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AIBU?

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Original poster

To take the body lotion and soap from a £250 a night hotel? They have asked for it back!!!

1000 replies

mum2sons · 05/04/2007 09:36

DH and I spent our wedding anniversary in a v expensive boutique hotel. I took the body lotion and soap home as I usually would do (sad, but I get v excited about these things!)Yesterday we received a letter from the hotel asking for us to send the 2 items back for the future enjoyment of guests!!! Talk about humiliation! Looking forward to MNetters views

OP posts:
McCadburysDreamyegg · 05/04/2007 14:07

Write back to them telling them they need to cahnge their supplier and dealing directly with Gilchrist and Soames would save them a significant amount of money!!

JanH · 05/04/2007 14:07

Mind you do we know it was Gilchrist & Soane? The website doesn't give a brand, if someone else has I've missed it.

JanH · 05/04/2007 14:08

Soames, even - no wonder google couldn't find it!

expatinscotland · 05/04/2007 14:11

I'd rather have Molton Brown at that price.

McCadburysDreamyegg · 05/04/2007 14:12

I think I read lower down that mum2sons said it was Gilchrist and Soames, can't find it now though (but I might be wrong!!)

Original poster
mum2sons · 05/04/2007 14:14

The letter wasnt rude, quite polite but it does not matter how it was said, the fact that they have asked us to send their soap and body lotion back ASAP is acutely embaressing and has implied that I am a thief (which of course from their point of view I am).Not really very nice when we have spent around £500 at their hotel.

I will send it back. Do the "right" thing in my view. The sad thing is that they may have missed out on lots of business for a couple of bottles of soap. DH is the MD of a large marketing company, their loss.

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 05/04/2007 14:17

It was unprofessional to send you such a letter at all, mum2.

But, judging from the stock email response a couple of us got - which I do find quite accusatory and defensive in tone - you'd do well to stop patronising them in the future.

They obviously don't feel the need to cater to their guests or potential guests.

IfItWasntForThosePeskyKids · 05/04/2007 14:17

I'm not sure I'd be embarrassed by that... but equally understand why you wouldn't want to go back.

powder28 · 05/04/2007 14:19

Surely if the hotel treated you with respect while you were there and even sent a polite letter for the return of their items then they have done nothing wrong. Why would you want to try and ruin them?

expatinscotland · 05/04/2007 14:21

Because it's unprofessional, powder. A professional company would have charged the visitor's card for the items, as they do with mini-bar refreshments and phone calls, for example.

Asking for you to make a visit to the post office and send them back a plastic bottle of lotion is unprofessional.

And it's the last thing that sticks in someone's mind after their visit.

Not a nice memory.

expatinscotland · 05/04/2007 14:21

This is a hotel. An industry that relies on its guests having an optimum time for their money.

NadineBaggott · 05/04/2007 14:26

"Why would you want to try and ruin them? "

is that for real?

a hotel (and they ALL do it) that hoiks up the price of bottles of wine to about 3/4 times what it would cost you in a supermarket or presents you with 3 mouthfuls of food for £30 isn't going to ruin

madamez · 05/04/2007 14:40

Well I've always had the toiletries out of hotel bathrooms because it's always been obvious that they replace them after every visit (brand new sealed mini bottles obvioulsy new for each guest) so they're going to bin them if I've opened them, seems greener to take them home.
IN the glory days of the mid 90s I didn't actually have to buy any soap/shampoo/bublebath/body lotion for about 18 months.

powder28 · 05/04/2007 14:42

If you dont like the price dont go there!

Aloha · 05/04/2007 14:43

She didn't mind the price because she thought she was having a lovely treat somewhere with wonderful service. Not a place where she'd pay over £500 to be treated like a criminal!

powder28 · 05/04/2007 14:45

She wasnt treated like a criminal. She took something that wasnt hers to take and they asked, politely, for it back.

Aloha · 05/04/2007 14:47

She took something that is normally INCLUDED in the room rate! The toiletries. She spent £500 there and they write to her asking for their crappy plastic bottle back, embarrassing her and making sure she will never return. Fabulous business practise!

FioFio · 05/04/2007 14:50

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Dinosaur · 05/04/2007 14:51

I've never come across this.

If the hotel has a policy of being "green" and environmentally-friendly, and that is what is driving this, then fine, but they need to make it absolutely crystal clear to guests that this is the policy and that they should not take home the toiletries!

OrvilleRedenbacher · 05/04/2007 14:52

agree dino

btu in any case to take away a litre bottle of somthign is a bit oTT

powder28 · 05/04/2007 14:53

It depends how you want to take it. You can either just send it back and forget it or make it more of an issue than it should be.

There are better things to do.

FioFio · 05/04/2007 14:53

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Dinosaur · 05/04/2007 14:53

Litre bottle - that's huge.

Shows I haven't read the thread in detail .

FioFio · 05/04/2007 14:54

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expatinscotland · 05/04/2007 14:54

I thought I read it was 300mL.

Not a litre.

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