Fuchun clearly does not care about being inclusionary or populist, they probably don’t need the money.

Yes, it seems extremely poor business practice to bar potential clients from having a tour of the premises, but I do feel as some due diligence on your part could have been done to avoided the whole situation altogether, including the frustration and the waste of time. Perhaps even phoning ahead for the address before departing for the 3-hour journey and being informed then that you would not be welcomed.

The management of Fuchun obviously are not in the hospitality industry and

It’s easy for those in Western countries to feel as if the way they do things is the right way, but this has carried on to Westerners in China (as well as other countries) believing things should be done their way. Employees here tend to follow rules strictly, however irrational.

If we choose to visit or reside in China, then we have to accept the differences to a certain level and understand that China is a newly industrialized country. The concept of customer service is still in a nascent stage. “Approaching a Western executive” to solve an issue really does not get to the core of the problem.

Anonymous, an immigrant is someone who goes into a country of which he is not a native for permanent residence. Somebody moving from the countryside to an urban area is not an immigrant. The correct word is “migrant”.

I can’t speak for all cities in China, but from my amateur anthropological studies in Shanghai, I see less of an inferiority complex on the part of the migrant workers than a mentality of superiority from the locals. There seems to be very little camaraderie amongst Chinese people from different cities, provinces and classes.

But is is true that having a staff mainly comprised of people from rural areas at upscale restaurants, 5-star resorts, etc., may be partly to blame for what can be construed as “poor service,” as the impressions of service and luxury of the migrants are usually incongruous with those of the clientele. In tandem with more intensive training, respect probably goes a long way.

What a silly place!
Thomas, from Paris

(trust your judgment via niubi and suede)

You ask me to reverse the roles, sure: If I would be in charge I would do everything to make potential future guests happy, and certainly not treat them like rubbish. That’s how you grow a business, not by acting superior to your potential guests. Be polite, and treat both guests and potential guests with respect. If someone has driven a long distance to see if a resort would be suitable for a conference, I won’t tell them to ‘shove off’. That would be the state-owned hotel attitude that is still prevalent in many hotels in this country, but a resort that pretends (or wants) to be high-class cannot do that. Maybe the resort is actually state-owned? I would not be surprised.

Everybody can book rooms in the resort online, so every random guy can show up there to stay in the hotel. If there would be ‘many persons requiring security’ (where did you get that idea by the way?) you should only allow pre-selected guests. Your argument therefore makes no sense.

To cut a long story short, I don’t agree with you at all. The management and staff feel superior to their potential guests (and therefore likely to their guests), which is the wrong attitude in every industry, especially in the service industry.

I wonder, are you really not the manager of this resort? You decide to reply anonymously, you have the same attitude as the management, and make a remark about ‘persons requiring security’ although you claim you have never been there. It’s probably the kind of reply I would write under a blog post if I would be the manager and hear about this blog entry from a guest. If you are, feel free to get in touch and try to convince me that this is the way you have to run an upscale resort.

Look, I’ve never been to this place, and maybe they were rude to you. But your attitude is so entitled, frankly, it’s a little disgusting.

If I were Marc I would have had even more reactions on the hotel.I might have written a compliant letter to local media such as Hangzhou Daily and Zhejiang Daily for their apology and improvement.

They were so rude and impolite to the visiting guests, let alone Marc had explained hard and even “begged” to them for several times — that they came here after several hours by drive from Shanghai was just want to look around the premises for potential meeting venue.

The Fuchun Resort might do have such “unwritten rule” to decline the random guests who are not going to stay there, and the junior staff such as the security and the manager might do “comply with” the rule for the refusal. However, their actions were not flexible at all to Marc’s case, and they were not tolerable at all either. Such kind of staff, although they obeyed the “company rule” but were very mechanically rigid. They might be afraid of being sacked by their senior and top management if they “broke” the rule. If it happened it would be the tragedy of both the top management and of the resort under the leadership of such management. The only thing that was worth consoling was that they finally let Marc enter throught for a while.

I very much agreed with the comment and in depth analyss made by the anonymous commentator regarding the “elite-led” model. I wish such model (even in other industries of the nation and the world) could be eliminated, as we are equal if measued by the service and being-served spirits.

The manager–I don’t recall his name, Michael something if I’m not mistaken–was a German fellow, and was very chatty and hands-on.

Hope all is well with Tudou. Would love to meet up with you and/or Gary some time; I’m in Shanghai most of next week.

Not sure if the search engine result will wake them up (although I hope it will), but it can help potential travelers make a better-informed decision about going here or not. Today this post is already at number 5 in Google for the search query “Fuchun Resort”, so I am sure people will read it – and hopefully discuss it with the hotel management.