In a Facebook post earlier this month, a Singaporean man recounted his brush with racism at Hotel Boss, where he was rudely told off by the hotel’s cafe manager.
The man had been tasked to pick up some guests from the hotel along Jalan Sultan. He found them at Papasan 17 — a cafe in the hotel lobby — but was first approached by the cafe’s manager, who asked for his room number. He told her that he was just there to pick up his guests, who had requested for some additional time before they moved off.
After waiting for some time, he decided to go back to the cafe to look for them. Again, the woman by the name of Jasmine asked him for his room number, even though she just did so five minutes earlier.
“I told her again that I am not a hotel guest and that I had just came here a few mins ago looking for my guests,” he wrote.
“Ms Jasmine stared at me and raised her voice and with a rude tone, she blatantly said, ‘ALL OF YOU SO BLACK HOW TO RECOGNIZE?'”
Shocked, he asked her to repeat what she said, and she did, without any remorse, he claimed.
“I am of Indian race and I am proud of my race, ethnicity, and culture. I am born and bred in Singapore. Like any true blue Singaporean, I served NS proudly amongst multi-racial brothers and sisters. We have learned that no matter what skin color one has, we are all the same, and we shed blood, sweat and tears together,” he wrote, calling for boycotts against establishments that allow racism.
Four-star accommodation, one-star reviews
As with incidents like these, the post that accused the Hotel Boss employee of racism spread across social media. No confirmation or verification was needed for netizens to start targeting the hotel itself, damning its Facebook page with bad reviews based on that one viral Facebook post.
However, this isn’t the first time the Bugis hotel popped up in headlines. In March last year, a 23-year-old Vietnamese man fell to his death from the 15th storey, crashing into the railing of the hotel’s sky garden. The impact decapitated his body, and his head was later located outside a restaurant.
All apologies
Thirteen days since the Facebook post, Hotel Boss finally responded to the allegations. Apologizing on behalf of Jasmine, Papasan 17, and Hotel Boss, Promotions Manager Azlan K. assured in a post that they’ve spoken to the man, who has since accepted their apologies.
Apparently, Hotel Boss service employees also needed to be briefed that racism and discrimination is, y’know, inherently wrong.
“All staffs and tenants have been further briefed that racism and bias in any shape or form, conscious or unconscious, deliberate or accidental, are simply unacceptable and need to be eradicated from society.”
It remains unclear if the hotel has taken action against the Papasan 17 manager.
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