By Jun Ilagan If you're a businessman frequently traveling to the Philippines and staying nowhere else but at the 5-star Makati Shangri-La Hotel since it opened in the '90s, how would you feel about being contacted by the hotel informing you that after you paid nearly Php600,000 in total hotel charges for your 12-day stay, you left behind an unpaid tab of Php875 for four canned sodas discovered missing from your suite's mini bar? How would you react after realizing that, at $1:Php40, Makati Shangri-La -- the only hotel you have patronized the last 15 years -- is telling you that the $15,000 you paid on check-out would only be treated, technically, as partial payment, unless and until you paid the $21.87 you still owe? You'll writhe in amusement, anger, and amazement all at the same time, as did a Bay Area-based Filipino American businessman who feels the belated charge practically amounts to Makati Shangri-La shoving his self-respect down his throat. [...]
