My nightmare at Hotel Salak

I have been reading your column for 14 years and doing business in Asia for 23 years. My worst nightmare started on July 20 when I arrived in Bogor. My hotel room was not ready at 1:30 p.m. Both the receptionist and the concierge insisted that I should leave my bags with the concierge and wait until my room was ready in the coffee shop.

At 2:10 p.m. my computer and accessories were missing, believed to be stolen. It was a three-week-old computer and my link to my family and our business during my 200 days a year of business travel. Replacement value was quoted at US$1,800, while the value of the contents was difficult to estimate.

My project was to install equipment to improve butchers' profitability and safety at both the slaughterhouse in Bogor and the one in Cibinong, in cooperation with the Indonesian Cattle Feedlotters Association, the mayor of Bogor and the head of the Cattle Breeding Office.

I would also like to thank them all for their representations to the Hotel Salak management to assist me with some form of compensation or admission of liability. I understand that the city administration also had the local tourist association make a representation to the hotel, but to no effect.

During the course of events, much to the horror of the hotel, in the confusion they neglected to make an imprint of my credit card. After two weeks, unfortunately for me, I was threatened with eviction, my credit for food and service was canceled and the same sergeant of the Bogor Police that was supposed to be helping the management and me to find the computer was used to hold me against my will on the hotel grounds. The same concierge that said he would look after my computer was back at work one day after the case was stolen.

This is not the type of hospitality and treatment I am used to or expect in Indonesia. On the 14th day of my stay the hotel management said that if I did not pay my hotel bill they would inform the immigration office and I would not be able to leave Indonesia. The conclusion of this nightmare was that the Hotel Salak management illegally contacted one of my Indonesian friends and forced him to be the guarantor for the money I owed to the hotel.

A big thank-you to the president director of Hotel Salak for giving me a letter telling me how silly I was to hand my baggage over to hotel security staff for safekeeping.

In conclusion, I would always prefer compensation to litigation. I think your readers have a right to know what is happening.

GEOFFREY BEERE, Darwin, Australia