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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think hotel lounges aren't workplaces

76 replies

Lydiaatthebarre · 12/08/2018 08:29

I have been staying in a hotel for the past couple of days and yesterday my friend and I were told to shush by a woman who was not a resident but had come into the hotel with her laptop and phone, ordered a coffee and sat there for about an hour making calls. We weren't shouting or anything, just talking in a perfectly normal voice. She then sighed loudly when two kids sat at a table near her and started playing I Spy.

The last time I stayed in a hotel I was trying to relax and read the paper but two men were using it to have a meeting and make several very loud business calls that could be heard all over the place.

AIBU to think residents should be we to relax in hotel lounges without being made to feel they're gatecrashing someone's office?

OP posts:

TheStoic · 12/08/2018 09:21

How do you know she wasn’t a ‘resident’? Was this in the foyer?

Cutietips · 12/08/2018 09:27

I can’t bear this kind of entitlement YANBU OP. Both the shushing and the loud meetings in public spaces. No one wants to hear you running your ideas up the flagpole. There’s something about people’s work phone calls that is considerably more intrusive than normal phone calls or general chitchat. Often because they speak so loudly (and the stupid cliches they use too).

I’d be minded to complain to hotel staff. If she wants a private space, she can either work at home or hire a room.

JacquesHammer · 12/08/2018 09:34

I get fed up with those who set up an "office" on the train and then huff and puff because someone wants the only available seat next to them

I met my favourite ever CF on a train.

I’d booked a seat, there were three others around my table that were unreserved. Three women came over. One said “we’re planning on having a meeting, so would you mind moving”

Oh how I laughed

Original poster

Lydiaatthebarre · 12/08/2018 09:40

thestoic She arrived in with her car keys in her hand and her umbrella, said a couple of times on the phone that she'd be back in the office shortly, asked the waitress where the toilets were on one occasion and also mentioned at one stage that her car was on a meter.

OP posts:

MatildaTheCat · 12/08/2018 09:40

My friend and I were told off by a man ‘working’ at a bench table outside a cafe in a large local park last week. It was rammed with kids, dogs and you know, people having fun, but he actually asked us to move really rudely because friend’s dog let out the occasional dog noise. 🙄

He was making some endless phone call and could easily have simply walked to a quieter spot himself. We commented loudly on his manners but did move.

Sharkwithknees · 12/08/2018 09:41

I regularly use hotel lounges/bars to work in. To expect others to be quiet to enable me to do so would IMO be pretty fucking ridiculous

IncrediblySturdyPyjamas · 12/08/2018 09:41

Hotels wouldn't survive if they didn't have business people in them all week. They know this which is why the lounges are used by business people to do ad hoc meetings and phone calls/work.

TheStoic · 12/08/2018 09:41

She arrived in with her car keys in her hand and her umbrella, said a couple of times on the phone that she'd be back in the office shortly, asked the waitress where the toilets were on one occasion and also mentioned at one stage that her car was on a meter

Wow. Did she also say ‘I’m not a resident?’

UpsyDaisysarmpit · 12/08/2018 09:46

JaquesHammer that is CF gold!!!

Was moving house to a different county when I was in my early 20s. Was starting my new job that same afternoon, so left DP to deal with the removal service etc while I took a 7am train, which I had booked and reserved a seat for in advance. There was a reserved ticket on my seat. I lost count how many times I came back to find some CF sitting in my clearly reserved seat. When I arrived on the train someone was sitting in it, went to the loo and returned to find someone in it, went to the buffet cat and there was someone in it. I am a shy person not wanting confrontation, but even I after the 3rd or 4th time was starting to get more assertive. One person had even removed the ticket and sat on it, and had the cheek to pretend to find it under his backside and feign surprise .

Uncreative · 12/08/2018 09:52

thestoic She arrived in with her car keys in her hand and her umbrella, said a couple of times on the phone that she'd be back in the office shortly, asked the waitress where the toilets were on one occasion and also mentioned at one stage that her car was on a meter.

That is not enough to decide she isn’t a hotel guest. In fact, it describes me on a few occasions when I have travelled for work (minus the shushing, of course).

Uncreative · 12/08/2018 09:53

Should have said - the company I worked for was blue chip multinational with 3 office buildings in London alone.

BakedBeans47 · 12/08/2018 09:55

She’d have had her arse handed to her on a plate if she’d shushed me.

As others said NBU to Work but U to shush other people

Tinkobell · 12/08/2018 10:01

I'd have made a loud fart sound....but then I am very immature 😊....and proudly so!

Isleepinahedgefund · 12/08/2018 10:01

Of course you’re not BU, it is a shared space and no one gets precedence.

I always hold 1-1 coaching sessions away from the office in a cafe or something, but I don’t expect the people around me to pipe down just because I’m At Work.

The people who turn the train into their office are the worst - loud phone calls (often about confidential matters....), laptop and elbows out...... I find this type of commuter also usually talks and types VERY LOUDLY aswell. Once I got on a fully booked train and someone was sitting in my reserved seat. I had reserved one with a plug on purpose because I needed the plug - it was the kind on the wall above the table so you can’t plug things in without it being in the way of the table on the window seat. The Very (self)Important man occupying my seat told me I didn’t mind, because HE needed the plug as he was doing something Very Important. I told him I needed the plug, and that he needed to find another seat. TBH if he’d asked nicely I would have said fine - it was his attitude that irritated me.

CurlsandCurves · 12/08/2018 10:01

I used to work on board trains. Checking tickets in first class, 4 men sat at a table with standard tickets. Asked them if they were wanting to upgrade, they said no. I explained they had standard class tickets and this was first class so they would need to move to standard. One said ‘but we are having a very important meeting!’.

hobnobsaremyfavourite · 12/08/2018 10:11

I went for my lunch break in a hospital where I was working and the cafe area was packed. This was an area used by staff and patients. Once I had my lunch I asked 2 people sat at a table if I could sit in the empty chair at their table. Both huffed and muttered something about a meeting. I sat and ate my lunch but clearly they were having a meeting that involved discussing confidential patient information. I was horrified. That sort of discussion should take place in a proper meeting room. They kept looking daggers at me and clearly were still talking about their service users but alluding to them and only omitting their actual names etc.
I should have said something but I left when I finished my lunch and often wonder how stupid these two women were and their poor clients

EleanorRigbey · 12/08/2018 10:13

*Today 09:21 TheStoic

How do you know she wasn’t a ‘resident’? Was this in the foyer?*

Wow. Did she also say ‘I’m not a resident?’

What is your point? It doesn't matter if she was a resident or not. The lobby is a communal area, other 'residents', guests, customers should not have to be quiet because she is working.

Guienne · 12/08/2018 10:15

I quite often work in hotel lounges, particularly if they're hotels where you can't get wifi in the bedrooms or have to pay for it. But obviously I accept that I can't dictate what other guests do there.

Lizzie48 · 12/08/2018 10:16

That really is ridiculous. YANBU, OP. Business people are perfectly entitled to work in a hotel lobby. I've done that when helping with women's conferences organised by the Christian charity I work for. But I wouldn't have dreamt of demanding that the hotel guests be quiet, that's very entitled.

I do agree that parents should stop their children making too much noise, but a game of I Spy certainly isn't disruptive unless the participants talk too loudly. The other woman might also come on here to complain about 'performance parenting'.

LittleMissedTheSunshine · 12/08/2018 10:16

I've had meetings in hotel lounges (work in a field based role) but would never tell or expect other people to be quiet. I factor in how quiet it will be when deciding to meet there.

For example in term time Drayton Manor hotel has been a location for team meetings (equidistant from team members and free parking) but I'd never do it in the school holidays.

ScreamingValenta · 12/08/2018 10:23

JacquesHammer Did your train CFs shuffle off or did they try to argue? That's one of the best CF stories yet!

MingeUterusMingeMingeYoni · 12/08/2018 10:25

You were BU to whisper.

Original poster

Lydiaatthebarre · 12/08/2018 10:35

thestoic

No she didn't say "I'm not a hotel resident" but it was obvious from the various things I mentioned plus other stuff that she wasn't. Even if she was it doesn't excuse her turning a lounge from a relaxing place into an office, anymore than resident parents would have the right to turn it into a noisy playroom.

OP posts:

JacquesHammer · 12/08/2018 10:38

Did your train CFs shuffle off or did they try to argue? That's one of the best CF stories yet!

LeadWoman did an awful lot of sighing, the others had the grace to look sheepish.

They sat and discussed work, whilst she very ostentatiously covered papers.

It was the most entertaining train ride I’ve been on in years

MapleLeafRag · 12/08/2018 10:42

I’ve seen people being interviewed in several Costa Coffee branches, as well as people working. One interview consisted of a oily-looking young man and several babes - god knows what that was about.

I think if people rent meeting rooms in hotels then of course they are out of bounds but not the lounge surely.

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