'Le Valet' not okay

On the evening of May 7, I used the valet service to park my car at the Le Meridien hotel when some friends and I met there for dinner. After eating and spending approximately an hour and a half in the hotel, my companion and I left the rest of the group to go to another event. I gave the valet my parking ticket, who asked us to wait for the car to be brought up. Fifteen minutes later the car had still not arrived and when I questioned the attendant he told me it would not be much longer.

After 45 minutes of impatient stares and inquiries from me, and "just another minute ma'am" smiles from the attendants, my friends we had dinner with came into the lobby, having finished their meals, and of course were very surprised to see us there still waiting for our vehicle.

Out of kindness they waited with us and tried to help by making their own inquiries, which were all for naught. An hour and a half later, the attendant came to us saying the problem all along had been that the keys were lost. Our whole group raised our eyebrows at this response and decided to find the car and investigate the situation ourselves.

Following the attendant into the parking lot, he pointed out my vehicle. I open the door with my spare key only to find the set of keys that I had originally given the attendant on the passenger seat. Furious, I was about to verbally release some of my tension by wondering out loud how the person who had parked my car and who does this for a living could just leave the car keys on the passenger seat, when my friend called me to the front of the car and asked me to feel the hood. It was hot. Not lukewarm or kind of hot, but really hot. It was obvious, someone had been driving my car around for the past few hours.

Needless to say I went straight to the manager, who to my further annoyance presented me with textbook apologies and feeble assurances that if anything was missing or wrong with my vehicle the hotel would reimburse the costs. My mind was so abuzz with thoughts of these attendants doing crazy spins and stunts in my car that I had no time to concentrate on the pitiful management. Observing the situation as hopeless, I thanked my friends for their support and left.

I hope my experience can help someone in the future.

MARTINI B.

Jakarta