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.

@SunshineCake I said new comment not new behaviour.

You're wrong about that too.

www.mumsnet.com/SearchArch?mustmatch=you+sound+like+hard+work&dontmatch=&nickname=&src_displ_option=s_m_d_m&fromDate=14%2F6%2F10&toDate=13%2F09%2F12&topicmode=All

OP you saw the offer advertised and wondered could them customise it to suit your needs, so you contacted them to ask. YANBU for this. They said it couldn't be done and had to be exactly as advertised, which also is not unreasonable. At least you knew and could go off and book elsewhere. I don't think you needed to be as annoyed about it as you were but I see you have realised that now yourself. So its all good, nothing to see here.

Oh no .

You sound unbelievably awkward.

YABU

Lunch and afternoon tea occur at different times of the day

A massage is also a totally different treatment to a facial or foot scrub

I'm sure the t's and c's probably state that they can't be changed at a whim.

Where is there a 5 star spa hotel in the North?

There are almost no 5 star hotels in the North (which is s self determined grade largely)

I don’t understand why you didn’t find somewhere better suited to your particular needs. You found a package and the immediately wanted to customise it to your own wants by changing two aspects of it. YABU.

Ah, you're one of 'those'.

I run a business and offer deals/packages. And there's always a special group of people who come, read what's included/conditions and then start: could I swap this for this? And that for that? And now this.. Well, I do like it, but if I could just change one tiny detail like this, and then another one like that, and then add just a liiiiittle bit of this and take away a smidge of that. Ending up asking for a completely different thing.

It's a good thing (if) they do all this BEFORE paying. Then you can politely fob them off, block, and avoid dealing with refunds later. Plus count your lucky stars you got rid of them in advance, as this kind of people are ALWAYS a complete nightmare to deal with (from years of experience).

I used to bend backwards trying to make such customers happy: changed whatever they wanted, added/taken away whatever they demanded, tweaked the price, talked uberly-politely and smile smile smile. And then they go and leave you a lukewarm/shitty review, as in their mind they 'imagined everything a liiiitle bit differently' (after getting a customized deal and exactly what they asked for).

No more. Come. Read. Like it? Take it. Don't like it? Bye.

@ShadowOnTheSun I feel you.
We had someone who requested no seasoning at all on his meat and no salt on fries either and then left 2 star review moaning that the food was plain🙄
No shit Sherlock.

And that's still one of the tame ones.

With discounted packages the point is... you get what you're given. If you were paying full-price you could have made changes for sure - especally booking a massage! Glad you've taken it all on board. No harm done.

This thread isn’t very Live Laugh Love of you Karen

Op why are you making this post about your dyslexia? You can’t use that as an excuse and accuse people of taking the mick out of a disability when no one knew you had it? You sound very hard work, defensive and entitled. Think you should admit YABU

I think you were only being unreasonable in booking something which sounds poor value for money! For that price, massage should have been an option. Re the food, I just booked a five star hotel’s Indian fusion restaurant with a tasting menu but asked to bring my children along (they wouldn’t like that, very expensive, menu). The restaurant without hesitating allowed me to order from either the children’s or the adult’s menu from another hotel restaurant for them.

That’s what I was thinking. When you watch these programmes about luxury hotels the emphasis is on keeping customers happy. It wasn’t like I was asking for freebies just to eat with my friend

If you're paying for the individual products services at full price as a hotel guest that is very different to booking a special offer deal where things are lumped together to lure in customers. Its not the same thing.
An afternoon tea in a 5* london hotel is easily £75. To have the tea stands, staff responsible for frequently replenishing the hot water and sandwich plates etc available just wouldnt work if tea was served in a different room.
You have the option of the treatments included and you choose. It's as simple as that. I das assure you, even at the most expensive hotels you cant book and pay for the cheapest room but tell them you want to be in the most expensive, it would make most people happy but its bit how business works. I think you may have slightly missed understood the tv shows you have been watching🤔

Sorry- I have to agree you're being u reasonable. The deal is for a scub, not a massage. Fair enough to ask, but understandable they said no. If the two different meals are served in tow different venues, the staff are under no obligation to traipse your meal, or have you box up your sandwiches and cakes, and have you sit in a different restaurant. Afternoon tea and a meal are quite different. Hope you find somewhere that will accommodate you- I wouldn't have either I'm afraid.

Basically the offer wasn’t for you. You found the treatments on offer didn’t suit your skin type. Then the friend wanted a meal in one place and you wanted something else. The spa hasn’t lost out by not having you I can assure you. I used to run a business very similar to this and there were always people wanting to take us up on great offers- which we had carefully selected- they then couldn’t understand why they couldn’t have something different but for the offer price of something else. Always glad not to have them. Especially the ones who wanted a massage instead of whatever we were promoting.

@Thefaceofboe

The dyslexia thing came about as another poster said OP shouldn’t be so ‘thick and read it properly’ something like that then OP pointed out she actually has dyslexia. 😳

@porkeypine and then accused them of taking the piss out of her disability? That they weren’t aware of...

Bit of a bunfight this

I wonder whether they would have refused if you were a paying guest and staying in the hotel then night before and night after. I suspect they would have been more accommodating if that was the case.

@Porkeypine

Yeah but I don’t think there was any need for the other poster to be nasty and call OP ‘thick’ because you never know what struggles someone has. Incidentally dyslexia! Then it went on from there

‘Thick and should read properly’ or something

@Porkeypine "fussy idiots who can't read"
If someone can manage MN they can manage to read an offer.
Having dyslexia doesn't excuse you from t&cs.

Yes but no need to be nasty and name call. Goes to show you don’t know if someone has difficulties.

Ive just @ myself in my previous post 😳

@Porkeypine I agree but think the op is using that as an excuse as she’s been called unreasonable by 99% of the posters