In Spain - friend issue with hotel room

[RosaMoline]

Morning lovelies
we’re day 3 on our holidays.
On the morning after our first night, my friend was making a cup of tea in her room, and the ceiling collapsed by the bathroom, leaving a large puddle of water on the floor. She was shaken but uninjured.
So yesterday, she had to repack her case and they moved her to another room (of the same standard)
My friend doesn’t articulate herself very well, and gets very anxious, so I’m her official spokesperson, so to speak.
The manager wasn’t available yesterday, but today he’s back - we’ve yet to speak to him, but what do you think is fair to ask for due to the inconvenience and disruption? I was thinking a refund of the first night’s stay (about £160)
AIBU?

2 singles pushed together also makes a massive bed!

The hotel have done the bare minimum - moved her to another room. They had to do that, it wasn’t some nice generous gesture.

I’d expect as a minimum a refund of one nights stay, and maybe an upgrade to a better room.

The hotel have resolved the issue.

I am so confused as to why so many people’s standards are so low?! The hote offering to move rooms isn’t good service - it’s a necessity. They didn’t even move her to the same room type and she’s now in a single bed on holiday… she’s had the ceiling collapse (could have been potentially injured, thankfully wasn’t) and then had to take the time to speak to management to get it sorted, repack her bags, move rooms, and then unpack again (This isn’t exactly a five minute process and I’m sure she would much rather have actually been enjoying her time). I’d be pretty upset and would expect compensation - and asking for a full refund for the first night is nowhere near grabby?! As for those saying it makes a “good holiday story” - how?! It makes me wonder what else people would put up with!

This!
Moving her to another room is apparently good service - what would just standard service be, sweeping up the mess but making her stay in a room with a big hole? Giving her a tent to sleep in thr carpark? She paid for a certain type of room so giving her one is bare minimum!

I would maybe see what they offer first but I don't think asking for the first night to be refunded is inappropriate at all. As long as you are polite asking for anything isn't inappropriate, they can only say no.

No that makes 2 beds next to each other with a dip in the middle.

I'm 5ft and a size 8, I wouldn't accept a single bed when I've paid for a double. Single at a friend's house, fine but not for £160 a night!

She's been downgraded. I would've expected a nice gesture, massage, free dinner/ drinks voucher or an upgrade. Not a refund but I wouldn't have been surprised by one.

It must have been quite dusty and disruptive. Its more than a 5 minute job to pack, move and unpack.

@ricenoodle I disagree, if you've only been there for 1 night the chances are it is a 5 min process to throw your stuff back in your bag and move to another room. OP says the room was the same standard, just 2 singles instead of a double. That's not a variation in standards, it's just a split of beds. It would have been a nice touch to maybe upgrade the room, but I cant understand why someone would expect a free night's stay when their night was unaffected and the issue has been dealt with. A couple of free drinks at the bar maybe, but £160?? It's not low standards to not expect that, it's just common sense and understanding that there is no issue.

I actually wouldn’t ask for compensation. However, if by the end of the stay nothing is offered I’d take that shrug of the shoulder approach as a sign that ceilings falling isn’t that remarkable an event in this hotel chain, and would make clear my feelings on the matter in my review, warning other potential guests of their maintenance standards in fairly strong terms.

Agree with all of this. Moving her to another room is surely required vs. 'good service'?!

For comparison there was a power cut for 3 hours in a hotel I stayed in. We weren't even in the building and said so when the staff came to apologise. They still gave us 2 bottles of wine and 20% off dinner.

And yes, two single beds... not the same as a double.

Any busines worth its salt would be offering things without asking to try to smooth things over. A ceiling nearly falling on the head of a guest might be a run of the mill event for this hotel chain, but if it narrowly missed a member of my family I wouldn’t be content with a Diet Coke at the bar. That said I wouldn’t go asking for compensation (if not proactively offered) but would make their shabby maintenance crystal clear in reviews warning other guests.

@anotherside where does it say it nearly fell on her head? This thread shows how people's standards are different, and that's ok. Some people would want a full refund and let everyone know not to stay there, others couldn't give a flying fuck and get on with their day. Both are ok.

You say the ceiling collapsed in the bathroom, which does sounds very dramatic but then that it resulted in a large puddle of water on the floor - which sounds less so. Did it partly come down ie a bulge of water from a leak caused some of the plaster to give way or did the whole thing come down,which would have resulted in a rather more messy result than a puddle of water. Was your friend in there at the time ? Was this the middle of the night so that your friend was deprived of the sleep she had paid for ?

They have addressed the situation by moving your friend quickly and many hotels would indeed send a bottle of wine, fruit basket or similar as an acknowledgment that she had been minorly inconvenienced by having to move but it doesn’t sound catastrophic. You can go and ask for a refund of a night if you want but from your description it doesn’t sound as if it obviously merits it.

I wouldn't call that good service - it's the basic thing they had to do given the room was unsafe. A move to an upgraded room would have been good service.

Well it sure wasn't bad service! They dealt with the issue.

I would not expect to pay for the first night

If she was in the room making tea and it happened by the bathroom, it could easily have fallen on her head.
I'd be more concerned about poor maintenance than I would be compensation, so if I read a review where someone described this and was not totally happy with the resolution then I wouldn't want to stay there.

Exactly!

The mummy martyrs are out in force today - oh it's fiiiiiiinneee - no it's bloody not!

Sad so many people pleasers would put up with this!

A quiet conversation is all that's needed, and I'm sure you'll get something - a better room at least, and some comp whether that's freebies or night refunded. It's the least they could do!

I also wouldn't be happy with this. You can always feel the gap in the middle, it dips. I like to starfish across a luxurious hotel bed - this wouldn't suit me and I'd be asking for a change.

If I read about this happening on trip advisor, I wouldn't book that hotel.

Of course a full night's refund would affect them! What a daft thing to say. They're running a business and now have an unusable room which needs the ceiling repairing before anyone else can stay in it.

@RosaMoline I'm also surprised at some of the responses here. Fair enough, your friend wasn't physically hurt or her belongings damaged and they moved her to a (to my mind, poorer) room. But it must have been a real shock. I would expect the hotel to compensate for that experience.

I was in a nice hotel in Tenerife a few years ago. There were renovations taking place near our suite and one day we found ourselves without running water. We went to guest relations and, because the hotel was full and there were no other rooms available, were immediately upgraded to all-inclusive for the rest of our stay, given free access to the extremely wonderful spa for 48 hours if we wanted to shower, plus were given a considerable discount on our next holiday. We were so impressed with how they handled it to ensure that we retained the very best impression of the hotel.

Surprised at the comments about the hotel having "resolved the issue".
Yes they may have resolved it for her, but if this is the standard of the maintenance/inspections god help everyone else staying there - and this in a chain hotel rather than some small, privately owned fleapit

Best hope the electrics, fire provision, etc, are better maintained ...

I can't believe how many of you lot are valorising misery.

The hotel is charging people not for a room you can manage to survive in and keep the elements off. A holiday is supposed to be pleasant, a break, a nice experience. If the roof falls in they have failed and they need to do something about it.

It reads to me as if maybe the people stayed in a room for one night with a hole in the ceiling. Fucking hell.
They were disrupted, probably made anxious, had to faff and get moved, and now have a worse room with smaller beds. The hotel have failed and need to make up for it!

This isn't like going to stay with your mum and there is something wrong with the room but you think ah well, I am here to see her so never mind about the slightly uncomfortable stay. This is a hotel! They charge money on the basis that you are supposed to have a nice time!

Why are people on here so pathetic now about things like this? Some days I come on mumsnet and it seems to be dominated by martyrs grovelling around doing other people's jobs for them for no pay, never bothering a doctor, getting up earlier than their husbands and just "popping" things here and there rather than asking someone else to clear up after themselves - which - fine, have a shit life if you want - but stop shaming women who want something better!