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Allergies and intolerances

Hotel refused to serve DS with nut allergy - anyone else had this?

23 replies

Berrie · 08/10/2007 15:15

We went to a wedding at the weekend and the hotel refused to serve my son a meal as we had indicated, as asked, any special dietry needs. As it happened, by the time they had scurried off and found the food that I'd provided, he'd eaten half his sister's meal anyway.
Has this happened to other people? We felt cross about it but didn't make a fuss so as not to cause the bride and groom any hassle.

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DoctorFrankenSquonk · 08/10/2007 15:16

not heard of this before. That is awful!

Berrie · 08/10/2007 15:21

I might write a letter...

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DoctorFrankenSquonk · 08/10/2007 15:31

I think you should.
What's the point in asking if there are specific dietary needs and then ignoring them? If they didn't want to know, they shouldn't have asked.

ivykaty44 · 08/10/2007 15:39

I went on holiday self catering about four years ago to France and friends we were away with have a dd with a nut allergy. One bakers shop refused to sell us bread when we showed the french translation card so we went somewhere else to get bread.

Bit more difficult if you are in a hotel...

fleacircus · 08/10/2007 15:42

Suggests to me that hotel is serving Brakes style prefab food - if they were preparing it from fresh ingredients on site they would know whether or not nuts could have contaminated it. Not a terribly impressive performance.

DoctorFrankenSquonk · 08/10/2007 15:43

regardless of whether they were unaware of nut products in their food, if Berrie has provided her own food then the least they can do is bring it out!

And if they ask about special dietary requirements, then presumably they are able to cater for these.

Nut allergies aren't exactly unheard of, are they?

purpleflower · 08/10/2007 15:47

I've worked in a couple of hotels (Waitress & trainee chef) and have never refused to serve anyone. Even when we used the Brakes food we would study the list of ingredients and make sure they knew there was no nuts in the item but we couldnt guarantee the factory.

I would complain, that is really bad customer service IMO.

ivykaty44 · 08/10/2007 15:49

Was the hotel part of a group? If so which group?

Berrie · 08/10/2007 15:51

We manage to feed him every day...it's not hard!
If they'd have said, we are also serving 50 peanut pancakes that day and it might be tricky to guarentee there will be no cross contamination then I would have understood. We hate him to have to feel different...it felt like discrimination.

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Berrie · 08/10/2007 15:52

No not part of a group..it was the Porthminster Hotel St Ives, I'm happy to name and shame!

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DoctorFrankenSquonk · 08/10/2007 15:57

What gets me about this, is that they asked if there were any special dietary needs, then ignored the fact that there were.

They also ignored the fact that, being a responsible parent, berrie had taken along her own meal for him!

I know that hotels get busy, and presumably they were very busy catering for the wedding, but that's not your problem.

I would write a letter and just state how disappointed you were.

Berrie · 08/10/2007 16:04

I went to speak to someone half an hour before we were due to eat to double check that his meal woud come out with everyone elses. It was only when someone overseeing service noticed he'd got nothing that they went to get it and she obviously knew nothing about it.

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Berrie · 08/10/2007 16:04

I noticed some other children got soya ice cream.

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ivykaty44 · 08/10/2007 16:11

Just incase it was a couple of particular hotel groups as I know inside tricks as to get the "most" out of a complaint.....

Still though I would write a simple short letter and ask how they are going to put this situation right?

Berrie · 08/10/2007 16:13

Tell me more Ivy!

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brimfull · 08/10/2007 16:13

we have had places get quite uppity about things when we tell them about ds' nut allergies.Thing is a lot of places think you expect a gaurantee(can never spell that word) that there will be no contamination.

I always explain that I don't expect a gaurantee I just need reassurance that his meal
A. has no nuts or nut derivitive ingredients in it.

B.That the area his food is pprepared in is not contaminated or has a high chance of contamination (as in the nut pancakes mentioned )
C.That they are aware of his allergy.I also reassure that I take full responsibility and have epipen.

I think it's terrible they couldn't cater for your son and you should write to them about it.There are loads of information sources for businesses to learn about allergies,maybe they need more educating.

Berrie · 08/10/2007 16:18

I will ggirl. They previously were happy to serve us but the management changed apparantly. We offered to sign something to say we took full responsibility but they wouldn't have it.

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mimi03 · 08/10/2007 16:21

hotels and restaurants buy in loads of goods from ppl like 3663, bookers, brake brothers, so they would not be able to guarentee if that food had come into contact with or contained nuts.but if you brought your own food with you im guessing they just dont want to be held liable if anything happens- its a side effect of that whole 'no win no fee' culture im afraid.

Berrie · 08/10/2007 16:30

Mimi, but would those goods not be labelled? Restaurants always seem to be able to check labels for us.

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mimi03 · 08/10/2007 16:35

yeah im sure they would but then i also know that chefs can be very intolerant to this kind of thing, im sure we have all seen how gordan ramsey has reacted to vegitarians....but i know that is different. but the op seems to have rung in advance and provided her own food so im guessing its the liable thing. but the hotel cant just change their mind half way through things. i think i would want a proper explaination......

ivykaty44 · 08/10/2007 17:11

If you complain in the correct way you can usually achieve much more.

Write a clear short note explain the facts only - no waffle, no how you felt about it etc etc and then put the ball in the court of the hotle and ask "how are you going to put this situation right?"

Basic:
We stayed at your hotel this date
We notified you of allergy
You said we will do this
Then you changed and stated cant do that on the day
Why did you do that?
How are you going to correct situation?
Look forward to hearing from you.

hifi · 08/10/2007 17:33

agree with mimi,even though its tough on you, people are just trying to protect themselves, and your dc if they arnt 100% sure. they shouldnt ask for dietry requirements if they cant fulfill them.

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Berrie · 08/10/2007 18:33

Thanks Ivy!

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