A Korean woman who was serving her stay-home notice (SHN) at Singapore's Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel encountered cockroaches in five different hotel rooms.
Jisoo Lee explained in a Facebook post that she had arrived in Singapore from Japan on Nov. 24 and had to serve the 14-day SHN.
26th floor: The first encounter
She took a bus from Changi Airport to Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel.
After checking in, she was designated to a room on the 26th floor.
She subsequently took a shower and got ready for bed at 4am.
But before she could succumb to slumber, Lee saw a small cockroach on her table.
She started looking around and to her horror, she saw two more live cockroaches on the bedside table.
So she did what any other sane person would do: She killed the roaches and called reception for a room change.
30th floor: The second encounter
Lee was then moved to a new room on the 30th floor.
She wrote in her post: "The day went fine and I saw no roaches in sight, and felt comfortable eating my food in my room. I still kept everything clean and made sure there were no food remnants."
But around 7pm the next day, she spotted a live cockroach crawling on the bathroom doorway.
So Lee did what she had to do again: She killed the roach and called reception.
Their response, according to Lee, was to leave a Baygon spray at her door.
"I got pretty upset and complained, and they offered to switch me to another room," said Lee.
Lee also called the SHN hotline for help, but was told to remain in the hotel as nothing could be done.
The hotel later got its Korean employee to call Lee.
"I guess they thought that would appease a fellow Korean better," said Lee.
She explained that since Singapore's circuit breaker period, the hotel was rushed to host SHN guests and didn't have enough time to carry out pest control on the premises.
The employee then offered to move Lee to another room which they had inspected and sprayed with Baygon.
22nd floor: The third encounter
Thus, Lee entered a room on the 22nd floor that reeked of Baygon.
"At this point I was desperate in trying to feel safe so I just sucked it up and slept the night. The next day I was less guarded given that they were working on pest control, and from the events of previous days I was pretty tired and slept at 10pm."
However, at 4am when Lee woke up to use the bathroom, she found two roaches on her table and on the wall.
Photo from Jisoo Lee/FB.
Photo from Jisoo Lee/FB.
Lee called reception and once again, she was offered to move to another room.
Lee said: "I was beyond frustrated. This obviously isn't going to get better by moving me to another room, at this point it seems like it's a hotel-wide issue."
21st floor: The fourth encounter
The hotel manager called her the next morning and offered her a new room that has had pest control work done.
Lee was later moved to a room on the 21st floor.
"At this point, I was sceptical," said Lee.
She didn't bother unpacking her things because she had a feeling she was going to find a roach somewhere.
And she was right.
After inspecting the room for five minutes, Lee found a roach on the bathroom wall.
"I called reception again. To them, they claimed again that they thoroughly pest controlled and checked the room, so why did it take me such a short time to encounter one?"
Lee also tried her luck with the SHN hotline again.
This time, she was instructed to fill out a form that could help to expedite her request for a hotel change.
5th floor: The last encounter
After the fourth encounter, Lee was offered a room on the fifth floor, where it's "more spacious and bright".
However, Lee was still feeling sceptical.
While walking through the hallway, she scanned the walls to see if there were still any signs of cockroaches.
Unfortunately, there were roaches.
On the wall near her newly-assigned room, she found a cockroach.
"Although I'm now in a bigger and "nicer" space, it doesn't matter because I've slept through the night with all the bright lights on due to fear that I'll encounter another roach pal during my sleep.
I'm writing this to reach out to anyone else that has perhaps stayed at this hotel thus far for SHN, or is currently staying here and is experiencing the same thing. At first I was gaslighting myself, but if it has happened this many times on different floors, it can't be a coincidence."
Livid by the situation
Lee said that she is currently still staying in the room on the fifth floor, but feels "livid" by her situation as she has had to fork out S$2,000 for a nightmarish SHN experience.
She said that she felt "pretty bummed" that the hotel continued to take in guests when it wasn't ready.
Lee also noted that if she were to test positive for Covid-19, she could have also potentially contaminated five rooms in the hotel.
Ending her Facebook post, Lee shared that the hotel has started pest controlling its premises.
However, she still has doubts that it will eradicate all the cockroaches.
"For a 5 star hotel to get to this point is disappointing. If a hotel is not ready to serve guests, then don't!"
In the comment section of Lee's post, Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel apologised for the inconvenience and said that it will reach out to Lee to resolve the issue.
Mothership has contacted Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel for further comments.
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Top images from Jisoo Lee/FB.