Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you. – Author Unknown
Monday, September 16, 2013 (DAYS 561 - 575)
After returning from the Malaysia to the two-week hiatus shutdown of the hostel for renovations, the owner, Nethan who grew up in the States but carries dual citizenship as a Thai and has lived in Bangkok for two-years, approached me and offered me the hostel management job. Since the previous manager and other volunteer had left at the time the hostel closed. After negotiating the responsibilities and the work schedule, which included being paid $400 a month and working four days a week while Nethan would be covering the other three days it sounded simple enough and a great deal right? Well, this simple situation became a form of being highly overworked and colors of dishonesty and real part of laziness by the owner, became quickly evident. It’s sad because when I first arrived at the hostel it was wonderful, but after a short period of time I came to realize that was due in part to the other volunteer, and even more so from the previous manager that did an excellent job overseeing things. Over many discussions and early-on friendly conversations, Nethan constantly asked me what he could be doing to improve the hostel since he knew that I had a lot of experience working in various ones. I told him that as all backpackers we have all stayed at both good and bad hostels, and we seek great atmospheres more than anything. Yes, there can be essential amenities such as Wi-Fi, but it’s more about the environment of the place. It hit me later, especially after traveling with him for a bit or better yet having a constant shadow, the he admitted that he is not a backpacker, which was evident when he constantly chose more expensive places to eat and opted to take flights over local buses, which as a backpacker and budget traveler this is only an option when the local forms of transportation are more expensive or the same cost as a flight. Unsure of the entire story, but I did learn that he has another business partner that I believe convinced him to open the hostel together and did a great job setting it up for the relative success they’ve had so far, along with being fortunate enough to have Shane as his manager for months.
Well going back to my advice that I gave him about the simple hostel formula, first of all, Nethan was more concerned with the aesthetics of the place like odd memorabilia such as an old 1950s phone and small nick-knacks that your grandmother would be hoarding away in her house full of cats than focusing on the functional issues like the leaking roof in the two upstairs bedrooms, one of which was the higher priced four-bed dormitory for 350 THB ($11.25) as well as my private room, which is reserved for the manager. Either way, both of these rooms incurred several inches of water whenever the torrential rains began, which happens often in Bangkok, especially this time of year. When this first occurred I immediately called him to notify him of this situation. His attitude and response, as with every other topic of importance was the same, a quick verbal promise to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible, but typically nothing was ever done. I could tell it was beginning to go down hill when even the guests would complain about these issues, and once they learned that they had just reopened from a series of renovations they asked, then why do the doors to the dorms still constantly stick where you had to practically shoulder check them to open them, which is turn woke up the other guests sleeping? Continuing from the list of minor guest complaints, when I mentioned that while they advertised free coffee and tea all day, most days we were without both. Again when I told him that people ask me every morning about this, and Nethan s response was, “well I’m not a coffee drinker so I don’t always check that we have it and it’s not a big deal.” What? This response was shocking at it had an air of arrogance as if he didn’t care because it was not something he cared for. I told him that I’ve reminded you of this almost daily and as an owner of a business, especially one that relies on guest relations and advertises particular amenities that it doesn’t matter that you don’t feel it’s a priority or a big deal, but I told him to either purchase coffee and tea or stop advertising that we have it. This was of course shrugged off and ignored, both as a topic of conversation and my presence for just bringing it up with him that day. Mature, for something that should be an open line of communication between the owner and your so-called manager that is trying to operate your business for you while my hands are tied.
After returning from the Malaysia to the two-week hiatus shutdown of the hostel for renovations, the owner, Nethan who grew up in the States but carries dual citizenship as a Thai and has lived in Bangkok for two-years, approached me and offered me the hostel management job. Since the previous manager and other volunteer had left at the time the hostel closed. After negotiating the responsibilities and the work schedule, which included being paid $400 a month and working four days a week while Nethan would be covering the other three days it sounded simple enough and a great deal right? Well, this simple situation became a form of being highly overworked and colors of dishonesty and real part of laziness by the owner, became quickly evident. It’s sad because when I first arrived at the hostel it was wonderful, but after a short period of time I came to realize that was due in part to the other volunteer, and even more so from the previous manager that did an excellent job overseeing things. Over many discussions and early-on friendly conversations, Nethan constantly asked me what he could be doing to improve the hostel since he knew that I had a lot of experience working in various ones. I told him that as all backpackers we have all stayed at both good and bad hostels, and we seek great atmospheres more than anything. Yes, there can be essential amenities such as Wi-Fi, but it’s more about the environment of the place. It hit me later, especially after traveling with him for a bit or better yet having a constant shadow, the he admitted that he is not a backpacker, which was evident when he constantly chose more expensive places to eat and opted to take flights over local buses, which as a backpacker and budget traveler this is only an option when the local forms of transportation are more expensive or the same cost as a flight. Unsure of the entire story, but I did learn that he has another business partner that I believe convinced him to open the hostel together and did a great job setting it up for the relative success they’ve had so far, along with being fortunate enough to have Shane as his manager for months.
Well going back to my advice that I gave him about the simple hostel formula, first of all, Nethan was more concerned with the aesthetics of the place like odd memorabilia such as an old 1950s phone and small nick-knacks that your grandmother would be hoarding away in her house full of cats than focusing on the functional issues like the leaking roof in the two upstairs bedrooms, one of which was the higher priced four-bed dormitory for 350 THB ($11.25) as well as my private room, which is reserved for the manager. Either way, both of these rooms incurred several inches of water whenever the torrential rains began, which happens often in Bangkok, especially this time of year. When this first occurred I immediately called him to notify him of this situation. His attitude and response, as with every other topic of importance was the same, a quick verbal promise to get this issue resolved as quickly as possible, but typically nothing was ever done. I could tell it was beginning to go down hill when even the guests would complain about these issues, and once they learned that they had just reopened from a series of renovations they asked, then why do the doors to the dorms still constantly stick where you had to practically shoulder check them to open them, which is turn woke up the other guests sleeping? Continuing from the list of minor guest complaints, when I mentioned that while they advertised free coffee and tea all day, most days we were without both. Again when I told him that people ask me every morning about this, and Nethan s response was, “well I’m not a coffee drinker so I don’t always check that we have it and it’s not a big deal.” What? This response was shocking at it had an air of arrogance as if he didn’t care because it was not something he cared for. I told him that I’ve reminded you of this almost daily and as an owner of a business, especially one that relies on guest relations and advertises particular amenities that it doesn’t matter that you don’t feel it’s a priority or a big deal, but I told him to either purchase coffee and tea or stop advertising that we have it. This was of course shrugged off and ignored, both as a topic of conversation and my presence for just bringing it up with him that day. Mature, for something that should be an open line of communication between the owner and your so-called manager that is trying to operate your business for you while my hands are tied.
Well in spite of these awkward situations that I could just chaulk up to bad ownership and an undeveloped social sense, the true reason I resigned from my position, was being constantly overworked. I purposely confronted Nethan and spoke with him one-on-one in private numerous times about how I was working 18 plus hour days and for more than two weeks I had not slept continuously for more than a four hours. I asked him, “how productive would you be even if for just a week every two or three hours you had to get up, walk down two flights of stairs either to let in a guest because they forgot the electronic keypad code or because of a late-night check in or walk in?” Since my room was on the third floor, there was the doorbell that rang in my room and therefore each time it was rung and I was sound asleep, I incoherently stumble down two flights of narrow stairs in a zombie-like status to answer the door.
My last several straws with this place was the fact that on the days when Nethan worked and I had the day off, the work that he required from his staff, which sadly at the time was just me, he never did himself. This is a 14-bed hostel and the workload is quite simple; taking out the trash, emptying the recycles, making sure there is soap and toilet paper in the bathrooms, and most importantly changing the beds at the posted time of check out, which is 12pm. One night on a day that Nethan was scheduled to work and later left at 10pm, I was upstairs trying to catch up on sleep, which was a constant struggle, and another guest knocked on my door notifying me that there was a girl sitting in the lobby he had let in and told me that she was wondering if there was a room available. Attempting to wake myself up, as I walked down the stairs because I’ve been there myself and know what it’s like to be greeted unfriendly, because as with most social contact our first impression of people are made within that first 15-seconds interaction, especially with when contemplating if you are going to spend money at this business establishment. Well after checking her in, and while doing so I noticed that every one of our online booking systems (i.e. HostelWorld, Hostelbookers, Agoda, AirBnB, etc) were completely wrong and were in jeopardy of being overbooked, which for a business such as a hostel or hotel is the worst when you arrive with a reservation in hand only to be told there is actual no bed for you, especially late at night. Thankfully this was not the case and so I took the girl upstairs to an open bed in our 4-bed dorm just after 12:30am, which was only being occupied by two other guests, both of which were asleep in the bottom bunks. To my shock and horror, Nethan had not changed either of the top bunks and so to my frustration I found myself attempting to make her bed over another person that was sleeping, that of course woke both her and the other guy in the opposite bunk up. On top of this frustrating situation, I had a check-in in less than 5-hours after going back downstairs and spending an hour adjusting our system because each time Nethan added a booking to the Google Drive spreadsheet, 8 out of 10 times the information was not entered correctly, or it was completely wrong.
Realizing I could not longer deal with incompetence, this was my final straw since I had confronted him now for probably the fifth or sixth time or more about his lack of attention to detail and failing to do the job duties that he requires of me when it is his days to work. The slight hint of anxiety but more frustration each time I worked the day after Nethan had, on average I spent two-hours going through all of his errors and trying to get the hostel bookings, finances, and guest issues caught back up to speed.
My last several straws with this place was the fact that on the days when Nethan worked and I had the day off, the work that he required from his staff, which sadly at the time was just me, he never did himself. This is a 14-bed hostel and the workload is quite simple; taking out the trash, emptying the recycles, making sure there is soap and toilet paper in the bathrooms, and most importantly changing the beds at the posted time of check out, which is 12pm. One night on a day that Nethan was scheduled to work and later left at 10pm, I was upstairs trying to catch up on sleep, which was a constant struggle, and another guest knocked on my door notifying me that there was a girl sitting in the lobby he had let in and told me that she was wondering if there was a room available. Attempting to wake myself up, as I walked down the stairs because I’ve been there myself and know what it’s like to be greeted unfriendly, because as with most social contact our first impression of people are made within that first 15-seconds interaction, especially with when contemplating if you are going to spend money at this business establishment. Well after checking her in, and while doing so I noticed that every one of our online booking systems (i.e. HostelWorld, Hostelbookers, Agoda, AirBnB, etc) were completely wrong and were in jeopardy of being overbooked, which for a business such as a hostel or hotel is the worst when you arrive with a reservation in hand only to be told there is actual no bed for you, especially late at night. Thankfully this was not the case and so I took the girl upstairs to an open bed in our 4-bed dorm just after 12:30am, which was only being occupied by two other guests, both of which were asleep in the bottom bunks. To my shock and horror, Nethan had not changed either of the top bunks and so to my frustration I found myself attempting to make her bed over another person that was sleeping, that of course woke both her and the other guy in the opposite bunk up. On top of this frustrating situation, I had a check-in in less than 5-hours after going back downstairs and spending an hour adjusting our system because each time Nethan added a booking to the Google Drive spreadsheet, 8 out of 10 times the information was not entered correctly, or it was completely wrong.
Realizing I could not longer deal with incompetence, this was my final straw since I had confronted him now for probably the fifth or sixth time or more about his lack of attention to detail and failing to do the job duties that he requires of me when it is his days to work. The slight hint of anxiety but more frustration each time I worked the day after Nethan had, on average I spent two-hours going through all of his errors and trying to get the hostel bookings, finances, and guest issues caught back up to speed.
The next afternoon when he rolled in, my first instinct was to furiously tear in to him as to why none of the beds were made, but I chose to maintain a calm and demeanor and just speak with clarity to get my point across. When he finally chose to come up with an excuse, as he couldn’t even look me in the eyes, his mumbled response was that there wasn’t any clean bedding, which was a blatant lie as I knew there were plenty of clean bagged bedding exactly where it always is, but frustrated me that he chose to spend his evening sitting around attempting to socialize with people and then leave at 9:30pm on the day that he was supposed to be working. I’m sorry but when you lie directly to my face instead of being a man and just admitting your mistake, that’s all that I needed to hear to finally tell him that I am more than happy to finish managing until the end of the month for half of the agreed pay, which was $400 for the entire month from Septemeber 15th to October 15th, which he agreed to and said would not be a problem. I also told him that due to the lack of sleep that I would rather return to volunteering one-day a week, since I was just completely exhausted and sleep-deprived. I said that I was more than happy to move back to the 10-bed dorm, I just needed some sleep. Absolutely shocking, his attitude was, “well, I think I have another volunteer arriving and so financially I don’t know if I can take away a dorm bed for you as a volunteer. Wow, so this is how you treat people that work their ass off for you and practically run your business because you certainly have no idea how to do it yourself. And occupying a dorm bed was no problem because when I first arrived on August 22nd, the manager’s private room was occupied and there were two of us volunteers occupying dorm beds. So, again caught in another lie. As soon as I no longer wanted be his round the clock worker, his response was well after October 1st you are welcome to stay here as a paid guest or you can find another place to stay! This was such a poor attitude, and again made me realize that he has no idea how the backpacking community shares information almost as fast as Facebook, especially when it comes to traveling. He also knew that I had a hard date of leaving Thailand in two weeks to go to South Korea to finally meet my birthmother for the first time, but again this didn’t phase him and from that second forward he became cold and resentful that I no longer wanted to do all his work.
Through the time I spent at Siam Journey Guesthouse I learned from early on that, Nethan used his hostel primarily as a source of meeting people, because sad to say, he is the most socially awkward person I have ever met. And when I was out with guests showing them around the city or even just going for lunch they were always the first to bring this up. It was like living a perpetual dream, because guests would always begin the same way, “ok so how well do you know Nethan because he is a, um, nice guy, BUT what’s the deal man he is so strange, makes such inappropriate and weird comments, and seems as though he forces himself in to conversations when there is an obvious flow to the conversation?” I just smiled and tried not to interject too much, but just mentioned that we all know those people that find it difficult in social situations.
Since Nethan has reiterated that he is not a backpacker, I wasn’t very fond while being out with guests for lunch in the middle of the day–typically my only free time, and they would tell me that after asking Nethan about how to get around the city or the country and his response was often, oh just take a taxi because it takes this long to get there, which again as backpackers when we listen to advice from people we think we can trust, especially those that have lived as a local in a particular area for two years, we are trusting that their information will be accurate. Well the complaints I always got were as soon as people returned from different temples, floating markets, day trips, border runs, etc etc, that every bit of his information was wrong and especially when they were told that no local buses went to these areas but to take a taxi and when they arrived and spoke with other backpackers, as we all do, they realized for an extra 30-minute ride on a local bus they could have saved 4-times or more the rate they paid because of bad advice. This was a constant complaint that again I brought up with the owner, but Nethan failed to do anything to adjust his ways because he always felt it was still the best way to get to these places.
Through the time I spent at Siam Journey Guesthouse I learned from early on that, Nethan used his hostel primarily as a source of meeting people, because sad to say, he is the most socially awkward person I have ever met. And when I was out with guests showing them around the city or even just going for lunch they were always the first to bring this up. It was like living a perpetual dream, because guests would always begin the same way, “ok so how well do you know Nethan because he is a, um, nice guy, BUT what’s the deal man he is so strange, makes such inappropriate and weird comments, and seems as though he forces himself in to conversations when there is an obvious flow to the conversation?” I just smiled and tried not to interject too much, but just mentioned that we all know those people that find it difficult in social situations.
Since Nethan has reiterated that he is not a backpacker, I wasn’t very fond while being out with guests for lunch in the middle of the day–typically my only free time, and they would tell me that after asking Nethan about how to get around the city or the country and his response was often, oh just take a taxi because it takes this long to get there, which again as backpackers when we listen to advice from people we think we can trust, especially those that have lived as a local in a particular area for two years, we are trusting that their information will be accurate. Well the complaints I always got were as soon as people returned from different temples, floating markets, day trips, border runs, etc etc, that every bit of his information was wrong and especially when they were told that no local buses went to these areas but to take a taxi and when they arrived and spoke with other backpackers, as we all do, they realized for an extra 30-minute ride on a local bus they could have saved 4-times or more the rate they paid because of bad advice. This was a constant complaint that again I brought up with the owner, but Nethan failed to do anything to adjust his ways because he always felt it was still the best way to get to these places.
Ready to give up my private managerial room and make preparations to move to a new hostel with a change in atmosphere, I was glad to be moving out of the room with the leaking roof that left more than a few inches on the ground right next to my bed and electrical extension cord, or the four large Huntsman spiders that dropped in on my bed all in a single night as I was about to crash out, and it was always a joy to try to rid the hostel of ants and cockroaches before the guests awoke each morning. Another long term previous guest told me how there was a large rat in the bathroom that would tend to pop in from time to time and say hello as well and before it was patched up I guess there was a hole in the wall that had an army of cockroaches living in it and one night the hole opened up and an unnamed former worker spent several hours and filled almost three trash bags full of dead cockroaches. Cringy at this though! I also know that after sharing some of my stories with those traveling they told me they would never stay there because they didn’t want to support a business such as that. And I would agree that often we, as the consumer regardless of a traveler or not, we are given a certain amount of responsibility of how we spend our money and what business are supported due to this choice.
Since tonight is my last official night of working at this hostel slave-shop, joking, and there is a group of us that have been waiting several days to experience the best view of the city of angels that has been made famous by the film, The Hangover 2, but for the past week we have been rained out. Tonight however, we are given one of the most beautiful sunsets. Since there are an odd number of us, nine, we split up into a taxi and a tuk tuk, since surprisingly taxi drivers will completely refuse to drive you to some areas of the city, just because they don’t feel like it. This is the most unexpected thing I have heard of when your job is to drive paying customers from where they are to where they want to go. I can understand if you are coming off a long shift and it’s too far or late at night and worried about personal safety, but this has occurred several times in the middle of the day to an area that is less than 15-minutes across town. I’ve got to borrow an ESPN expression and say, C’mon Man! Walking in to the mirrored elevator and anxiously waiting to arrive on the 64th floor at the Lebua Hotel, we are greeted and escorted to the outside terrace where we wait for the infamous Sky bar to open at 6pm. Since this is such a high-end place, we are literally only here to get photos of the sunset that tonight occurs at 6:12pm, but as a group we look good because they have a very strict dress code. All in all it was an incredible night that for once didn’t include a torrential downpour.
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