I guess I should tell the story of the unfortunate night.
We only spent the one night at The Hilton in Gyeongju city. I have to begin by mentioning that Rashed and I both enjoy and actually need the room temperature chilly to be comfortable, especially when sleeping. Now the temperature in the room was 26 upon entry. 26 Celsius (80 in our home) is pretty warm,especially to what we have been conditioned to in the UAE. So without thought I turn on the AC and set it to 15 (66 in our home). We leave to go see the sites expecting to return to a chilly room. We return to a "room temperature" room (pun intended haha) of 24 C which is not hot nor cool. Anyway we decide to bare it and continue the night. I cracked open a window just before bed. A couple of hours in my sleep I wake up to Rashed hopping on his bed with his hands extended up towards the AC duct. What are you doing Rashed and why is it so fucking hot??? Too tired to say more I fall off to asleep. I woke up myself a few hours later (now its about 4 am) and its blistering hot. The temperature was 30 Celsius, that's the temperature outside at 12 noon yesterday in Abu Dhabi & Dubai!!! What's going on Rashed? Why is the window closed? He said that he guessed that the open window was messing up the AC's internal system and therefore causing it to blow out hot air. WHAT???? I said. HOT AIR I said as I extended my arm (no hopping on the bed, I'm actually tall). Yes he was not hallucinating. The fucking AC was blowing out hot fucking air. I turned it off, still blowing hot air. What's going on? I called the front desk and asked for the duty manager to come. He came with a silly fan. I explained that 30 degrees Celsius is uncomfortable let alone not healthy. We then began hunting for cooler rooms on the same floor. It seems all rooms were uncontrollably blowing hot air. The on duty engineer was notified, deputy manager was checking other floors. In the end we were transferred to another floor and larger room but who cares because we moved at 4:40 am in our pajamas. We then had to pack our belongings, take out money and passport from safe, gather toiletries and close suitcase. The other room wasn't better at 24 Celsius but at least the AC was off, and a fan was strategically placed near the window so it draws the cold air and directs it toward us. I still had to exit the building for 5 mins to allow my body to cool before going back up to the room. I asked the manager how we were going to be compensated even after he apologized 100 times. He was expecting me to be ok after accepting fault and inconvenience and just be ok. I should try that the next I buy something at a shop. Sorry I don't have money and I'm really sorry and at fault. Will the shop allow me to leave without paying? Haha. We paid a lot of money for a premium Hilton room, sure if the bathroom faucet wasn't working too well or not all TV channels were working it would be "just ok" to pass but waking up to a sauna like ambiance at 4am and then hunting for a room, then gathering and packing to another floor is intolerable. I asked him for compensation,he said he had no authority and that I should wait till morning. I then I asked him to document the whole crisis and sign it. He was surprised and intimated and reluctant but he did it. He wrote that the temp was 30an we moved floors, packed our stuff and required compensation. The next morning after breakfast when we returned to the room to pack up we found him (general manager) casually strolling the corridor of our floor. Good morning, how are you? Not good at all, are you the manager? Yes he was and he was actually a really nice guy. We got on the elevator and he kept apologizing and then said he waived the room charge ( free night ), as I stated the night before that I was not paying. Anyway we reached the front desk and was presented with the bill sans room charge. It consisted of the water we drank and the dinner at the Chinese restaurant. A total of about 400 Dirhams. I exclaimed, why is there a bill? Everything should be waived and you should be offering me us free night coupon at any Hilton in the world. He quickly retracted the bill and waived everything. We said good bye and were on our way to Seoul. Free night and hotel restaurant dinner. Worth it to be woken up super hot? I'll leave that for you to answer.
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