To think my request at hotel wasn’t unreasonable?

[Chocowoka]

In a nutshell a friend and I wanted to have a spa day. We found what looked like a beautiful hotel with great facilities and decided we’d like to try there.

The offer included and cost £95 each

Spa treatment 25 mins (either a foot scrub, facial or body scrub)
Full use of spa facilities for 4 hours
2 course lunch or afternoon tea

I asked if I could just have a massage as I have bad flare ups with my skin with many products so a scrub wouldn’t be ideal. I was told no... ok fair enough so I chose the foot scrub.

My friend wanted the lunch and I wanted the afternoon tea. When I told the girl what we wanted she said oh I’m afraid we can’t do that as they’re served in different restaurants so you’d have to eat in separate restaurants (in the same hotel) 🙄 I said, “Well I’m not expecting silver service. I’ll happily go the restaurant that mine would be served in and take the plate with my food on, to the restaurant that my friends in, so we can eat together?” 🙄

She went to ask someone and came back and said “We can’t do that I’m sorry”

I said, “Ok, we’ll just leave it then” and we going somewhere else and booked it.

Now I could have had the lunch and my friend could have had the afternoon tea. I felt on principle however that we were spending a lot of money there for a treat so why should we not get what we really want!?

The hotel offers room service and is a 5* hotel so I’m quite sure they could carry some from one restaurant to the next or allowed me to, because if day a hotel guest fancied afternoon tea does that mean they can’t have it in their room?

If a group of 6 friends went chances are they aren’t all going to want the same. So the hotel would still say no and lose custom potentially.

I just think for such an expensive few hours they could have been more accommodating.

Well they lost your custom didn't they so their hard luck.

You sound like hard work tbh

Surely lunch and afternoon tea are at different times? Not sure how you could eat together in this case.

@femidom12

How so?

YABU

I'm sorry I think you ABU. A 5star hotel won't want you traipsing food from one restaurant to another, and it's quite normal to have an afternoon tea in a different room as the tea is an experience in itself (IYSWIM).

Also a massage would be considerably longer and therefore more ££ than a foot scrub/whatever so I'm not surprised they refused that request.

Personally I think YABU about the food, its served in two separate restaurants, its a bit weird to take a plate of food from one to the other.

Perhaps they could have done the massage instead of the scrub because of your medical problems but you knew the options when you booked and should have chosen a massage package instead.

What part of different menus are served in different areas did you not understand?
This is pretty standard for a lot of larger hotels.
You didn't want what was on offer so you have decided to go elsewhere which is fair enough, but the notion that they should change their offering to suit you yabu.

@femidom12 I second that

@smemorata

I know what you mean but in this place it’s at the same time and part of a spa day. You still to chose either or... but just in different restaurants.

I think YABU, sorry.

Surely lunch and afternoon tea would be served at different times anyway? And if a group of 6 friends all went together then I would expect that they would either go with the majority or half do lunch and half afternoon tea.

@getyourgrooveon

I wouldn’t have expected the massage to be any longer than the 25 mins so it wouldn’t have been any longer

YABU and awkward. Either you want that offer or not.

I would have thought they could do a 25 min massage.

But lunch and afternoon tea would be at different times.

Op, it was a package for a reason.

Try to avoid them next time and tailor make your trip to suit you.

I can understand your frustration but if you're getting a special offer you have to accept there will be some restrictions.

How did they lose your custom? You already paid but didn't actually take up everything you'd paid for. So they made a bigger profit.

Did you want afternoon tea at lunchtime?
Do they have an a la carte menu?

I see what you mean about being flexible enough for room service, so shouldn’t have been a problem. But I guess a deal/ package of just that.

Hotels do offers which clearly state what is and isn’t included. You know the rules when you book and didn’t want to follow them so YABU.

Sometimes different restaurants have different kitchens for each dining room so not as easy as just bringing them out the same place. Also, if others see you having afternoon tea in a restaurant it’s not on the menu of they may ask for it too so how do they say no to them when they’ve allowed you to have it.

Actually I think the fact it’s a 5 star hotel means it’s reasonable to expect them to be more accommodating. I expect it’s one of those with high pretensions to being “fancy” but with little to back it up. A true 5* hotel wouldn’t bat an eyelid at a guest asking for something unusual and would go out of their way to fulfil the request as discreetly as possible.

I always remember Alan Bennett saying that his parents, who were very down to earth folk, enjoyed the posher London’s restaurants most of all because you could ask for an egg on toast and it would be served without a moment’s fuss or “let me just ask chef”.

I think YANBU.

In a quality hotel you'd expect better customer service

if day a hotel guest fancied afternoon tea does that mean they can’t have it in their room?

They'd doubtless pay a premium for room service.

A true 5 hotel wouldn’t bat an eyelid at a guest asking for something unusual and would go out of their way to fulfil the request as discreetly as possible.*

Not on some groupon deal or smth...

If this is the hotel chain that I think it is this is a specific offer they have in at this time of year. I would always check the terms of conditions of such an offer before I booked. I cam totally understand that they wouldn't serve afternoon tea and lunch in the same restaurant and normally such offers simply that the two people have either or. However as a courtesy they could have substituted your treatment for one of an equivalent price. Yabu overall.

A massage takes much longer than the treatments that are part of the package you were looking at so I’m not surprised they said no.