Tales of The Carry-On Kid: Tanzania Travel Log Vol. 11 – House Keeping?
As I approach the end of the Tanzania Travel Log, I realize that I have done a few things backwards. In all of the articles I have subjected you to, I haven’t described or shown you pictures of our hotel or hotel room. Some of you might find this interesting and if you don’t, well you have already gotten this far so you might as well finish reading the article. I have stayed in some of the best and some of the worst hotels Africa has to offer. From a six dollar a night boom-boom room in Ethiopia to five star hotels with all of the bells and whistles. Sadly, I’m not sure if all of these hotel stays have made me more or less tolerant of the day-to-day things that can go wrong in a hotel.
No matter what the quality of the hotel, it is always the employees that can make or break a stay. Hotels in Africa are unique for several reason, a few of which I’d like to discuss. Because most of Africa was colonized, there are a plenty of people from the colonial powers who like to vacation in the former colonies. This adds an interesting infusion of Europeans that you wouldn’t expect to find. To me it is disturbing to see the paternalistic and often colonial attitude that some of these folks take towards the locals. For some it might just be a case of douche-baggery, but for others it is a cultural issue and therefore most abhorrent.
For some of the unfortunate employees, it can be a double or triple whammy. They get treated like lesser humans because they are working in a hotel, are in a former colony and oh yeah, they’re African. I wasn’t raised to think that way so seeing it from afar is always tough, but that has to be balanced with the fact that for some people if you are in the service industry, no matter what your country of origin or skin color, you are just there to serve.
The second thing that can plague employees is the quality and dependability of the facilities at the hotel. If the power goes out or there is a problem in the room, it is always the employees that have to deal with the angry guests. Some employees handle this like champs while others say and do just the wrong things. As you can guess, I am a fan of the first type of employee.
Because of the length of my stay here I have gotten to know most of the employees and I’m thankful for that, they always seem surprised when say hello to them or thank you when they open a door for me. It is amazing how much more enjoyable your stay will be if you take a few minutes to treat the hotel workers like the people they are.
One of the drawbacks to having über helpful employees is that there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. There are many services that my hotel offers that I just don’t need. I don’t need a turndown service. I’m sure someone does, but to me it is kinda creepy. I can be kinda cheap, and the idea of tipping a person to move my sheets seems like a waste of money. There have been days here and there when I have been beat from a long day of work and those always seem to be the days when the most talkative and friendly employees are working. All I want to do is to get to my room and crash; however, they want to be nice and chat. It is times like these I wish I was a little more colonial.
As you can see from the pictures, this hotel is on the high end of the Africa list. Just behind our hotel is Oyster Bay, an upscale area of Dar Es Salaam that is full of embassy housing and tourists. The view was amazing and the facilities outstanding. The pool and adjacent bar served excellent stone oven baked pizzas and the beer looked cold. There is a fitness center, a restaurant, and weekly buffets. My room has a tea pot (cheers, Rob [Editors Note: It’s what I do #hattip --R]), an assortment of teas and coffee, two bottles of water a day, a mini fridge, wired and wireless internet, and about twenty channels on TV. Not a bad place to spend a month or so.
My biggest complaint here is the amount of power outages. I know most of the time this is dictated by city power, but for some reason they seem to have a hard time getting their backup generators started. I actually think it would be easier if they didn’t have any backups as it would lower my expectations. I know that sounds strange, but high speed Internet is a miracle when all you know is dial up.
When you travel, try to find a good, safe hotel in a good location. Always remember that the employees can only do so much. The way you treat those employees might determine how much they are willing to do. We are all humans and deserve a modicum of respect until we prove we are not worthy of that basic respect. My final and less lofty advice is this a few well placed tips go a long way, especially in places where people don’t make much money. That five dollar tip you leave for the house cleaner might be a few days worth of pay.
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