Bad service in restaurants all in the same town. Is it just us?

[Sunnysunshine123]

We live in London and usually go for small holidays and days out in the UK, usually villages and small towns etc. It’s just me and my DH, no children at the moment.

We’ve just spent three nights in a nice city with a cathedral, old buildings, museums, nice scenery, cafes and restaurants etc. I’m not going to name the city in case I’m unfairly singling anyone out, but we’ve had a problem at nearly every place we’ve eaten at, and we’re not difficult customers, we’re easy going.

One restaurant had us waiting 45 mins because they’d forgotten about us. One had the staff running around like mad and we actually felt stressed, had to ask several times for basic things. One was a small cafe where they just couldn’t cope with the number of visitors. There are others too.

I realise there’s a shortage of waiting staff and chefs right now, but we’ve visited several other places and I’ve never seen it so pronounced as in this city. Did we just have bad luck? Is it the time of year? Is it just too many tourists compared to the population?

Is it a touristy city and was it raining when you were at the cafe?
I have worked in a cafe in a touristy town, and it would get hectic if it rained.

Sounds like too many tourists and not enough staff. A demographic problem rather than a personal one.

I found the same in one city we went to recently - crap, surly service everywhere we went. To me it seemed like the effect of cutbacks in both staff and supplies (lots of dishes off the menu, not enough clean napkins, insufficient kitchen staff so food taking forever to arrive). It all felt very miserable and we were glad to leave. So many restaurants have not really recovered from lockdown.

I think you’re right not enough staff and too many customers. It’s really hard to recruit for seasonal jobs nowadays. Also, and this may not apply, the locals have long memories for employers who behaved badly during the pandemic and give them a wide berth.

Yes, it’s a touristy city. It’s been raining on and off all weekend, so lots of sporadic showers, and heavy rain for ten mins followed by bright sunshine etc.

Quite - Brexit had a massive effect on the hospitality industry. Also the shortage of rental accommodation in seasonally popular places makes it more difficult to recruit.

Good point re rain!

If it's York we had exactly the same experience earlier this year.

@IglesiasPiggl Yes several of the places we went to had run out of various things in the menu. I realise you can’t get everything at the moment but it all seemed to be concentrated in this same city, several times over.

Also if Uni city students that have gone home or travelling for summer not available to work

I thought of that, but then doesn’t it work the other way round too? As in anyone who lives here but went away for uni, will come back for the summer and want a summer job?

It’s not York, but it’s a similar sort of place. Interesting that you had a similar experience.

I work in a non food customer service job in a pretty touristy cathedral city, and the cost of living crisis is hitting jobs like those in a big way. Housing costs are extremely high compared to pay for customer service jobs. Most places cut staffing to the bone at the time of COVID and fewer people are staying in the jobs. In the past few months, several colleagues have left the job to move somewhere cheaper, and several of the others are exhausted from second jobs, caring responsibilities or bad house-shares, which means they are ill more often, and there have have two nasty bugs going around which have also had an effect.

So there aren't enough staff, and those who are there are struggling with other areas of life and working while not feeling well, and there's been unexpectedly high levels of work as the Chinese and American tour groups are back in force for the first time since 2019 and the weather recently has had lots of people going into shops, cafés and museums and not wanting to leave.

I think my team are still doing a good job, and still providing a good service, and I actually have a really great team and very supportive and helpful employers, but this summer has been bloody hard work so far and August is likely to be even worse.

Is it Winchester by any chance?

We booked in a seaside town for an evening meal. When we went in, it took ages for anyone to notice we were there. The drinks took ages to arrive and they didn’t have what I’d ordered. The food took even longer and was ok, but no more. The waitress kept saying how busy they were, but they weren’t.

Last time we went there, a few years ago, the experience was much more positive. I appreciate that things have changed over the last three years, but people aren’t going to spend money in a COL crisis, if they don’t get good food and good service.

Not necessarily the customer service but the amount of times we've went to order things in the last 3 months off the menu and there not available lol

Food on Sunday evenings here can be hit or miss as they can't predict customer levels, some weeks is heaving others it's quiet. Through the winter it's fine as the tourists, second home owners and boat owners are not around.

I think because it’s so expensive to rent in these places families will move out so there are less uni students returning. Where I live big hotels offer students summer contracts so you can work 40 hours a week and as much overtime as you want and they provide accommodation and 3 meals for about sixty quid a week. It’s a much cheaper way to live than in the tourist towns so you go back to uni with £2-3k.

I bet it’s Bath. We never go anymore after too many disappointing experiences.

There is a huge shortage in the hospitality industry. On every level.

They are probably using young kids, sometimes with little training.

In last 2 months, my OH has had official commercial food suppliers saying that on different weeks, they have run out of eggs and potatoes. Potatoes are now £28 per sack for a type that can be made in decent chips.

I know there’s a shortage of staff, but we go to restaurants at home and haven’t experienced this type of service. We’ve certainly been turned away from a few restaurants because they didn’t have enough staff to serve people, but at the ones where we’ve actually eaten, nobody has forgotten about us, or had us waiting ages, or had staff running around like headless chickens. But this weekend we’ve actually felt quite stressed out by the atmosphere at nearly all the places we’ve eaten at.

Yes. Family homes are turned into to student accommodation and Airbnb and families move to nearby villages with poor public transport, so students staying at home are less likely to want in the centre where they can't park and the buses are bad, or they have to rely on their parents for lifts. Of the three student temps we hired at the start of the summer, only the one living with her parents has stayed. They other two left due to accommodation issues.

We found Exeter similar this weekend. I think the hospitality sector is so understaffed.

Is it Durham? They excel at poor service up here 😂

Shocking service the norm now. Long waits and overstretched staff who are rude as a result. Thanks Brexit!

Plus it all costs a fortune.

So interesting how many places have been named on here.