ORGANISERS of the first conference held at Marina Bay Sands (MBS) are looking into taking action against the integrat ed resort (IR) for the problems which plagued the event from the word go.

They say MBS failed to deliver the "unmatched guest experience" it promised when it first signed the deal early last year.

Mr Yap Wai Ming, chairman of this year's organising comunittee for the inter-Pacific Bar Association (IPBA) conference, said they will take stock of all the things that went wrong before meeting MBS to discuss the issue. He did not give a date for the meeting.

The IPBA conference, a prestigious meeting of lawyers now into its 20th year, was the first event hosted at the IR, which threw open its doors on April 27 after months of delay. More than 1,000 lawyers and judges from all over the world. including the United States, Japan and Chile, attended the meet, which started on Sunday and ended yesterday,

By the time it was over, delegates had compiled a long list of complaints about MBS, ranging from minor irritations to major flaws:

* At the five-star Marina Bay Sands Hotel, some delegates spent the first night without air conditioning.

* Some guests had to make calls using their mobile phones because the room phones were not working.

* Some rooms had no hot water or working toilet flushes.

* Facilities like the gymnasium, spa and swimming pool were not ready for use.

But the problems did not end at the hotel rooms.

At the Sands Expo and Convention Centre, sound quality in the conference rooms was poor, and meeting were interrupted by construction noise or worse.

Mr Yap said an IPBA committee meeting had to be reconvened along a-corridor because of loud piped music playing in the meeting room, He said MBS told them it was unable to turn the music off as the sound engineer was not around.

To add insult, to injury, the power went out for more than half an hour in conference room on Tuesday during the address by the Chief justice of the Australian state of New South Wales,

The inadequacies so irked the delegates that one of them, lawyer Axel Reeg from Germany, raised a motion during the annual general meeting (AGM) yesterday that the association take a "fair and tough stance" against MBS for not delivering what it promised.

"The conference has been world class The venue was presented to us as going to be world class. Sadly, it is not yet world class...I think we should rename Marina Bay Sands to Construction Bay," the 51-year-old told the assembled lawyers at the AGM.

Mr Yap said MBS should have been more honest about the progress of the IR right from the start, when it knew that its planned opening last December would have to be pushed back because of unforeseen construction setbacks and labour shortages.

The Stamford Law director said he learnt about the delay only when it was reported by the media in December. The organisers then asked for a site visit, but got to see the place only in February when it was still a "construction site".

Mr Yap said he never expected his conference to be used as a "stress test" for MBS.
Industry watchers said the problems could have resulted because of the haste with which the IR rushed to open-despite promises by Mr Sheldon Adelson, the chairman and chief executive officer of MBS' parent company, Las Vegas Sands, that the resort would welcome guests only when it was good and ready.

Said one, who declined to be named: This is a big disgrace for Singapore, Why rush to open when it is obviously not ready? "

MBS decined to comment on the episode when contacted yesterday, but said it was "putting every effort to ensure that situations commonplace all new operations are minimised and resolved promptly".

"It remains our priority to ensure that guests have an enjoyable experience at our property," said its spokesman.

The lawyers were not the only ones who failed to have a good time at MBS.
On Tuesday, diners at Chinese restaurant Imperial Treasure were stuck when two lifts, their only exit, were out of order.

They were told the only alternative was to pay the entry levy of $100 for each person to walk through the casino next door- an idea they rejected. Unable to wait any longer after 30 minutes, the 15 diners decided to march out through the casino anyway, without paying.

Corporate communications officer Tan Yong Meng, 47, who was entertaining two guests from Brazil, said it was an embarrassment. He said, "We wanted to take our guests (there) to show off Singapore, and it ended really badly,"

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