I wish these people would just never go on holiday!!

[Brightlightmoon]

This is just a rant. I'm so sick of people!

I work in tourism (holiday rentals) and I'm sick of (unfortunately, mainly Brits) threatening legal action for absolutely EVERYTHING!

They book a property without aircon, it doesn't say anywhere on the listing that there's aircon nor have they mentioned any desire for aircon. They arrive, notice there's no air con and go fucking ape shit, threatening us in emails and text messages and phone calls, demanding all of their money back immediately or they're going to drag us through the courts. Same situation for anything else you can imagine - a washing machine breaks during their holiday (it happens, they don't break down on a schedule!), so they deem the property to be unfit for rental and not in line with the advertisement. We try and arrange for it to be fixed or for a new one to be fitted as soon as possible, but if we can't have it all done and dusted within half a day of their complaint, in come the threats and demands for full repayment.

I love my job, I love it so much, but fucking hell this type of shit gets to me.

dubyalass I do think we all have an expiration date for this kind of job and at some point we just can't do it anymore without the negativity seeping into our own lives. Thankfully I'm not at that point yet but it'll definitely come.

As I've said, you're either suited to rural France or you're not. If you don't like giant cities with loads of noise then you wouldn't book a trip to NYC, so equally if you can't handle people being slower in life and things not working perfectly, then you shouldn't go to France.

This week alone I've seen quite a few tourist families sit down in a cafe/restaurant and then leave in a huff again after 10 minutes because they haven't been served - you're in France! If you haven't been served after 30 mins, then you can start getting a bit huffy. I've waited 45 minutes before and then been given free wine with a shrug, I didn't even say a word about the slow service so I think they just sensed I was getting thirsty 😂

@Brightlightmoon Interested to hear your thoughts on this as you’re in rural France. We go to a rural area for holidays fairly regularly but have sometimes found ourselves being served after all the French diners in restaurants and left waiting for a long time. We’re not at all impatient and used to the pace of service there but it’s certainly been noticeable that we’ve been deliberately sidelined.

We’re polite, speak French to order (by no means fluent but can get by) so it’s not like we’re being typical English tourists. Is this something you’ve come across or your guests have mentioned?

👏🏼

I think everyone should have to work in retail or hospitality for 1 year. Then they'll (hopefully) be less of an arsehole

No I've never encountered staff deliberately serving English people last. I always encounter "regulars" being served before everyone and in a few places I know that I'll be served as soon as I arrive because I go there often, so maybe it was that? In general down here tourists arent treated any differently to anyone else, the only ones with special treatment are people the staff know as theres a huge importance in having and respecting your own "network" of locals.

I'm sure you already do, but so often I see very polite tourists not say "Bonjour" to everyone as they arrive and that's something that's just fundamental, you're seen as horribly rude if you dont, even if you've been incredibly polite on the whole.

Bet that line goes down a treat

9 times out of 10 it does! I do understand though, certainly if you've had a long drive, you're hot and you arrive and see a minor fault, sometimes it's just the straw that breaks the camels back. Most people in that position yell and insult us and then after the glass of wine we get a sheepish apology for overreacting. Have even had a man break down in tears after screaming abuse at us for half an hour. Get the (free) wine in them and they're fine.

I always hate those people who take it out on the customer service rep tho like you've gone in there and broken something on purpose! You do you best to resolve the issue and it just isn't worth the aggression half the time! Free wine makes up for it, totally changes the context of what your saying now. 😝

@Brightlightmoon Thanks for replying. Good to hear that it’s not widespread! It’s funny because we’ve been visiting the area for nearly 20 years and had never had a problem until the last five years or so. It certainly wasn’t widespread but we definitely found on a few occasions that it happened. We mentioned it to the owners of the gîte where we stayed and she said other guests had commented on the same issue at the same restaurants.

The worst example was when we went to a harbour side pizza place for lunch. We waited over an hour while seeing literally everyone around us get served, eat, pay and leave. We finally got up to go and the waiter came running over to say that our food was on the counter.

I feel like paying double the price for Holiday accommodation means I am likely to be more demanding. But I'd certainly not yell at someone!

In the UK maybe, but here are prices haven't gone up at all. As far as I recall, only one of our owners tried it.

@Inklingpot That's absolutely mad. I'd say find some new restaurants next time then if you think its because you're brits! Come down here, the further South you get the less people care and the better the wine is 😉