CF Tourists - is it worse ??

[WeWillLookBack]

We have just got back from a few days in Cornwall - we live in Devon, so spend a lot of time in both counties and are very used to tourists and holiday makers. We stayed in a 'pub with rooms on the beach, which was lovely. However - I am utterly gobsmacked by the level of CF we have witnessed in the 3 days. It feels like peoples entitlement is off the scale. I don't know how those in hospitality are dealing with it.

Wednesday - Woman went mental at the poor young lad serving in the beer garden - insisted she had booked a table outside. Very politely told her that they do not take reservations for the garden, just the restaurant. Screaming ' Are you calling me a liar'. He went in, and didn't come back out.

Friday AM - they serve breakfast for guests 8am-9.30am, then open for breakfast at 9.30am (lots of signs saying open at 9.30am). At 8.30am a group were outside - rattling the door. Member of staff opens the door, and lets them know they open at 9.30am. Lots of moaning - insisting they can have breakfast now etc. She says no - very polite. So he tells her it is disgusting that they allow guests to sit in the window eating when others can't ! ( and to make up for their error, they should serve them breakfast too)

Friday evening - Family of 6 rocked up - no space in the beer garden. Started shouting - so the owner came out. Man very angry - they had driven for 6 hours - and the kids needed feeding. The owner was great - polite but firm. The man actually suggested the owner walk around the beer garden and checked when people were leaving so they could secure a table. He said no. A lot of swearing. Asked to leave.

Drive home Saturday morning. Along a winding road along the coast - car in front just stops. Man gets out and stands looking at the sea. Single lane - so I cant go around him. After a few moments I beep - he stomps over to my car and says 'Can I help you' ... I say you have blocked the road - could you move please. To which he responds 'I am looking at the view - maybe you could just be kind' FFS !!!

I don’t think it’s just tourists. I was in the cinema last night and a pair of women near to me talked through the film. About 30mins in I asked them politely to stop. One of the ladies laughed at me and carried on.

Whose idea was the NC500? I assume someone must be making money out of marketing it? Is it supercar and motor home rental places in Inverness?

It seems crazy that this thing has been marketed without regard for how the local infrastructure will cope.

20 years ago, we used to visit the area and it was quiet - mostly walkers and birdwatchers.

The North Coast 500 is a 516-mile (830 km) scenic route around the north coast of Scotland, starting and ending at Inverness Castle. The route is also known as the NC500 and was launched in 2015, linking many features in the north Highlands of Scotland in one touring route.

From Wikipedia

Why would a campsite only take cash? 🤔

We used to lend them out but covid stopped up and they all went a bit manky. Now the organisation has decided not to buy more. I wish we could stock them and sell them but the amount of space needed to store them would be unrealistic unfortunately

Misses point of the thread, but where is this pub with rooms on the beach, sounds great ?

I live in a tourist town and we get a lot of the walking down the middle of the road and glaring at you for daring to drive on it CFers, the worst culprits are men of a certain age, that clock you are driving behind them so slow down sligtly and continue to amble down the middle of the road The worst was a man who was driving down a narrow one way street in the wrong direction, I tapped on his window to politely let him know his mistake, he told me to fuck off, not sure what he said to the occupants of the police car he met coming in the right direction

Neither do we! Holidays are affordable because we camp, with the odd pub meal on an evening.

One thing the camper makes easier is flexibility. We can check into a campsite for 3 or 4 days and then easily move on to another campsite for later in the week if the weather is better elsewhere. It's trickier to do that with a tent, because you have the faff of taking it down and pitching again.

I think my favourite bit is the breakfast CFs - they shouldn’t let people sit in the window and eat if outside customers can’t come in to eat yet 🤣🤣
imagine telling your guest - you can't sit in the windows, in fact you need to hide in the restaurant as otherwise we get complaints for those that are denied food!

Plenty of rural ones don't have card facilities. I can think of a few in the Lakes to start with.

I think people are generally much more entitled / have a higher level of what they would call "basic" expectations. You only have to look at the thread about staying in three-star hotels to see this in action. Slightly worn (but clean) bedding? No rainfall shower? Outdated decor? No 24-hour room service? The horror! Unthinkable!

Not that long ago, going away every year for a holiday was not as common as it is now. The tourism industry has exploded and managed to convince everyone that they "need" a holiday away from home. If you dare to point out on MN that no-one actually "needs" a holiday away from home (you might want one and they are very nice I agree, but that is different from need) then you get told to fuck off and how dare you and what about my mental health? Daily-Mail-esque phrases like "much-needed" and "hard-earned" get thrown about.

The entitlement is off the scale.

God, people who stand over you and making comments to each other in clear view of the people sitting down….

We were in a small snazzy cafe in Brighton and they only allowed queuing outside. One family, buggy, and big rucksacks waited until the waitresses back was turned and started hovering over our table. Making comments as to how far we were from finishing when standing inches from us. Toddler started crying and demanding their cake NOW. They just stood there..

Manager asked them queue outside because of the size of the place and they refused. He then literally herded them out the door with his arms.

My favourite is the ones who like to park all around the lifeboat station, including the launch area. Meaning a) the lifeboat launch is much much more difficult and slower and b) when there’s a call out the crew are having to park miles away and run to the station. My partners on the crew and I work in the cafe next door, when there’s a call and I’m working he normally, drops me the kids and off he goes. I’ve had tourists (even boat owners) shouting at me that it was inappropriate to take the 3 minutes to pop my kids in the corner and get back to work. I’ve been told that he shouldn’t be on the crew if I have to work as well, that he should just ignore the call etc.

We live in a tiny village with a small local population, and a massively inflated summer one. There isn’t the numbers of volunteers locally to keep our station running if everyone with kids drops out. 90% of calls are to idiots who are on holidays and don’t know how
to act on the water.

@BirmaBrite there’s loads of them but one of my favourites is The Old Success in Sennen

I live in a tourist area and honestly the number of times a car in front slows to look at the sheep, cows, wild ponies. Yes it is lovely and I am sure a delight for you dc but some of us are trying to get to the supermarket, doctors in our lunch break and we cannot be doing with driving at 10mph so you can have a look!!

Squashyhat that is right!
why don’t people use search engines?!

I live in a tourist-infested area too. It's the driving slowly, forgetting the residents have dental appointments, shopping, care of relations to get to. We try not to drive anywhere summer weekends because of the meandering along the main road.

I had one at Doha airport recently, a woman had a bottle of water that she wanted to take through security, man told her no, she asked why, he reiterated the rules, she told him she was taking it through, he told her she wasn't. She then told him he was a jobsworth, stupid, no wonder he did a job like that (!), she then threw the bottle really hard into the massive barrel with all the other bottles, it bounced out as it was nearly full and landed on her foot. She told the guy it was his fault for taking it off her and she was going to sue him and the airport, silly cow. The guy she was with was mortified, he was quietly saying to put the bottle in the bin the whole time.

Ridiculous thing was she'd got the water free on the plane!

I’ve had to use the chat function of BA recently to amend some flight info. Three times I’ve spoken to different CSA’s and all three have been super grateful that I’ve been decent and polite to them.

The first time it was 3pm in the afternoon and the man on the chat told me I was the first customer all day to be polite and say Thank you. Wtaf is wrong with people, yes flight cancellations are stressful but it isn’t the fault of the person on the other end of the chat who has zero influence on any decisions.

@BirmaBrite it’s probably not the same one but there’s one at Sennen in Cornwall.

I live in Edinburgh. At festival time it's madness. Residents either embrace it or steer clear. I try to embrace it, but sometimes though you just get so frustrated, as the tourists forget we have lives to live here - every person stopping you to ask directions, every person getting on the bus without the correct payment or asking driver to give detailed directions which holds up the bus. It can take an hour more than usual to travel across the city on bus. I try to remember it's important for our economy and I'm always as kind and helpful as possible, but some people are unbelievably entitled and rude. I've had to say no to people asking me to take their pictures on the street because I'm in a hurry to get to an appointment and they are shocked and shout at me.

@Octomore

I hadn't realised drivers did this, I had wrongly thought it was a cycling route - which doesn't have the same environmental effect. Not sure what you get out of driving the route as the hills would be easy with an engine

I am surprised Doha put up with that rudeness. Never kick off in a different country. It’s not like the UK where you won’t be pulled up on it. You might be escorted away by security, miss your flight and have to buy a new one. Bet you don’t do it again…

Google?!? What's that?

Thank you!