AIBU to refuse to pay my hotel bill?

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I'm staying in an expensive 5* hotel in Manchester. There is a wedding going on 4 floors below our rooms with a live band blasting music that is keeping us all awake. I've called to ask how long it is going to carry on for and have been told 1am! WTAF???? I've spoken to the manager who basically said tough, it's a wedding and some disturbance is to be expected in a hotel with a function room. Err...since when it is acceptable for a hotel to sell bedrooms in the knowledge that guests will be disturbed by wedding noise? If they'd told me when I booked the rooms last week that we would have to put up with disturbance I would have chosen to stay somewhere else.

AIBU to expect a substantial discount on my hotel bill since the hotel has not delivered what I was paying for - a decent night's sleep?

Don't see how tweeting is threatening. The OP sounds quite reasonable and rational. It's likely she was very polite at complaint, but throwing up your hands and telling the client there is nothing you can do is unacceptable behaviour in a manager. It should come to the knowledge of supervising staff and using social media is a tool many of have used when they have received unacceptable service from staff.

She should have been moved or not charged for the room.

Throwing up your hands and effectively communicating to a customer, 'Tough shit,' is unprofessional behaviour in the service industry.

Twitter can be great for engaging with businesses, whether complaints, enquiries or praise; I've had a couple of trains connection problems avoided/reduced by tweeting. I know that doesn't help you now, but it could come in handy in the future.

Interesting LocalEditor my parents have had terrible service at the Lowry. I paid for some sort of meal/celebratory package for Mum's 60th birthday and the staff were awful.

I don't think mentioning mumsnet will make any difference!

The Midland is very nice in Manchester.

This happened to me in Barcelona in a 5* hotel I'd booked through lastminute. This was why the rooms were available at the last minute...though they weren't discounted. I was furious and made a huge scene. Eventually (after about 2 hours of arguing at 2am) they moved us at their expense to another hotel.

Totally unacceptable. You should insist on a full refund. Doesn't matter if you stayed there all night - you had no choice at that time of night and their product was not fit for purpose

I think a bit of noise is OK and I don't think 1am is very late for it to finish, but any later than that I'd be pissed off.

This has happened to us twice now. Once in the Hilton in Aberdeen where the manager was downright rude when we complained, and once in a hotel like a castle somewhere up north.

I now never ever stay in a non budget hotel on a Saturday night, because they never warn you there is a wedding.

Why do weddings take priority over everything else?

I always ask about noise when I book a hotel. I ask about functions and I ask to be put at the end of a corridor away from lifts and public areas.

It doesn't always work but worth a try. I can't sleep if it noisy, unlike my DH who can sleep through anything.

I've been researching hotels and have seen quite a few with a warning that they are hosting functions. Code for 'stay somewhere else if you want any sleep'

why music at a SOCIAL event has to be so loud that there is no chance of talking to anyone is just one of those everyday mysteries.

I stayed in Dublin on Friday night. When we gave the name of the hotel to the taxi driver he asked if we knew that street was 'party Central' and housed numerous night clubs. He predicted we wouldn't get much sleep & that it would be noisy.

He wasn't wrong.

Looking out our window @ 4.30am I realised our room looked out on the back exit of a club, where there was a garden, toilets & a smoking area.

I didn't feel we could complain as it's obvious common knowledge (to locals anyway) that it's a party place.

Thank goodness it was just one night.

Hope they gave you a discount!

Hope you got to sleep eventually op.

You're definitely due a discount or refund in my opinion. There's nothing worse than trying to sleep in a strange bed and being kept awake like this. An example of how hotels can get it right is years ago, when I stayed at a Hilton National in some obscure part of the country for work and despite three calls down to reception, never got the promised blankets for my freezing room. I wrote afterwards to complain and they offered a free stay there. When I said I had no plans to visit the city again, they extended the offer to any hotel in the country. A fabulous weekend break in Bath followed.

That's what I call customer service!

why music at a SOCIAL event has to be so loud that there is no chance of talking to anyone is just one of those everyday mysteries.

Hear hear. When the music reaches the pitch where you have to scream to make yourself heard, that's my cue to leave.

Maybe you should have got dressed and gone downstairs to join the party! You could have eaten some of their food, and had something nice to drink. if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Seriously though - what was the outcome? Presume you have checked out of the hotel by now?

Quick update because I'm on the move.

I had a calm discussion with the manager this morning. He was aware of my complaint from the night before. He was apologetic and said that they had put the wedding guests in the closest rooms to the function room and they had not expected the noise to reach the 4th floor. The result was a 50% discount on the bill. As I booked last minute and got a very cheap deal, that seemed reasonable - £158 for two rooms including dinner and breakfast. The Premier Inn probably wouldn't have been much less for two rooms.

Glad you got a result

That was a fair result. I am glad they acknowledged that there was a problem.

Alternatively, I would be tempted to ring either 101 or the council noise team and report it.

Only ring the Police if you have a burning desire to a) belaughed at b) ffeature on one of rhose newspaper articles where they document the most absurd calls to police/fire/ambulance services.

Urgh....been tired all day but at least I didn't get ripped off!

Good result.

Having experienced similar it is damn annoying when you are trying to get to sleep.

Just spent a night in Premier Inn, my first experience, and did say to DH that this is the quietest hotel we've ever stayed in.

Would still give them a poor review on Tripadvisor.

If they hadn't given the discount, I would have suggested a very bad, straightforward review on TripAdvisor detailing the problem and the managers initial reaction. You might still want to do that but you'd have to add that the matter was resolved to your satisfaction. Still, they need to do something about their soundproofing. I once stayed in a 5* hotel suite room with my toddler which had a large, gorgeous blue tiled mosque outside. We arrived at 1am, didn't get to sleep until 2am (because DD had slept 5 hours on previous flight but I had not slept a wink for 12+) and were woken by the loudest 'allahu Akbar' I've ever heard at 5am - they had it on speakers for the whole neighbourhood.

That said, they made up for it with one of the best hotel breakfasts I have ever had. I wouldn't have given them a bad review for something they couldn't really help but I wish the mosque only put the speakers on for the second morning prayers.