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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To complain about rats outside country hotel?

57 replies

zookeeper · 26/12/2011 17:37

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 to 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 from 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:

StealthPolarBear · 28/12/2011 12:18

No soap in the bathroom in a ravel podge :o

well there is., but only one tiny bar - I take my own for a shower

OrmIrian · 28/12/2011 12:19

Rats are EVERYWHERE!

Did you really not know that? We get the pests we deserve and as we are mucky buggers as a species we deserve rats. I guess you saw they because they are less wary than they would be in towns.

Original poster

zookeeper · 28/12/2011 12:46

no Folkgirl I never see the country here in Devon

OP posts:

kerala · 28/12/2011 13:07

YANBU at all OP I would have felt exactly the same I HATE rats. And I grew up in the countryside and find these hearty "thats what happens in the country" type posts very weird. Cant imagine any of the farming families I know would put up with rats gambolling around their living space . If they are that visible that close to where people are and being that bold then yes they have a problem that needs sorting.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 28/12/2011 13:18

YANBU. Yes the countryside contains rats but there are ways of keeping them down, even in a rural location. Even my stable-owning friend sends the Jacks into the barn every now and again to kill the rats when they get too big for their boots. If rats are hovering round the hotel, chances are because it's a source of food and shelter.... and they'll bob inside for both.

Pendeen · 28/12/2011 13:40

I suspect the "what do you expect" answers are from ex townies who imagine now they " live in the country " they know all about rural life.

If I had rats so running around my front door, so bold as to be that visible I would certainly do something about it.

kerala · 28/12/2011 13:46

My friends ex brigadier father often pops into their outlying barns with a pitchfork to skewer a few but no way would he be relaxed about them skipping round his courtyard near the house.

CogitoErgoSometimes · 28/12/2011 16:48

Could be worth a call to the Environmental Health people btw.... They may not be quite so blase about a hotel with a lively rat population, rural or otherwise!!

Cartoonjane · 28/12/2011 16:58

YANBU at all. Yes there are rats everywhere but you would expect a hotel to control them in their carpark and on their drive. Would all the people who think yabu be happy if they saw the rats in the capark of a posh country hotel?

I have lived in the countryside, on a farm in fact, but woud not have exected to see rats running around as a general thing.

dontletthebellsend · 28/12/2011 17:01

I live in a rural area and I hardly ever see a rat unless I venture into town at night. My cat doesn't even bring them it. I worked in a restaurant a few years ago with an awful rat problem and the owners didn't use the 'its the countryside' excuse at all, they dealt with it (poison,fixing sewer pipes, repairing holes in walls etc.). Rats in barns and stables is one thing but that number of rats leaving their rural homes and visiting a hotel car park is unlikely and suggests that they aren't barn rats at all but hotel rats.

AnotherMincepie · 28/12/2011 17:57

Agree dontletthebellsend. When living in rural areas I've virtually never seen a rat.

hellhasnofury · 28/12/2011 18:02

I live rurally too. Sometimes when I'm out for an early morning run I'll see rats in the field out the back of our house, especially when the wheat's just been cut but I can't remember ever seeing rats as bold as you describe OP.

LynetteScavo · 28/12/2011 18:05

I am actually very bemused by people saying it's a country thing.

I've lived in both county and city (and now suburbia) and have only seen them in Paris. (Twice in 3 years that I lived there) and once in Yorkshire countryside (dead in a terriers mouth).

They are not a normal occurrence. They spread disease, including the plague. My father had the plague (and survived).

Everyone who thinks YABU needs to welcome them into their own gardens.

TheBlackDahlia · 28/12/2011 18:12

What a ridiculous performance! They're rats for crying out loud. Small furry animals you know? Not mutant man-eating bad tempered wild crocodiles. Some people are so fucking precious it's laughable. And I'll bet anything you like the receptionist never actually said that to you - you're summarising and rearranging what she said for effect - and to deflect your complete silliness. No receptionist would last five minutes in the job with a turn of phrase like that.

Therefore I am happy to announce that YABU!

AnotherMincepie · 28/12/2011 18:38

TheBlackDahlia, rats can pass many potentially fatal diseases to humans, for example Weils Disease, Salmonella and Typhus.

Worldwide, rats eat or contaminate a great deal of food which could otherwise have been consumed by humans.

They can also cause damage such as chewing electricity cables, gnawing of wood, and subsidence of buildings due to digging.

dontletthebellsend · 28/12/2011 18:39

Well I wouldn't want to stay in a hotel infested by crocodiles either but you can bet your boots that that many rats who are that bold aren't confining themselves to the outside areas. They will be pissing and shitting all over the kitchen, in the linen store, in the cupboard where they keep the complimentary custard creams. They spread salmonella, E. coli, worms, weils disease, fleas and mites etc. which is admittedly better than being eaten by a crocodile but still a very good reason for premises with rat infestations to be closed down.

Original poster

zookeeper · 28/12/2011 18:40

Rather an ignorant aggressive post BlackDahlia . No point addressing it really other than to say that.

OP posts:

MissBeehivingUnderTheMistletoe · 28/12/2011 19:03

If you see more than the odd rat around, like in the OP then there is probably a considerable infestation. Especially if they're bigguns. THIS IS NOT NORMAL IN THE COUNTRYSIDE and they need to be controlled.

TheBlackDahlia · 28/12/2011 19:05

Rats can indeed pass disease. So can cats, dogs, guinea pigs, piranhas, man eating crocodiles (actually - they can pass you a horrible bloody death but it's the same idea) - in fact, guess what? Any animal can pass disease to humans.

I think the reason you're so annoyed with my post is that it's true.

Original poster

zookeeper · 28/12/2011 19:05

Calm down dear

OP posts:

TheBlackDahlia · 28/12/2011 19:07

Yep. I knew I had it right.

ThreeNine · 28/12/2011 19:10

I wouldn't com

ThreeNine · 28/12/2011 19:13

I wouldn't complain unless I saw them inside.

I wouldn't be scared of them, I quite like them. Not in my house though obv. Wild ones anyway.

Original poster

zookeeper · 28/12/2011 19:14

I think it's not unreasonable to assume they might well be inside as they were so near to the building and so visible.

OP posts:

SweetLilyTea · 28/12/2011 19:21

I don't really think it's acceptable they were running round the car park - I know they're everywhere, but normally out of sight and scared of people.

We live in a rural area, and when we moved here the garden was totally rat infested, as were the gardens of out neighbours. They had a very apathetic attitude about it - but we called the council and they set bait boxes. Within 2 months we were rat-free.

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