The Apprentice Asia

Tony. Loses. It.

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This week, teams were tasked with managing part of the Hilton Kuala Lumpur hotel for a day.

Teams each had to manage:

  • housekeeping for 3 rooms
  • check-in for 3 sets of guests
  • room service for part of the hotel

The team that did the better job delivering hospitality would win. Teams were sent for short training sessions, and were also given a housekeeping folder detailing exactly how rooms had to look, down to the last detail. 

“Things Got A Bit Weird” for The Mavericks

Since Nash had experience working in housekeeping years ago, project manager Jon assigned Nash and Dian to run housekeeping. Their first mistake came quickly: Nash forgot the room keys, and had to waste time getting them. Cleaning the first room, Nash obsessed over every detail, wasting even more time. They finished up the first room just in time for their first guest.

And then Dian also made a mistake: She’d apparently left the housekeeping folder at the front desk. She phoned Jon and Andrea – who heard her say that the folder was “missing” – and that started a fight in the boardroom later. (Read on!)

Pressed for time, Dian decided to just clean the room without the folder.

Their 2nd guest was a Hilton HHonors Diamond elite member – the top tier of Hilton’s loyalty program. It was her birthday and she was exhausted, but when she arrived, Nash and Dian weren’t ready. Despite his experience in housekeeping, Nash was frazzled and confused, and Dian had to tell Nash what to do. But Nash blamed the delays on Dian not bringing along the housekeeping folder.

As time dragged on, the guest, whom Andrea nicknamed ‘Ms. Nightmare’, got more and more annoyed. And then, as Andrea put it, “Things got a bit weird.”

What an understatement! The 3rd guest arrived, and was seated next to the incredibly annoyed Ms. Nightmare, facing the awkwardly silent Jon and Andrea. When Jon told the 3rd guest that his room would be ready after Ms. Nightmare’s, she turned to the 3rd guest and said “Good luck.”

An eternity later, Dian and Nash were finally done, and escorted both the guests to their rooms.

Celina Absorbs Stress, But It Leaks.

Since Celina was a hotel consultant, she was very confident about taking charge of Apex. Sam and Alex ran housekeeping. Alex was in overdrive, but Sam happily bumbled along.

None of the rooms were ready in time, and when the 3rd guest arrived – an HHonors Diamond elite member – with the 2nd guest still waiting for his room, Celina’s stress levels spiked. To the cameras, she said that she’d told herself to absorb the stress, so that the guys won’t make mistakes. But Celina eventually got fed up, and phoned the guys, insisting they finish up IMMEDIATELY.

She tried to placate the guests, but her tension was palpable. “Celina’s smile,” Kathleen noted, “comes across as very fake.”

After getting all guests to their rooms, Sam and Alex were kept busy with room service. Unfortunately, Celina incessantly called them to check on their progress. “She would call every 2 minutes,” Alex complained, “It was wasting our time, to have somebody scolding you like ‘Oh! Hurry up hurry up hurry up!’”

Celina was oblivious to the stress she was causing, and bragged, “If we win, of course, the main reason would be me. I absorbed all the stress of the guests.”

Alex thought the exact opposite, declaring “Celina was lucky to have people like Sam and I.”

The Mavericks Mess Up Room Service

After guests were (finally) checked in, Andrea and Nash handled room service deliveries, while Dian and Jon took the calls. In an epic case of miscommunication, the first guest ordered a Mediterranean Pizza and read out all the ingredients to Jon, who in turn thought she wanted Grilled Chicken with Feta Cheese and Olives (which were in fact the ingredients of the Pizza). And so the kitchen did a special order.

Which of course was wrong.

Nash then did something unauthorized – he offered the guest a free pizza. Andrea tried to dissuade him, but Nash insisted that he would pay for it himself.

The Results

It turned out that Apex had made their 2nd guest wait for 30 minutes, and their 3rd guest for 40. Andrea smirked.

But The Mavericks did even worse – they made their Diamond elite member wait 45 minutes. “What the hell are you guys thinking!” Tony fumed. When Jon tried to explain, Tony snapped, “I didn’t ask you for your opinion.”

Hilton judged Apex the winner. They were so impressed with Alex, that Hilton said they would have hired Alex right away.

Tony Loses His Cool

Jon and Andrea insisted that Dian had said that the housekeeping folder was “missing”, and questioned her integrity when she said that she had simply left it at the front desk. Dian insisted that it was a slip of the tongue. Tony lost his cool. Banging his fist on the table, he reproached The Mavericks, “Disaster disaster disaster. Don’t make excuses!”

Tony also told Nash off for the unauthorized pizza giveaway. When Nash tried to explain, Tony snapped “Stop there”.

Jon tried to explain too, and Tony cut him off. “I don’t want to hear any more. You should have been more on top of things. Shouldn’t have let yourself down, because you’re good. And that’s why I’m angry.”

Jon started defending his team, saying “They’re all good...”, only to have Tony retort, “They’re ALL BAD!” Jon chose Nash and Dian to face elimination.

Jon and Nash kept questioning Dian’s integrity, but Dian fought back. For Tony, it finally came down to making a decision based on who he thought had more fire to be his apprentice. Nash was fired.

“I can’t have an apprentice who makes so many mistakes,” said Tony, “I didn’t think Nash would be able to keep up with me.”

 

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