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AIBU?

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Original poster

To complain about rats outside country hotel?

69 replies

zookeeper · 26/12/2011 17:35

I've just got back from a three night stay in a travel lodge in a rural location. The hotel was fine but for me the stay was made uncomfortable by rats running around outside.

Driving up to the hotel drive on the first night I stopped the car because I thought there was a rabbit in front of it - it was a big rat just sitting there. In the two minutes or so that it took tpo drive to the the hotel carpark two more rats ran across our path, the second just as we were walking into the hotel (running!)about a metre from the door. In fact every time we left the hotel in the morning and came back in the evening we saw at least a couple of rats running in the car park.

The dcs thought it was hilarious but it wasn't fun pulling into the carpark especially at night.

I mentioned the rats to the receptionist who looked at me as though I was mad and asked me what I expected form a hotel in a field with a farm not too far away....

So would I be unreasonable to complain to the head office. Laughing aside, I did feel really uncomfortable whilst I was there at the thought of the rat population partying outside.

OP posts:
HowlingBitch · 26/12/2011 18:04

YABU. Rats have a bad reputation IMO they are just as much a part of wildlife as hedgehogs and squirrels.

I like 'em.

Original poster
zookeeper · 26/12/2011 18:05

Thank you . Of course I accept they're wildlife etc but so many and so near a hotel entrance is not normal imo. If it was my hotel I'd want to know.

OP posts:
HecateGoddessOfTwelfthNight · 26/12/2011 18:07

There are rats everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. There's really nothing that can be done about it, tbh. I mean, they're wild animals. It's the countryside (although there's gazillions of rats in london too!)

All the hotel can do is get rid of any nests on their property, if there are any.

But if they back onto farms and fields, they've no chance of getting rid of rats running about outside, and it's really not something they are responsible for. Not like if there were rats nesting inside the hotel.

BalloonSlayer · 26/12/2011 18:09

YANBU.

I'd be worried that they didn't appear to be scared. Usually rodents are quite timid (I thought!)

Our local McDonalds has got lots of sinister looking boxes hidden in the flower beds saying "Warning! Poison!" so I presume they have a rat problem too. Bleurgh. But at least they are trying to address it. Not sure why I still eat there. Hmm But I no longer order a Big Rat Mac.

garlicnutcracker · 26/12/2011 18:13

It's possible other guests have complained about rat traps! They are cruel ... if you want to get rid of wild animals, you have to use violence.

I wouldn't have liked it, either, but would have seen it more as a sign it's going to get very cold than of poor hygiene. (Rats stay out of sight unless desperate.) Different story if the rats were inside the hotel, obviously.

Couldn't agree more about seagulls, btw! Flying rats, yeuch. And noisy & bad-tempered. Last time I went to the coast, a gull pinched the sandwich I was eating!

HowlingBitch · 26/12/2011 18:20

Last time I went to the coast, a gull pinched the sandwich I was eating!

Sorry but :o :o

garlicnutcracker · 26/12/2011 18:21

I know! It could have picked a cheaper lunch - I'd just bought mine from Pret Grin

HowlingBitch · 26/12/2011 18:23

It had probably been flying around looking for the best sarnie. Cheeky bugger.

IfYouSeeKaySanta · 26/12/2011 18:26

If there were no rats in the hotel, then I can't see what your problem is.

If the place had been crawling with grey squirrels would you have been as outraged? Not much difference, IMO. They're both vermin.

Scoundrel · 26/12/2011 18:26

I'm surprised that someone called zookeeper would be worried by rats! Xmas Grin

Rats seem to be proliferating this year. I live in the middle of a big city and I've seen them running around a few times in the last few weeks. I've lived here for 20yrs and until this year I'd only ever seen two Xmas Shock

They don't bother me at all, then again we have two as pets Xmas Grin

LynetteScavo · 26/12/2011 18:28

YANBU.

I wouldn't have even checked in.

lljkk · 26/12/2011 18:29

That's what I used to say, Scoundrel, until wild one got into my garage & chewed all sorts of things up (sigh).

If they are that plentiful outside there will be inside nests soon.

bumblebeader · 26/12/2011 18:30

One ran right across the footpath we were walking on at our hotel in Disney World and I totally freaked out. If I'd seen more than one, I'd have definitely told the hotel staff and expected a different response than you got. YANBU!

sitandnatter · 26/12/2011 18:38

Rats inside the hotel - complain, leave, check out.

Rats outside a countryside hotel, I hate cliches but get a grip.

squeakytoy · 26/12/2011 18:39

YABU, they wont actually attack you, unless you had perhaps cornered one and it was scared.

I would suggest never going to Kenya on a safari stay, because you have lions roaming around outside your bedroom there Grin

MrsCampbellBlack · 26/12/2011 18:39

I am amazed at all the people who think its fine to see rats running round outside a hotel.

I mean I live on the edge of fields and there are not rats running down my drive/garden all the time.

They have a rat problem and need to get it sorted.

yellowraincoat · 26/12/2011 18:41

I see rats all the time (live in London). We live in the basement, but a rat has never entered my house.

Just because there's rats outside, doesn't mean they will come in.

squeakytoy · 26/12/2011 18:42

But if it had been rabbits, then those complaining about it being rats would probably have been saying "awwwww cute fluffy wuffy bunnies". Grin

What is the difference.. they were outside, not inside.

sitandnatter · 26/12/2011 18:43

Who thinks the hotel experience would be better if they saw rat shooters outside the hotel picking them off. It is what happens at fisheries I've been to. They just have normally men who go there and shoot them. Us city types really don't have a clue.

LynetteScavo · 26/12/2011 18:46

When there are too many of one animal in one place it's wrong.

One fly, ok it's the country side, a swarm then then something needs to be done.

OldMacEIEIO · 26/12/2011 18:48

there might have been trees as well though, to be fair.
trees can be deadly

squeakytoy · 26/12/2011 18:51

what would happen if it were a field of cows...

they can trample people to death...

OldMacEIEIO · 26/12/2011 18:57

mrs Cow - 'ooh look at er, shes whinging about a rat'

mrs cow 2 - 'shall we trample her'

mrs cow - 'nah. me udders are killing me'

mrs cow 2 - 'LOOK . she whining on AIBU'

mrs cow - 'CHARRRGGEE!!'

MrsCampbellBlack · 26/12/2011 18:57

Not sure how many hotels I've stayed at where cows roam round the carpark.

squeakytoy · 26/12/2011 19:01

Not sure how many hotels I've stayed at where cows roam round the carpark

You havent been to Devon enough then! Grin

Goats and chickens trotting around the gardens... sheep too.