Aibu Unapproiate places to take your DC with friends

[Stardust160]

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boutique-hotel-tells-mum-gave-8015817?ICID=FB_mirror_main

Mum and her friends ( 6 prams ) complain about being denied access to this boutique hotel lobby and post their annoyance on the hotels social media page. Hotel responses rarely abruptly. What are people's thoughts? Personally I have 3DC and would never think this is an approiate place to take my children to.

[Stardust160]

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boutique-hotel-tells-mum-gave-8015817?ICID=FB_mirror_main

[ghostyslovesheep]

Hahahaha oh I'm so booking into that hotel - I love their response

she'is another person with a massive sense of mumtitlement isn't she - they really boil my piss

suck it up buttercup no where HAS to let you in - it's not discrimination - people with prams aren't a protected group

[VioletVaccine]

It was clearly a spot chosen for the ones pushing the prams, not for who was in them.

And to be fair, if I and 4 colleagues had been booked in there for a business conference, I'd be pretty miffed at half the room being used as a playgroup/Mother's coffee morning.

[SoupDragon]

Oh, I love the hotel's response but I doubt it was an official one!

I do think that trying to take 6 prams, which I bet weren't small ones, into a boutique hotel is ridiculous. In fact taking that many prams into anywhere there might be limits on space with tables and chairs etc is ridiculous.

[StealthPolarBear]

That woman really likes the word 'entirely'

[pieceofpurplesky]

What does she have in her head in the photo? I see what the hotel means - if their main clientele is business then the businesses will stop if overrun with babies and prams. I am sure that there is somewhere else in Surbiton that is much more baby friendly!

[Kenduskeag]

It took me a while to work out why on earth pram-pushing parents were all choosing to gather in a hotel's lounge. I'd have assumed such a place was guests-only, or that if it was a smart establishment hoping for business and meeting trade, it's not quite the spot for holding your NCT meeting, buying one coffee and staying three hours.

I don't think they're being unreasonable. I've got a list of fancy establishments I'm looking forward to going to with older children, or no children, because there's literally no room for a pram and I'd have no desire at all to disturb others enjoying such a place with a toddler.

[AndTakeYourPenguinWithYou]

It was clearly a spot chosen for the ones pushing the prams, not for who was in them

Thats not a bad thing in itself, is it? Most of the places I push my pram to are for me to go (really fun places like the bank and such, generally) rather for the baby. Because being a baby, they don't actually give a fuck where they are, on the whole.

As to this particular instance, I don't see why they feel the need to ban babies in an empty coffee place because they want to fill it with business lunches later on in the day, but I suppose thats up to them.

[ilovesooty]

Good for the hotel. I'm just sorry they've deleted the comment.

[SoupDragon]

I don't see why they feel the need to ban babies in an empty coffee place

It probably had something to do with the 6 prams.

[53rdAndBird]

Well, it's up to them what 'client group' they want to serve, but it does come across as a teeny bit precious to kick out a bunch of mothers and prams because of Important Business Lunches!, when it's 10am and there are no Important Business Lunches taking place. Why not just take their money and tell them you'll need the table back by 11.30?

I also tended to spend more money in cafes when on mat leave breastfeeding a newborn and cramming my face with chocolate cake than when I have work-related lunch I'd need to claim on expenses, tbh. But maybe that's just me.

[Stardust160]

**Andtakeyourpeniguinwithyou the point is no bussinessmen want to hold a meeting later on when theirs screaming babies in the lobby whilst the mums chat. It's not that type of establishment. Clearly it's been an issue and as a business they decided it's better to decline their business than lose more profitable business instead.

[Stardust160]

Or for that matter the residents whom have paid high prices for abit of luxury to stay at this establishment to be welcomed by a group of mothers and babies and numberous babys. I'm speaking as a mother to a toddler and newborn.

[diddl]

So when it says that she "visited" was it that herself(!) & her friends popped in for a coffee or that they were guests with rooms?

[53rdAndBird]

Ah, businessMEN. I see.

[kiwimumof2boys]

Why on earth would anyone want to take a baby/toddler to a botique hotel? It's the sort of place I'd with friends sans children.

[AndTakeYourPenguinWithYou]

I'm always surprised at how negative people are about babies and mothers. Do they bring down the tone? Are they offensive to look at?
And why are babies always described as screaming? In my experience they are either asleep, happily quiet, or if not they are removed and calmed by the mother. People always describe them as screaming as if there are hordes of abandoned screaming babies in prams, left to their own roars while the feckless women talk amongst themselves.

It's no odds to me, I don't go to such things and clearly the hotel can do as they like. I just find the negative portrayal interesting. It is rather unflattering to mothers and babies as a group.

[CrazyCatLaydee123]

A missed business opportunity - the mums clearly wanted to be there originally, it wasn't being used at the time. The mums were probably spending money on coffee and lunch. Why not make a particularly unbusy period of the week set aside for a mums group, provide somewhere to park prams (empty room perhaps?) and reap the money they wish to spend with you. If any business people wanted a meeting at that particular point, be flexible and offer them an alternative or tell them what time mum time ends.
Or, alienate one group of paying customers in the hope that a currently non-existent type of customer (at that time of day) show up.

[BoffinMum]

I think the hotel needs to put the price of the 10am coffees up by about double and create a pram park that people are obliged to use, and then see what happens next.

[BillSykesDog]

I don't see why they feel the need to ban babies in an empty coffee place because they want to fill it with business lunches later on in the day, but I suppose thats up to them.

Because they are a hotel. Their main business is selling rooms and having guests. These are mainly going to be for business people with the odd tourist in Surbiton. Often these type of guests are regular returners too.

If their guests are coming to stay and finding that they can't do the work they need to, can't have a working lunch or hold a meeting or sit and work on their laptop because there's a squad of bawling babies and the place is an assault course of prams they are not going to return.

They are a business, not a community centre. They are under no obligation to make their facilities unsuitable for guests paying a minimum of £85 a night for a room for a group who are spending £4 each on a coffee. They would go to the wall in a couple of months.

I would suggest that if the NCT are that desperate to use that venue they pay to use one of their conferencing rooms like the business customers would for groups that size. They won't though, because they want to spend the minimum of cash. Which is why they've made the business decision to prioritise the customers who actually make them money. Because they are, you know, a business.

It looks like even at the weekend their main business has an adult based clubbing focus so not even very suitable for families then. I certainly wouldn't want to nurse my hangover next to an NCT group. And again, that group of customers, weekend clubbers, are going to bring in an awful lot more money than a group of mums drinking coffee.

They're under no obligation to hurt their business to facilitate customers who would drive them into big losses.

[OurBlanche]

I think the hotel's official response says, quite clearly, what the problem is. They take up too much space, don't spend enough and block tables, preventing other, higher paying customers from being seated.

It really doesn't matter that they were chucked out at 10am, if they stay for 2 hours then there would be an almighty rush to get the place reset for lunches. The hotel have obviously decided that they really are NOT worth it!

No discrimination, just a business decision. Unpopular as it might be with the mums I would imagine there is another hotel nearby delighted with their custom... or about to make the same decision and chuck them out.

There are far better places to choose to descend upon for a natter.

[derxa]

This reminds me of the thread where the cafe owner shouted at a group of mummies for making a mess.

[HermioneWeasley]

What BillSykes said

[Originalfoogirl]

She "won't be going back"

Ummm...so what's the problem with being told you can't go back then, love?

Loved the hotels response. Shows they don't pander to this kind of "we are entitled to go anywhere" crap.

[NotYoda]

If the hotel decides it needs the money of its business clients more than it needs the money of parents with babies, then fair enough.

Its sad when your life doesn't continue the way it did pre-baby, but it gets back to normal again and then at some point you are glad to go somewhere where there are no babies or toddlers