The Queer And Haunted Story of Room 3150 -- Today I want to tell you all a story that happened yesterday at Marina Bay Sands. Personally I'm not even sure what to make of it, or its full implications. As I'm typing this I'm terribly sleep-deprived so I'm probably going to analyse this series of events again after I wake up.

May this be a form of public education to the masses about the perceived safety of hotels. I'm probably going to file a police report after I wake up as well. I'm really curious about what you think, so let me know in comments how you would interpret this situation la! hahaha.

Here goes:

The plan yesterday was for us to have a hen's party at MBS. My friend's husband booked a room on behalf of the four of us at a special rate at SGD$420. The guy who gave us the special rate told us to call his staff when we reached the hotel at 2pm. So we placed a deposit of $200 first.

-2pm: We reached the hotel. The staff told us to wait for 30mins.

-2.30pm: The staff said she is delayed, and asked us to wait for another 30minutes.

-3.15pm: After waiting for one and a half hours, the staff came in and brought us upstairs. We got into the room 3150, and then she gave 2 cards to us and we paid the remaining sum of $220.

-5pm: The two of us went up to the Banyan Tree Fitness Club @ Marina Bay Sands ( Tower 2 Lvl 55 ) Super nice! But both of us didn't have sports shoes so we couldn't gym. One of us went back to the hotel room, and I went to use the sauna and spa facilities.

-5pm to 6.30pm: I was happily saunaing and steaming (The trick to having the whole entire sauna to yourself is to pour 20 scoops of water, Finnish style, into the coal thing LOLLLL, which I did).

By the way there were no instructions saying if I'm supposed to be naked when using the sauna (but I was), though after that I saw people using the facilities with their bikinis and swimsuits. so OPPS. LOL

At 6.30pm I returned to the hotel room.

-7pm: Two more of us arrived for the party so we left the hotel room to buy dinner back to the hotel.

-8pm: NOW, this is when all the drama starts. We got to level 31 and then could not open the 3150 hotel door with both cards.

So we briefly panicked as we had valuable stuff inside the room! One of us called the guy who gave us the rate of $420 and I called the front desk.

Front desk: Deng Deng Deng. Front Desk Staff said that there is no guest registered under 3150 and the last guest checked out 3 days ago.

The implication: Are we ghosts...? If I died, how is it possible that I did not know that I've died?! :O

So I asked the front desk: "Then who are we?"

So the front desk explained that unfortunately, he cannot do anything for us because there is no guest registered under room 3150.

Then I asked-- if there are no guests registered, how is it that our luggages are inside Room 3150 and that I even went to the sauna and the skygarden at level 57 with the 3150 access card?! (btw, all these are verifiable data because we had to use the card to tap, and to use the sauna I had to sign in)

So this front desk guy once again told us that unfortunately there is nothing he can do for us because we're not registered guests.

And then I asked him to solve the situation for us, because ???? Our luggages are in the room, yes?! And four of us are busy people, I personally value my time more than money as there is high opportunity cost--why do you ask me to "understand your situation" when all I care about is having our party?!

9pm: We were stuck at level 31 for ONE FULL HOUR because we couldn't enter the room, so we ate our dinner at the level 31 lift area watching the laser show thingy at MBS (really pretty!) Around 8.45pm a security manager Azmir came up and asked us what happened, we repeated the whole story.

9pm-10pm: More front desk saga. Management came down to talk to us and said that we didn't actually make the booking through MBS, but made the booking through "middlemen", which technically is--and I quote-- "prohibited".

And they told us that the person who checked us into the room 3150 is not a staff of MBS.

They confirmed once again that--and I quote--"There are no guests registered under room 3150 on the 21st April 2018". And they said obviously, the whole issue is none of MBS business because the four of us do not have any contractual relationship with MBS, which is true technically and which I can accept.

OK now this is where the can of worms is opened:

>>Worm #1: This means we actually paid $420 to "middlemen" who have access to the keys to MBS hotels. These middlemen not only have full access to the room 3150, but also the entire level 55 gym and level 57 skypark and gardens.

And they do it without registering anybody in the rooms that they have access to.

Erm...does this sound really unsafe to you? Because this sounds really unsafe to me. Middlemen who are not related to MBS having free unsolicited access to any MBS rooms they want...?

>>Worm #2: MBS staffs can always say they don't know anything because the people who have been robbed of their time and plans (aka us) have no contractual agreement with them.

Now, this is true, and I think it's us being gong3 and possibly careless. So our takeaway is that we will just be less gong3 in future.

However, note that I could access level 55, 57 and the room 3150 for a bit (at least 3 full hours) You know how drama shows tend to show people getting murdered in hotels? Well this might well be a real possible loophole that can be exploited. No registration, no trace, and full access!

>> Worm #3: MBS staffs were really polite, and to me, shockingly calm.

So I asked their management, "Does this usually happen?" And management said, "sometimes, and your case is not the most suay."

They proceeded to tell me how some people bought their package off carousell and OMG cannot even check into the stupid room. And because there is no formal contractual between them and MBS, nothing can be done. Okay lah that one is confirm scam between the Carousell seller and the consumer.

Overall however, I think our case is more worrying leh. Because we had full access to the hotel room and facilities for a while. You see, we went in with good intentions, so we're still relatively harmless. What if there are people with bad intentions who do this? Three hours, you can do a lot of evil in 3 hours...and leave no trace leh.

This however made me realise that no top hotels are safe!! No--not even in Singapore.

Because middlemen can have access to rooms, DEFINITELY reap a huge profit off it (think about it, it's zero marginal cost and an average of $420 per room in pure profit).

So how did the night and party end?

Two of us were visibly upset and shocked, of course. And the other two were sort of amused. (No prizes for guessing how I felt LOL). But the party must still go on mah...

...SO 10pm: We decided to check out, so a nice lady escorted us up to the room to take all our stuff, and we cabbed to karaoke the night away LOL

https://www.facebook.com/wan.weiii/posts/10156511496310815

[UPDATE] OK! Everyone, thank you for your concern for the four of us! ^^

A management staff Lynda from MBS has contacted me and explained the situation in more detail, so more puzzles are falling into place. Even though I don't think the four of us will ever get a complete picture since the folks at MBS need to protect their registered guests' privacy, I want to highlight that the MBS staffs have been really professional and thoughtful in the entire situation.

The only regret the four of us has is that we will never get to redo our hen's night as planned ever again in our whole life, which is a huge pity!

The MBS folks is most likely also going to make an official statement to notify people the importance of not going through middlemen. In the event that I do find time to make a police report (depending on whether I do OT today or not), MBS has also indicated that they will cooperate fully with the police.

Sincerely, thank you so much for sharing your experiences and tips! In the future all four of us + friend's hubby will not be so blur.

I hope this never happens to anyone ever! So next time let's do take note of this when you are planning a single's party ^^