June, 2002

Flapping roommates

By Steve Friess

HONG KONG: As she dove for her pillow after a rough travel day, Margareta Anderssen spotted a fish on the desk. "Hi!" read the huge orange letters on a note. Inside a small bowl was some colorful plastic seastuff, some sand and, unmistakeably, a live, tail-flapping goldfish. "What am I doing here?" the sign went on, asking precisely what the Swedish businesswoman wondered.

The cheeky note, signed by "Fish," answered: "Let's face it. You're in Hong Kong, alone and maybe you need an ear to talk to at night. I'm a great listener. I'm here as long as you want me, but if you're tired of my company, then give housekeeping a call and they will collect me." Housekeeping also provides the feed, Fish informed, "so don't worry about that."

Every solo guest at the Harbour Plaza North Point in Hong Kong is greeted this way. General Manager Dean Schreiber explained: "We were going to try it with a bird to start with, but that just didn't fly. And the dog, well, he kept peeing on the carpet."

An American chain, the Hotel Monaco, has a similar program dubbed “Guppy Love” at its six U.S. locations. The fish “are company for someone, but they don't disturb you when you're sleeping,” reasoned Hotel Monaco Seattle spokeswoman Charlotte Morgan Wayte.

The staffs of each hotel are trained on how much food to give and how to tell if the fish is in danger of dying on a guest. Even so, it happens sometimes. Fish croak. "We had one instance where our general manager in Seattle saw a sad little boy standing outside a room holding a goldfish that wasn't moving," Wayte said. "The general manager said to the boy, 'This one's really tired, let me go get you one that doesn't sleep so much.' "

Guests rarely demand that housekeeping take Fish away -- "How can you look at a goldfish and be angry and bitter?" Wayte wondered -- and occasionally they even wants to take them home. The hotels discourage this, but persistent guests sometimes do leave with slippery souvenirs.

Some visitors don't get the gimmick. One Hong Kong guest who checked in solo but was actually staying with his wife called the front desk in a rage. "Does the hotel think I need a fish because I can't talk to my wife?" he barked. "How did you know we were having marital problems?"

Housekeeping promptly removed the offending fish.

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