Hotel has told us there will be no power from 11am-5am

[Geometry88]

OH and I have booked a night away at a 5 star spa hotel in a few days' time (£400 for bed and breakfast including spa access).

The hotel have emailed to say due to an emergency they need to re-boot their power systems so there will be no power throughout the hotel from 11pm to 5am. They say they have selected this time in the hope guests will be asleep.

They are being very casual about it but IMO we are paying a lot of money and I don't expect there to be a 6 hour power cut ! We are rarely asleep before midnight, will be wanting to charge our phones overnight, and I don't expect to be stumbling around in the dark if I wake up in the middle of the night needing the toilet.

According to the T&Cs it's too late to cancel but I think we should have the choice to given the circumstances? I'm thinking as a minimum we should be offered some form of compensation on point of principle? Or even being able to reschedule to the following evening (which might work ok for us) at the same cost?

Have you asked them if you can reschedule in the circumstances? I wouldn't be happy either as I have my phone plugged in charging overnight. I'd be asking to rearrange at no cost.

You could put your phones on to charge earlier in the day, such as when you are eating dinner. Unless you have medication that needs to be refrigerated, then you are being pretty unreasonable.

Contact them and ask

They will be blasé about it as they won't want to reimburse people or move reservations etc

90% of people won't be affected so they don't want to make a big deal. If it affects you, contact them and find out which of your suggestions they would go for.

Ask them either for a discount or to rearrange your dates

Contact them and say they are unable to provide basic facilities so you want to reschedule as you don't believe they are offering the service expected in a hotel

They're paying £400 quid and you think it's unreasonable to expect electric? 😄

This sounds highly dangerous and potentially deadly. This could mean their fire alarm system being offline, and hotels will be fitted with emergency lighting for unplanned power cuts that will last at most 3 hours, so if there needs to be an evacuation at 5 am the emergency lights won't be charged and the fire alarm might not work.

Yep. This.

11pm is not that late, I'm certainly not asleep by then.

No way would I accept that.

Needing to charge your phone overnight is a pretty poor excuse to ask for a refund! If you were reliant on some kind of equipment to keep you alive, or needed drugs in a fridge, then fair enough (although they'd probably offer you use of the hotel fridge, which I'd be willing to bet would run on a back up generator - they aren't going to waste a load of food).

Just have an early night and do something in bed in the dark - can you think of anything 🤔? Is it really worth cutting off your nose to spite your face?

I also wondered this but it's a large hotel (part of a major chain) so SURELY must have health & safety covered...

Are you sure there is no generator for overnight? Can't believe they can take guests with no emergency lighting or alarm system or refrigerated food for example. Also presumably the pool heating will be off so could affect next day. Maybe ring for clarification.

Also it's likely when the systems come back on, all their alarms will start blaring too. The tellies might even turn on. Nah I'd ask to rearrange.

Unless you are up and about at 5am, then leave the phone chargers switched on. Then when the power comes back on, your phones will be charging, ready for use by the time you wake up.

And unless you leave the phone batteries to go completely flat before charging, then if you DO have to get up in the night to use the bathroom, you will have your phones' batteries to use. Or take a torch.

Realistically, you're only going to be inconvenienced from 11pm until you go to sleep. If you're booked into the hotel for a special occasion, would it really be ruined for the sake of an hour or two late at night? If yes, then ask if the hotel can reschedule or refund. If not, ask for a discount.

You could ask to move the dates, but if you want to go, could you ask for a price reduction? I'd personally be looking for about 20%.

Then take battery chargers and torches.

If there's no lighting and they haven't provided battery lights etc they're surely leaving themselves liable if anyone injured themselves in the dark? Other than that, I can't say it would bother me but I also think they should allow you to reschedule or cancel. I'm not sure compensation is appropriate if you're able to reschedule.

If it really was for 18 hours as per the title then that would be pretty serious

There are other things to consider too.

How is the hotel planning to deal with health and safety issues, eg finding the loo in the night, exiting safely if a fire etc

The fire and burglar alarms will be grumpy without power. How long does the backup battery last? If not as long as the power outage then you will be without a fire alarm. In addition, the emergency lights will illuminate while the power is out, you may have one in your room, will make it safer for you but will make your room light. They might beep too just to remind everyone the power is out.

The hotel will be without heating. The hot water will take a while to reheat.

Lots of things may malfunction the next day due to the power outage and may need tech help before they work.

I used to own a hotel, restarting after power outage was a nightmare. Even our water used to stop and need rebooting since it was pumped to give great pressure constantly.

I would ask to rebook.

I would email them outlining everything you've said here. They are obviously winging it and trying to keep customers but I suspect if you ask outright to cancel then they will accept that.

A similar thing happened to us and they changed it no problem.

@Geometry88 I wouldn't assume they've thought that much into the health and safety, I would contact them for clarification and if not forward the email to the local fire service who will pay them a visit

I would ask to rearrange.

Electricity is a pretty basic expectation in a hotel, regardless of what time it is!

We booked 2 days away recently and when we arrived we were told the power was going off from 8.00 a.m. until 3.00 p.m. Luckily we were planning to be out but we weren't happy they hadn't told us in advance and give us the option to change

At the very least I would expect a large reduction in the bill

I think you are being a little unreasonable, they aren't doing it for fun. I think it's reasonable to ask for a torch, I also think it's reasonable to be offered a little compensation eg a free drink each but not cancelling as its at a time people are typically asleep and you can put into charge, it only takes a couple of hours so by the time you wake at 7/8 they will be at least mostly charged