YouTubers Alleged That Hotel Staff In Langkawi Stole RM1,400 Worth Of Cash From Them
They also said that the "four-star hotel" was infested with bugs and mold.
By Samantha Khor — 23 Jul 2018, 08:12 PM
Strap in, folks. This story is one heck of a wild boat ride.
In a video posted by travel vlogging duo DeathByVlog, the housekeeping staff of a four-star hotel in Langkawi have been accused of stealing RM1,400 worth of cash from the duo's hotel room during their brief stay
The digital nomads have been travelling in Malaysia for over a month, having spent one month in Kuala Lumpur with plans to spend another month in Langkawi and Penang.
Prior to the alleged theft, the duo - Ryan and Stacia - highlighted several red flags with the hotel upon their arrival. For one, contrary to what was advertised, the hotel was old, rundown and mold-infested.
In the video, Stacia said that the hotel was advertised as a "four-star hotel" with "great WiFi" and "beautiful newly-renovated rooms"... which turned out to not be the case.
"It wasn't newly-renovated. This hotel looked like something out of the late '70s," Ryan added.
Upon checking in, they also discovered that their room was plagued with a "disgusting" bug infestation
"I get that we’re on a beach location and resort atmosphere, that there’s gonna be some bugs here and there. I understand that, but they're infested into the walls! There's ants everywhere, and these weird bugs crawling around," Ryan explained.
"We took photos and videos of all of this, just in case we needed to cancel, but we were gonna deal with that. We were still fine."
The main incident happened on the third day of their stay. Initially, the duo did not suspect that anything was amiss when they were approached by housekeeping staff as they left the room for breakfast.
"When we left the room, the housekeepers were right outside. They asked us if we wanted our room cleaned that day, and we said yes because we hadn’t made them clean for the previous two days," Stacia said.
She added, "So we go down for breakfast, and unfortunately, I left my wallet in the room. I knew I left my wallet in the room, and I was like, 'Oh, we’re just gonna be here for 20 minutes, it’s not a big deal.
We know that it was a mistake to leave this stuff out in the room. We know we should’ve used the hotel safe, you guys don’t need to tell us that, we understand."
The duo headed for their room after a quick breakfast. Not only were they told to wait as housekeepers were "not finished" with their room, they entered to find that the room was not even cleaned up
"We go back into the room, and the room wasn’t clean! There were no new towels, the garbage wasn’t taken out, nothing was done," Ryan added.
"They didn’t do their job, and we're like, what did they do the whole time they were in there and telling us to wait as well?"
It wasn't until later in the day that Stacia realised a chunk of money had gone missing from her wallet. Alarmingly, Ryan also claimed that his bags have been "ransacked".
Stacia said that they did not leave the hotel for the entire day as they were both working until they decided to go out for dinner. It was then that she reached for her wallet, opened it up, only to realise that all of her money - save for a measly RM19 - was gone.
"Once we realised that the money was missing, I go through my stuff. Every single one of my pouches for my gear, anything that was in my backpack, all unzipped," Ryan said.
Furious, Ryan called hotel staff to their room to demand an explanation. In a snippet of a video Stacia filmed of the confrontation, the housekeepers denied the accusations.
The duo then sought to file a police report of the incident. They described the experience as "shady", as they were told to type out their own report and the police officer in charge did not even ask them any follow-up questions.
"It was weird. It was really shady, the whole experience," Ryan mused.
"Stacia had to type (the report) on the computer for him, and he’s just sitting there with his feet up, watching (the World Cup)! He’s not asking us any questions, he’s not trying to resolve the matter or anything. It was very shady, and something just did not feel right about it," he added.
When they got back to the hotel, things seemed to be looking up when the front desk told the duo that the owners and management would like to set up a meeting with them to resolve the issue
Ryan recalled that as they were making a copy of the police report, front desk staff told them the owner and management of the hotel wanted to meet with them at 9am to next day to conduct a full investigation and to review tapes from the security camera that happened to be located in front of the room.
The next day, to their utmost frustration, they were told that the owner and manager "had an unexpected meeting" and were not even on the island that day.
Hotel staff refused to pass on any sort of contact information to the duo despite them demanding to speak to a superior. Then came the kicker - they were told that the security camera wasn't working at the time of the incident.
"They kept giving us the runaround. Every single person we wanted to talk to is 'not available'", Ryan said, adding that hotel staff refused to give them a phone number or e-mail of anyone in charge.
They were then told that the security cameras installed in the hotel "are not working at the moment".
"Are you kidding me?! That’s the one thing that we needed to prove, and we have no proof. That’s when it started to become even more frustrating for us, because there was no resolution," Ryan ranted.
"They weren’t gonna do anything for us, the security cameras are broken, management isn’t here, the owners aren’t here, this other management person can’t help coz they aren’t here, so basically we’re screwed."
Ryan revealed that the hotel also refused to give them a refund for their brief stay until they reached out to online booking site they booked the hotel from
"They also gave us a bunch of s*** about cancelling our hotel stay," Ryan said.
"Finally, we contacted Agoda, which we booked the hotel through. We had to send them videos and photos of the infestation of bugs, the mold, the disgusting room, and the police report coz on top of all that, we got our money stolen!
Finally, they were able to communicate with the hotel and the hotel agreed to give us a partial refund."
Meanwhile, the hotel in question has released a statement explaining their side of the story. It also called on the public to refrain from "attacking" those implicated in the video and to remind viewers of the Anti-Fake News Act.
"Besides the two maids, a clerk was also unfairly accused for committing the crime, without any solid evidence. Their pictures were put in social media. We hope the audience will also give them space, listen to facts from both sides, and not to attack any individuals without proper judgement as this is affecting their long-term future," the statement reads.
"As this video has gone viral, we sincerely hope that the audience will not be misled and judge us from one side of the statement only."