Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Hotel Rip Off Or Reasonable Charge
I met a prospect this morning for a casual chat over a coffee at a country house hotel near the M4. Upon arrival the hotel informed us that because it was a business meeting they would charge us £10 plus the cost of the coffee (£2.50 a cup) to sit in their public lounge and chat. They justified this charge on the basis that lots of business people came in with laptops and used their wifi. We left immediately and had our meeting at Costa Coffee at the Leigh Delamere services instead. Is it just me, or is this self-defeating nonsense? I can think of no better way of pissing off potential customers than this. I would have thought hotels would want to encourage foot fall and casual visitors. Instead they now have two annoyed business people who will never go there again and may talk about it on social media sites like this one. What do you think? Should I name and shame or is this fair enough?
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3 comments:
It's logical to name them, it's perfectly reasonable for customers to report their experiences, good or bad.
The hotel owner is incredibly short sighted, excluding a particular audience by adopting a penalty policy is foolish.
The smart move would have been to set up a dedicated meeting lounge away from other guests where 'business types' could chat over coffee raving about the wonderful location.
There's always an opportunity where there's a perceived threat.
Walking out was the best move David - vote with your feet! Hopefully you hadn't ordered or paid for the drinks.
I'm willing to bet on the identity anyway as I heard a similar story only today regarding a well known country house hotel near the M4.
Definately name and shame, as they are certainly not keeping up with the times
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