped only in towels, grabbed their clothes in the room and got dressed in the bathroom.
Soon after they ran into the bathroom, Staff B entered the bathroom and locked the door, leaving only three of them in the space.
The victims said they could not leave the bathroom as the staff had spread his arms out against the door.
“I asked him why he came into the toilet; he said he wanted to tidy up the towels, and I told him that it was not convenient for him to stay there (bathroom),” Chen recalled.
Suddenly, the man reached out his hand towards Chen, which seemed to the women that he either wanted to touch Chen’s bare shoulder or unwrap her towel.
Chen stepped back while Chow screamed and shouted ‘No!’
Finally, Staff B left the bathroom. By the time the women got dressed, the man was nowhere to be seen in their room.
“We felt that the man wanted to assault us. If not, why would he enter the bathroom and lock the door?” Chow said.
After the ordeal, the women immediately contacted the resort’s reception and requested a Cantonese-speaking staff in order to lodge a report.
An hour later, four staff, including the security manager, duty manager, a housekeeping personnel and staff acting as a translator came to meet with the women.
“We told them what had happened but we felt that they did not believe us. We did not feel that they wanted to help us; they were more like trying to protect (the staff),” the victims pointed out.
The identification procedure was equally problematic and flawed, claimed the victims.
The first batch of three employees was brought in, including Staff A. The women clearly pointed at Staff A but the security manager kept asking them if the person they were referring to was another staff.
Then came the second batch of four employees.
“We clearly identified one of them as Staff B but the security manager repeatedly asked us if Staff B was the one.”
When the women did not budge from their choice, the security manager said something to Staff B, which the victims interpreted as asking the housekeeping staff to leave first.
The women said the resort did not give them any explanation of how they would deal with the matter, and only asked the victims to lodge a police report in Kota Kinabalu.
“I asked the resort staff how they would solve this matter, and he told us that the resort will conduct its own investigation as well as leave it to the police to investigate.”
The victims also demanded that the hotel compensate them for their stay, but the resort responded by saying that an internal investigation had to be carried out and proved that the staff was in the wrong before the resort would offer compensation.
“When I asked the resort to compensate us for our two-night stay, I noticed one of the staff smirked at our request.
“We felt insulted, like they thought we were just joking,” Chow lamented.
Till now, Chow and Chen have not received any compensation nor an apology from the resort.
When they returned to Kota Kinabalu, the victims decided to lodge a police report.
“We have expected the process to be time consuming, but we did it anyway (lodge police report), because we do now know what he will do in the future.”
The victims added that the island resort only installed a closed circuit television (CCTV) at its reception area, and not along the corridors.
“We did not expect this level of service for HKD3,000 (RM1,400) a night.
“We should have been enjoying ourselves rather than wasting our time making police statements and identifying suspects,” Chow said.
“The resort should be responsible for their staff, not acting like their staff have nothing to do with the resort,” Chen added.
The duo lodged a police report at the Kota Kinabalu district police headquarters on Sunday, and returned to the police station again yesterday accompanied by Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) deputy president Melanie Chia and vice president Chong Pit Fah.
The duo identified Staff A and Staff B from photographs at the police headquarters.
The victims said they thought such incident would only happen in shabby hotels and not the one they stayed in.
Chow said they had felt nice about Kota Kinabalu and enjoying themselves, but the incident had changed their impression 180 degrees.
“We will most likely opt for another place to visit next time,” she said.
The duo returned to Hong Kong last night.
On the other hand, city police chief ACP M. Chandra said the police had remanded a 20-year-old room attendant from Papar to assist in police investigation.
by Chok Sim Yee
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