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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to be annoyed that Premier Inn wouldn’t serve us at 22:58

78 replies

SweetMarmalade · 08/08/2019 09:09

Virtually ran back to our Premier Inn last night for a final nightcap (it had been a long day) we were there just before 11pm only to be told the bar was closed!

Surely last orders are at 11pm and not a few minutes before.

The barman was still there, dp had got there first, dp said ‘but it’s not quite 11pm’ just a ‘sorry, bar closed but you can have water!’

AIBU that a bar should close on time and not before? The bar wasn’t full, completely the opposite.

OP posts:

RavenLG · 08/08/2019 10:05

I can understand last orders in a high street pub but this is a PI where the bar area is open to sit throughout the night
Most likely not about the fact that the seating area is open or closed. It will be licensing. By the time they took your order, poured and served it would have been after 11pm which would breech their licence meaning they could lose it. Not worth the risk.

helpsomuchclutter · 08/08/2019 10:11

Closing time is when all customers should be finishing up and leaving, it is not cut off for orders

Since when?!! I can only think people on this thread haven't spent much time in actual pubs! I used to work in pubs. Last orders was usually ten minutes before closing. But it's the bar that closes at 11 not the pub. We'd expect people to leave by 20 past. No one would expect the pub clear for 11, that's not how it works!

RightOnTheEdge · 08/08/2019 10:12

YABVU!
As someone who works in a chain pub/restaurant/hotel I can tell you that you are the worst kind of customer.

You have worked a 12 hour shift dealing with people and you are worn out and your feet are killing you and you are going to have about 4 hours sleep by the time you close down and then get up to take the kids to school then do it all again, then finally the place is empty and you can do all your close down jobs and get out of there and some knob rushes in all excited because they have beaten the clock by two minutes, it is honestly the most soul destroying thing.

The amount of people who think they are so clever to do that or the ones who take forever sipping their drinks when we are shut and argue and stall and just won't get out is ridiculous.

I hosestly think there are a lot of customers who don't think of bar staff and wait staff as actual humans with lives and families to get home to.

helpsomuchclutter · 08/08/2019 10:13

it would have been after 11pm which would breech their licence meaning they could lose it

The licence allows time for people to finish drinks bought before closing.

Honestly, have you people never drunk in pubs?!

HeadsDownThumbsUpEveryone · 08/08/2019 10:15

I hosestly think there are a lot of customers who don't think of bar staff and wait staff as actual humans with lives and families to get home to.

This is so true, its the same in shops too. People like the OP seem to care more about getting an alcoholic drink or picking up some milk (code for doing a weeks shop 10 minutes before the store closes) more than that the members of staff they are inconveniencing. These people are so egocentric though that they don't see what they do as a problem.

HeadsDownThumbsUpEveryone · 08/08/2019 10:18

The licence allows time for people to finish drinks bought before closing.

That's irrelevant when the Op didn't even have a drink though, if the bars clock differed by even a minute by the time the drinks were poured it would have been past 11pm.

HouseholdPlantMurderer · 08/08/2019 10:21

@helpsomuchclutter read @RavenLG's whole sentence. She wasn't talking about drinking it...

By the time they took your order, poured and served it would have been after 11pm which would breech their licence meaning they could lose it.

RosesAndRaindrops · 08/08/2019 10:24

It closes at 11 which means there was no way for you to be served and drink your drink in two mins. You were being somewhat cheeky to expect to

This! It closes at 11, you rush in at 10.58, were you really really gonna get a drink and neck it in two minutes flat?!
Bit cheeky as bet you wouldn't have done. It was 11. Could totally understand your point if it was 10 though.
You snooze you lose.

IvanaPee · 08/08/2019 10:25

Honestly, have you people never drunk in pubs?!

The till will register if it was put through after 11 which it would have been by the time he’d taken their order.

Honestly, have you never drunk in a pub??

VickyEadie · 08/08/2019 10:26

I always pack a bottle of scotch for exactly this sort of crisis.

Original poster

SweetMarmalade · 08/08/2019 10:26

Oh please. Some of you seem to be spitting vitriol because I want an alcoholic drink! And we were hardly banging on the bar demanding our last alcoholic drink before bed, terrifying the poor bar staff! We were perfectly British about it!

OP posts:

Original poster

SweetMarmalade · 08/08/2019 10:27

Yes, to the poster who packs a bottle of Scotch - I salute you!

OP posts:

Readytogogogo · 08/08/2019 10:28

People are annoyed at you because you don't appear to have considered that those working until 11pm might want to go home on time! Have you ever worked in the service industry?

Original poster

SweetMarmalade · 08/08/2019 10:29

It’s not about ‘necking our drink’ within minutes, the lounge area is open to sit after 11pm!

OP posts:

Bluntness100 · 08/08/2019 10:29

Ah one of those.

Op..was I being unreasonable.
Mumsnet yes,
Op no i wasn't.

Original poster

SweetMarmalade · 08/08/2019 10:30

They don’t go home at 11pm in this PI. Shift ends at 4am

OP posts:

HeadsDownThumbsUpEveryone · 08/08/2019 10:30

Some of you seem to be spitting vitriol because I want an alcoholic drink!

The fact it was an alcoholic drink is relevant though. That's why he could serve the other customer water after declining to serve you alcohol. The water wouldn't breech licencing rules but the alcohol would.

You do come across as quite demanding though, most people would just whinge to their other half about being earlier next time but you seem so certain you were treated unfairly that you started a post on an internet forum the next morning. That's quite odd behaviour.

InsertFunnyUsername · 08/08/2019 10:32

God I used to hate customers like you, there is a lot more to closing down than just serving the last customer and toddling off home.

RosesAndRaindrops · 08/08/2019 10:33

Oh and just to add I'm not a scotch drinker, but yes maybe a bottle of vodka in the handbag for emergencies just like this is the way to go next time

Original poster

SweetMarmalade · 08/08/2019 10:33

Ok - IWBU

I can still post about why I think I wasn’t and then possibly agree that I was but some posts warrant a reply!

To sum up.

We were perfectly British about it, bar staff weren’t shouted at, bar staff were on a 4am shift etc etc

Anyway. Off to explore today and I’ll make sure I’m back in time for ‘last orders at the bar’!

OP posts:

CoffeeRunner · 08/08/2019 10:33

It sounds as though you have mistaken a Premier Inn for a more traditional sort of hotel bar, which will stay open to serve to residents for as long as the residents are around.

I used to work in one such hotel. Technically the lounge bar closed at 11, but if there were still residents in there at that time we would have to stay & carry on serving until the last one went to bed. That said, if the place was empty by 11 it would close down at 11. It wouldn’t be reopened until next day. But alcohol was available via room service all night.

JinglingHellsBells · 08/08/2019 10:35

We were perfectly British about it

Nope.

-To be perfectly British you'd be aware of licensing laws.
-You would be mindful of the position of staff who could be sacked for serving after 11pm ( the time stamp on the till for your receipt which would be post 11pm by the time you handed over money.)
-And you would be finding something more important to do with your day other than whinge on a forum.

I can see you are real PITA because even though no one here has agreed with you, you continue to insist you are right.

stucknoue · 08/08/2019 10:42

They can close whenever they want, perhaps management decided they needed to cash up so their shift ends at 11pm

StrongerThanIThought76 · 08/08/2019 10:52

Been a ling time since I worked behind a bar but surely it's up to the licencee if they want to stop serving before 11pm (or whatever their deadline is)?

Dontsweatthelittlestuff · 08/08/2019 10:55

The very fact that he would still serve you water indicates that he didn’t want to be ringing up booze after 11 and if he needed to serve you two drinks then it would mean it would be after 11 by the time he took your money.

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