Patrick Williams

Review of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group ...

As a guest, my experience was five stars. As part ...

As a guest, my experience was five stars. As part of the event staff for a large program, my experience was a solid three stars. Average between them = four stars. The showers in the guest rooms are amazing - as is the bed.

I've worked events/programs at 25+ luxury properties all over the world, and found the tier 1 support (servers, house staff, and other staff on the front line) to be rather slack compared to others. The banquet and sales managers were exactly what we expected - competent, quick, and personable. Everyone responsible for executing their/our wishes was not. As a specific example from my experience: the event staff office is customarily given the same or often better service than the event guest spaces. There wasn't a morning our dirty bfast dishes sat on our workspace tables for less than 2 hours after the food service ended. Sounds petty, but the only difference between good and great properties is exceptional service.