AIBU to think Premier Inn should’ve let homeless in.

[Oddish]

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/premier-inn-homeless-people-turned-away-customer-paying-westonsupermare-a8240171.html

A woman who couldn’t make her mass booking of 19 rooms due to the weather last week offered the rooms to the homeless in the area via a charity’s Facebook.
A couple who had a flooded home were also given a room.
Flood couple let in no problem, homeless people who attended with charity rep were turned away.
Now Premier are saying they needed the lead room booker to be there and ID to be presented which is obviously bollocks because the flooded home couple were allowed in with no problem.

AIBU to think they should’ve let them in, it was bitterly cold and I think they acted heartlessly. Then the backtracking that followed. AIBU to boycott them? Would you?

No but I live in a house with children......., so you think it’s a risk to have homeless people under your roof? Why should the guests at PI expect to have different priorities.

Honestly 19 random homeless men with mimimal staff and no id so absolutely no come back for damge or thefts ? Having worked with the homeless - I have to agree with the manager :(.

I’m with Premier Inn and if I had been staying there I wouldn’t have been happy about a large group of Homeless people staying there
Generally Homeless. People have issues such as drugs, alcohol and MH which largely contribute to their situation. Obviously this doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be helped but PI aren’t a charity or government agency and they certainly don’t have the resources or skills to deal with Homeless people, especially en masse

But the doors have locks on them in a hotel shopping so I really am not bothered who else is staying in a hotel with me and my children as there is that additional safety.

I volunteer at a Christmas shelter, I wanted my kids to come too but they only allow volunteers over 18. I don’t shelter my children from the homeless, I want them to see they are humans who will have a conversation with you. Just because they smell, just because they have nowhere to call Home doesn’t mean they should be treated like dirt. Quite the opposite.

I agree with expat

Homelessness is just awful and I really wish there was no one in that position in society. Sadly though a lot of homeless people come with a lot of additional problems, drug and alcohol addiction, chaotic lifestyles etc and premier inn isn’t the appropriate place, nor their staff the appropriate people, to deal with that.

I wonder how many people shouting for the boycott opened their own doors to homeless people, or did anything at all to help them, during the cold spell?

Sorry OP not sure you having children has anything to do with your unwillingness to let the homeless into your house.

I have children, we stayed in a premier inn across half term. Surely premier inn are just as entitled to decline on the same basis

It’s nothing to do with being brave!! This is an anonymous internet site so you can stop virtue signalling and hand wringing.

The vast majority of homeless people have issues. That’s s sad fact which needs addressing and sorting by society as a whole not by one poor bloody manager at a premier inn.

Where was the Arch bishop of Canterbury or the head of the Catholic Church? We’re they opening their palaces to house the homeless in the cold weather? No.

The manager made the right decision for his employers and probably wanted to protect his paying guests and keep his job.

Shoppingwithmother the OP doesn't run a business which consists of taking strangers in and housing them for the night. That is what PI does.

Is it legal to refuse to rent a room to a homeless person? I have also seen videos of restaurants refusing to serve homeless people. Is that legal? What about making them a wedding cake?

When is it legal to refuse to do something for someone because of a characteristic they have? Is being poor a protected characteristic? Obviously not.

I also agree with all the others that PI made the right decision here. They don't have the right staff to be able to deal with the situation.

I really do want to say that it was heartless and selfish etc

But I work in a shop that is open quite late. We (the staff) over the years have allowed the local homeless people to sit in the shop and keep warm etc give them tea and coffee, turned a blind eye to them not spending money and the smell.

But we did end up with alot taking the piss. Sneaking in alcohol, asking for extra drinks, asking to use the phone. Leaving later and later. Pulling at the door after we close.

Some even ended up being rude and we had to bar some because they started asking customers for money and bugging them.
It's difficult. It's not as simple as a bed for the night if it were then some of them wouldn't even be on the streets.

Hard.

No I won't be boycotting them. My DP works nights in a similar hotel chain in a city centre. Sadly some of the homeless in the vicinity behave in a pretty intimidating manner. Drugs, aggreession, drinking, MH issues. He often works alone at night and is in a pretty vulnerable position.

Generally if it kicks off with group bookings the lead booker is there to calm the situation knowing that they can be held responsible for damage incurred. A load of strangers and nobody there to take responsibility for the group is a disaster waiting to happen.

And FWIW his hotel used to offer beds to the rough sleepers at xmas until several of them trashed the place so they don't anymore.

Hotel workers are not drug and alcohol support or qualified social workers and shouldn't be put in that position IMO.

But the doors have locks on them in a hotel shopping so I really am not bothered who else is staying in a hotel with me and my children as there is that additional safety.

Oh yeah? So you are gong to be happy to sit at breakfast whilst 19 men with significant addition and MH issues mingle with your precious children unsupervised? Sure.....

Everything expat said. They're not a homeless shelter, and at night there's only a skeleton staff in who aren't equipped to deal with the challenges that can come with housing the homeless.

Women can be homeless too.

Just because you have no home doesn’t mean you have a drink/drug issue.

Just because you have a drink/drug issue doesn’t mean you are less worthy than any other human.

I realise I am passionate about this and I don’t mind being in the minority. I don’t agree that homelessness is not Premier Inn or yours or my problem. It’s everyone's problem but the homeless are expected to cope on their own or rely on limited charities.

OP another poster who backs PI on this one. PI have a duty of care to their staff and customers. If 19 people with possible MH and/or substance abuse problems are brought into the hotel without adequate support there is a high risk that something will go wrong. If PI had let them in and two of them had a fight or someone fell down the stairs drunk then PI would potentially be liable. Additionally if you wouldn't let a homeless person in your house because you have children then it is a bit much for you to say that hotel guests who may have children should not object.

bluelady and OP, if you think PI should have let these people in then I sincerely hope in the bad weather you went and rounded up all the local rough sleepers in your town and invited them into your homes. Because you wouldn’t expect PIs minimum wage staff to take risks you wouldn’t take yourself right?

Dilemma. Whilst it does seem a bit inhumane, it also isn't that simple. Having stayed in a room in a similar chain and been flooded out of our room by a leak from a toilet a homeless family broke in the US, I am not quite so sympathetic. My DH was 'showered' whilst in bed. Not pleasant.
It also felt quite unsafe with a lot of otherwise homeless people milling around, and I wouldn't pay to stay in that chain again. Not would most people, given the choice.

What about when you take you children down for breakfast and it’s full of homeless people? It would be a similar environment to volunteering at a homeless shelter at Christmas.....an environment which the organising charity themselves apparently say is unsuitable for under 18s.

Similarly your defence that the rooms have locks on them.

By that comment alone you are admitting that people could have concerns about their safety, so we need to run serpentine through reception with our kids under our arms and slam the door to our room and lock it to ensure our safety?

*not for one moment do I think all homeless people are a threat to me or my children, it’s a tiny percentage, if that.

Oh yeah? So you are gong to be happy to sit at breakfast whilst 19 men with significant addition and MH issues mingle with your precious children unsupervised? Sure.....*

Why all men? Why all damaged in some way? Does it make you feel better about writing these people off as worthless?

And YES! I would sit there because we live in a city and visit many cities and know homelessness ain’t pretty but I sure don’t shield my children’s eyes from it.

Why can't I just turn up at the premier inn and pay cash and not give any details - no card details no address nothing?

They don't work that way.

'The premier inn is a business. It doesn’t have the same freedom that you do as home owner. It has other guests to consider. '

Exactly, especially because as a business/hotelier they have certain standards and duties of care to their staff and guests that are enshrined in law. If they are found to have violated these they can and will be held liable. Hence, the extensive T&C everyone agrees to when booking, which they make entirely available if you chose to read them in full.

Ridiculous virtue signalling. Did the woman invite 19 homeless people into her own house? What if someone trashed their room? Would she have paid for the damage?

It's not Premier Inn's responsibility to solve homelessness. Get mad with social services and the welfare system, not a hotel trying to run a business.

Good for you OP.

It's made me more determined to stay in the Premier Inns tbh. They are not a campaigning organisation. They are a cheap, friendly, comfortable, very safe place to stay. If I knew they were housing homeless people, who presumably have nothing in the way of identification, I'd be put off.

YAB ridiculously U and naive. Very sadly, many homeless people are very difficult to help due to drug, alcohol and mental health problems. Those that are not in the grip of the above problems are often abused and under the control of people who do have those problems. Emergency shelters were also opened during the cold weather to get people off the streets overnight and this is where these people needed to be.

Who do you think you are insisting you know what a business (that's nothing to do with you) needs to do? Are you going to guarantee to pay for the potential damage? And pay for lost revenue whilst the rooms are fixed?

Here's a paste of an article a couple of Christmases ago:

A woman who raised money so that a homeless couple could have a 'nice, warm Christmas' in a hotel was left devastated after they trashed the room and caused £1,000 worth of damage.

Louise Elliott, 32, and her friend Becky Mcsorley launched a Facebook appeal to pay for Lewis Holley, his girlfriend Stacey and their dog Bonnie to stay at the Ibis Hotel in Crawley, West Sussex over the festive season.

Twenty-five kind-hearted strangers responded and in just a few days the friends had raised £640 to cover the cost of the accommodation for 10 nights, from December 24 until January 2.

But the room was left in a 'total mess' at the end of their stay, with cigarette burns in the carpet, the window smashed and the TV ripped from the wall.

OP if problems were so easily sorted by kindness, we wouldn't have these problems in the first place. You are looking at a complex problem and giving a simple solution with no regard for the risk you expect the business to take.

How silly to try and organise a boycott of premier inns for a business decision.