The St. Regis Beijing

I have stayed at The St. Regis Beijing four or five times, as a diplomat representing the Embassy of Brazil, and I know what St. Regis service used to be like. This latest visit was an abomination, and I checked out early because I couldn't stay any longer. I arrived exhausted after an overnight flight, in casual sports clothes after a vacation in Australia. Check-in felt cold and dismissive, without basic courtesy compared with my earlier stays. They said my room wasn't ready, while I watched other guests check in smoothly and get their keys. As soon as I paid an extra fee for early check-in, a room was suddenly available. That was a clear contrast with my past visits, when I'd find a letter from Oliver Achatz and a chocolate in my room. All I wanted was rest, but staff misconfigured my Wi-Fi twice. Tired and short on sleep, I had to go down to the lobby in my pajamas both times to get a basic connection problem fixed. Nobody apologized. The worst part happened during my work meetings. As usual, I held brief business meetings over coffee in my room during the week. When the visitors were light-skinned foreigners, my privacy was respected. But after returning from vacation with a deep sun tan, I had a dark-skinned colleague come to my room for coffee. The front desk immediately called in an aggressive tone and demanded that I come down to register him, citing a “hotel security policy.” If that were really the policy, it would have applied to all my other guests, and to the other guests I saw people having, since this is a very business-oriented hotel. I believe the more troubling explanation is that, because I'm a gay man with a temporarily darker complexion and casual clothes, staff racially profiled me and probably assumed I had a male prostitute in my room. The hotel can say that's not true, but only I know what I experienced. Being heavily judged and subjected to racism and homophobic undertones in a five-star international hotel is completely unacceptable. They invaded my privacy and insulted my dignity. As a Brazilian government representative, I've already flagged this with the Embassy of Brazil so it can formally reevaluate our corporate partnership with the property. I will NEVER set foot in this hotel again. An absolute disgrace.