Company provides new arrivals with 'orientation specialists', who meet them at the airport and go to extraordinary lengths to make them feel at home
SERVICED APARTMENTS provide the welcoming cushion that protects and soothes business travellers - preventing road warriors from becoming road worriers, jet setters from turning into dead-enders and making the life of the globetrotting executive less frenetic.
At the Four Seasons Place Serviced Suites Hotel in Hong Kong, new arrivals are cosseted by a team of dedicated 'orientation specialists', who, besides greeting them when they land at Chek Lap Kok and explaining the nuts and bolts of life in the city, will also help with cultural immersion, guiding them through the brouhaha of a dim sum restaurant or a wet market.
The orientation experts will even lead their charges into the MTR to help them through the intricacies of buying a ticket and getting on a train going in the right direction, with the ultimate aim of putting a block on culture shock.
Provided with a home away from home, with almost all their needs catered for, the life of someone living in a serviced apartment should be a breeze, with only the fridge to stock and the television, stereo and DVD remotes to decode. But there are sometimes more than a few hiccups along the way.
Juliana Smithe, who has worked for a variety of Fortune 500 companies, recalls an unstoppable service experience in the late 1990s.