Damage in hotel room - I’m an idiot

[HotelWoes]

Been staying at a really lovely 4* hotel for the last two nights. Breathtakingly beautiful place, staff are all so lovely, great facilities. Had a really stressful few weeks so went away with DP to unwind.

There have been a few issues - we didn’t realise when booking that this is also a wedding venue, and there was a wedding here yesterday. Which was fine, didn’t really affect us except that we are on the ground floor very near to the area where the wedding guests would go and smoke, and drunkenly shout and screech at each other. We had our windows open as it was too warm to close them, so could hear it all loud and clear. This went on until just before 2am so didn’t manage to get to sleep until then. Then got woken up early this morning by heavy machinery that had arrived to do some work on the grounds driving around, again close to our window.

Also, the wifi is shite. Don’t know whether it’s just our room but when I say shite I mean you literally can’t use it for watching stuff online, and that’s something that DP and I spend most of our time doing when we go away (sad as it sounds). We haven’t been able to do that at all, and there’s not even any phone signal to hotspot from. I was also planning to spend a bit of time doing some online training that I have to do before Monday, but haven’t been able to do that. I have mentioned it to reception 4 times now, they kept saying they’d send someone over to boost the signal, but it didn’t make any difference. The manager did say to us at 10pm tonight that she’d reset the router and if that didn’t work she could move us to another room, miraculously it did help, and we managed to watch a whole film before it dropped out again, but as it was now getting on for midnight we just gave up.

Anyway, sounds like a lot of moaning there 🤣, but other than that the place is great. But this evening I did something really daft. I put the hot hair straighteners on the wooden desk and left a burn mark on the desk. I have never damaged anything in a hotel room before and now I feel sick worrying about it. I’m going to have to fess up in the morning I know, but worried we’ll be charged hundreds of pounds. Has anyone had any experience of this kind of thing? Can’t sleep (again) for worrying about it.

@HotelWoes Don't say a word. When I was in halls of resident as a student, I was in a tiny room, the ensuite bathroom door caught on my mini stepper, the pedal lifted the door off its hinges and it left a dent on the opposite wall where the door fell.

So I called the people who look after the halls of resident, the guy came, he put the door on its hinges and said don't report the dent in the wall as they will charge you.

I said nothing and never got charged. Your case is better as many people have stayed in your room and I doubt they take photos in between visits, they will only clean it and a cleaner may have missed it in between cleanings so they may believe, so they can't prove you did the damage. If there's a lamp or something you could put it on top of the mark if not leave as is and don't say anything.

How can you go through life not taking responsibility when you make a mistake? The OP mentioned it so it would obviously make her feel guilty if she kep quiet.
If you walk out of a shop without paying by accident do you go back? I went back and paid for a garlic bulb that I found when unloading the trolley because otherwise it's stealing. This was really for MY benefit, not Sainsbury's. There is nothing better than a clear conscience. Remember - be true to yourself.

Are you for real? Who takes linseed oil on a weekend break?

Or a "soft wood polishing compound"?!

I wouldn't necessarily expect hotel wifi to be good enough to stream films and stuff I must say! We download stuff in advance to watch. I would except hotel wifi to be enough to browse the net and check emails and stuff, not download/stream whole films.

Was anything in that original post necessary for the story? It reads like a whole long post of completely unrelated stuff just to say 'Oh by the way I burned a desk with my hear straighteners' in the last sentence. 😆

Nobody goes away to watch stuff on their phone surely? Some of the most picturesque places in the UK have no or very little signal at all. Bit sad to pay to go away and then be glued to your phones. The complaints about wedding/WIFI etc are absolutely nothing to do with the damage you caused. YABU

That is the exactly kind of thing I would do accidentally if I had been up half the night and was sleep deprived. So I don't think they are two separate issues.

This is ringing a bell. Was this posh hotel in Bologna, Italy? It's one of my favourite places. One night, I woke up at about 1am needing a wee. It was so urgent, I was hallucinating the sound of rushing water.

I got to the bathroom (very nice, much nicer than ours at home) and realised I wasn't imagining the sound. Water was gushing through the ceiling. It was quite steamy too. I didn't go in because I had just about enough presence of mind to think: "That water's hot."

We phoned reception and they sent someone up to inspect the situation and very quickly sent a porter too to move us to another room. The men told us not to pick a thing up apart from valuables, because they would clear the room and take all our things. They had one of those big arched brass trollies you see in films like Pretty Woman. They even brought spare fluffy hotel dressing gowns to cover our modesty - correctly anticipating that the ones in the bathroom would be soaked.

In the morning, Reception explained that a guest in the room above had let their bath overflow. They gave us flowers and a bottle of sparkling wine. There was no damage to our things, and even if there was, we would have claimed it from their insurance, so we weren't bothered - especially since for the rest of our stay they couldn't do enough for us and there was a discount at the end.

The new room was a corner suite which was even nicer than our original, which was very nice to begin with.

After we'd left I began to wonder about the careless guest bath overflow excuse. Who has a bath at 1am? The steam meant the water was very hot and if I'd have walked under the flood, I'd have been badly scalded. I came to the conclusion that it was a burst boiler and I had a lucky escape from death and disability.

But now you've said you let the bath overflow in your room and it was so hot you couldn't turn it off, I realise it could have happened just like they said and it might have been you.

Don't feel bad; accidents will happen.

We've been back to the same hotel many times and always treated as honoured guests. We are upgraded to a better room, with flowers and wine, but sadly, never a corner suite. I think we are listed on their files as: "English couple we nearly scalded to death. Treat extra nicely."

PS Bologna is wonderful city with a rich history and the greatest food in Italy - even Italians from other parts of the country grudgingly admit that. You can combine it with stays in Naples, Rome, Florence or Venice because they are all on the same (reasonably priced) train line that goes through such fabulous scenery, it's a holiday in itself. I recommend it but as with all other hotels, if you hear cascading water in the bathroom, don't rush in.

@Pocketfullofdogtreats oh quite easily...it was an ACCIDENT, the door accidently caught on the mini stepper because the room was so tiny, a box room, if you read my post properly you will have read I did initially report it. I was advised by the person who came not to report it. The costs to fix the wall would come out of the rental insurance, plus the profit they make from renting the room. I didn't feel guilty one bit. The OP shouldn't either, if they feel that guilty they can of course report it but I'm just saying what I did and what I would do. Free speech means you will have different views / opinions.

You do realise the OP is away for a relaxing weekend, and probably doesn't have access to wood polishing compound?

I understand that you are nervous about having caused the damage, but bite the bullet and fess up. I am sure it will be all right. if it isn't I will contribute to a go fund me page.

Anyone scoffing at this reply has clearly never stayed in the kind of establishment where they have linseed oil and furniture polish as standard along with the complimentary shower gel.

Fag ash is harder to come by in these non-smoking days.

Ds broke a lamp once and we expected it to be knocked off the bill but the said it was normal wear and tear/accidents.

Fag ash is harder to come by in these non-smoking days.

Very handy for OP though as she's right by the smoking area - sorted!

I’d complain, complain, complain about the wedding disturbance. As a paying guest you should have been moved if the wedding disturbed you. I wish you’d said something at the time. Don’t put up with shit.

I was staying at a beautiful 5* hotel in NYC, unpacking my things I dropped a very heavy scent bottle on a glass table and smashed the table, I phoned reception and told them immediately. They replaced the table. I wouldn't have thought for a minute that they'd have charged me, accidental damage is to be expected from time to time. It will be costed for.

You're right that I didn't read your post properly. Something about a door. You were advised not to report it and I probably wouldn't have in your situation either. But your situation is Irrelevant here. What I took issue with is that you told the OP not to report it.

@Pocketfullofdogtreats Took issue with? Sounds like you need a chill pill. 😆 sounds like you come on forums to take issue with people's comments, I on the other hand share my opinion / advice and it's up to a person to take it on board or not.

Always think it's weird that people think that something that probably happens multiple times, every day, all over the world could have been the thing that happened to them!

Btw, I take hot baths at 1@m quite often if I'm in from clubbing or a party, finishes the evening off nicely I find

Thanks for the responses!

To answer a few questions, no I didn’t complain about the wedding noise, for a few reasons. Firstly, I thought it’s kind of on us for booking a hotel which is also a wedding venue (accidentally!), and I was of the mindset that meh, you hopefully only get married once, they’re all having a nice time, surely to god they’ll go to bed soon…and I’ll be able to have a lie in in the morning. Except then of course I got woken up by the machinery which was annoying. Also we booked the room last minute and on booking.com it was the last room left, so I doubt there would have been anywhere to move us to.

To the poster who said that the staff would have been ‘well aware of me’ 🙄, well no they weren’t. I very politely spoke to reception 4 times over the 48 hours I was there, to ask if anything could be done about the wifi. Each time they suggested it needed boosting or resetting, leading me to believe that it could be improved upon. If they’d have just said “no sorry, the wifi doesn’t reach as far as your room” (which appeared to be the truth of the matter), then I’d have accepted that. I don’t think the shitness of their wifi was normal for a hotel btw, I regularly stay in hotels all over the place and I’ve never before been unable to stream videos…yes sometimes it’s a bit laggy/buffers but still functional with a bit of patience. This hotel’s wifi was essentially non existent, at least in our room.

Also a lot of judgement on my choice of activities for a weekend away 🤣. Me and DP both have ridiculously busy lives and we do enjoy chilling out and watching films on the laptop when we go away, but don’t worry…we also went out for meals and drinks, used the leisure facilities, I went to the spa for treatments twice, and there was a fair bit of shagging going on. However in between those things it would have been nice to be able to watch films.

ANYWAY, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, I warn you it was a real non event. Checked out this morning, I just said something like “I’m really sorry there was a bit of an incident in the room”…and then explained what happened. The receptionist didn’t exactly look thrilled but she literally just said “ok”, and that was that. Whether or not there will be an email or phone call once they’ve actually seen the damage, I don’t know (hope not 😬).

We actually own a holiday rental and have never charged anyone who has apologised for damage, - people who sneak off are the problem, you can be left unable to sort things out before the next guest.

Agreed. And if people are dishonest about small things, what's to say they'll be honest about big things?

Well as I said, if the smoking area is actually outside the room, that's unacceptable as is being able to hear the music from the room.
OP doesn't say about music or that's where the designated smoking area was, rather that that's where people were smoking and talking/shouting - just because that's happening doesn't mean the hotel have automatically designed it so that's where the smoking area is - I'm pointing out that many people will just go where they want to smoke and be noisy, regardless of any areas designated away from rooms and ignore all efforts from either signage or staff to move them - because they don't care about disturbing others because they know that the hotel will automatically get the blame and they won't have to take any responsibility for their own inconsiderate behaviour, because they're 'paying customers'.

Yes, this! It always amuses me on MN.

Or when someone complains about their cleaner, or an ex, and the complaints are far from unique, and someone posts “their name doesn’t begin with the letter A does it?”. As though there is only one person with that trait in the entire world!