To complain about rats outside country hotel?

[zookeeper]

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.

yanbu - I live in the country & i'm a hotelier & i would be very concerned if my guests welcoming committee included Rats!
If the hotel is near a farm then usually there is enough feed etc in the farm to stop vermin straying elsewhere.
If they are brave enough to wander around a concrete car park with I'm gueesing little in the way of foodstuff on offer imagine how keen they will be around the kitchen door or rubbish areas.
Pest control needed ASAP.

Yanbu, we are on a farm and have loads of rats but rarely see them. I would suspect seeing that many means a serious infestation tha tneeds attention. Yes rats are normal and they don't bother me at all but too many is an issue. (Fwiw I clicked on this expecting to say yabu they are normal in the country but this seems extreme!)

I have stayed at numerous hotels in the country at different times of year and never experienced what the op has. Have seen numerous rats in the city around bins etc but am laughing at the thought of people saying its a country thing! I would be a bit miffed that the hotel hasn't taken it seriously and investigated why there were so many and at so many different times. Would wonder if they took the same laid back approach to droppings found in the kitchen.

yuk rats shudder

the op wasnt asking about rat poo in her ratatouille, or rats

she was about complaining to a country hotel, about country animals

ridiculous

YANBU. It is bollocks to suggest that rats skipping around in full view are a regular feature of country life. I have lived in the country nearly all my life, am currently living in an isolated location near a farm and on the edge of fields and have yet to see a rat anywhere around. Mice, on the other hand, are constant house guests little fuckers. I know that rats live on farms but they usually stay well-hidden and certainly don't gambol around near cars. OP, I think you were well within your rights to be shocked and expect the hotel to do something about it.

When there are too many of one animal in one place it's wrong.
yes, I've heard there's places where there's hundreds of the same species packed into boxes... Travel Lodges I think they're called

Erm, I have lived in the country all my life and the only place I have seen rats have been in towns and cities.

Well, yes they may be everywhere, but you don't normally see them. If you see them there is an infestation which needs dealing with.

I don't find it unreasonable to bring it up if you see a lot of rats running about outside the hotel. I have never encountered anything like that and we stay in the countryside a fair bit

We've had rats in our back garden ( rural Wales ) on more than one occasion . Yuk yuk yuk . The dead rat bodies were actually worse . Double yuk yuk yuk .
Called the council AND HAD TO PAY EXTRA FOR RAT MAN TO COME WITH HIS POISON .
Yes I am shouting . So yes rats are common in the countryside , but YANBU to mention it to head office as they should have pest control .

Well everybody,I will email head office; I live in Devon and often stay in hotels and don't believe rats running so visibly and without apparent fear near a building in daylight and at night is a normal part of country life. I agree that if the staff are so relaxed about rats feet from the main door then one wonders how they will react to rat droppings in the kitchen.

Thanks for all your comments (apart from those OldMacwotsit, patronising cow that you are ...)

Let us know what they reply!

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

Only the city dwellers. Farmers see "widdle bunnies" as equally menacing pests as rats, just as quick to dispatch one by the nearest means possible. I always think it's hilarious the way Hazel is saved by the farm folk from the cat in Watership Down, that so would not happen. Country folk are not sentimental about the wildlife.

I think some people have forgotten about the diseases some animal carry.

I would banish pigeons from towns. I would not be happy if they were on my hotel windowsill in a city hotel. I would expect the hotel to have exterminated them.

You could contact the local (to the hotel) environmental health dept, zookeeper.

They will know whether it's "normal" or not for that sort of area. It'll be up to them whether to make a visit/ignore or whatever.

It's occurred to me that, since it is unusual for a rat to sit gormless in front of a car, they might be poisoning them and you saw a dying rat. No harm in contacting head office & environmental health, anyway, I guess. While I wouldn't have been upset like you, I'm no fan of rats and they certainly aren't an endangered species.

Nope don't think so - it looked positively chirpy and in glowing health to me, as did its companions - I think it was dazzled by the car lights.

but yes - good idea to contact environmental health .