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?

Unless you plan on carrying out an improptu audit how are you going to determine if they've been negiligent or not?

The onus here isn't on the guest to 'get on with it' as some PP imply. The onus is on the hotel to preserve their reputation if they want long term success. Because how a business responds when things go wrong says a lot about their worth.

People work hard and save up all year to get away for a short break, and have every right expect minimum standards from a business.

If I was deciding how to spend my hard earned money and read a hotel room ceiling collapsed and guests were simply moved room I would thing 'why would I want to stay here?'

However, if I read a roof had collapsed and the guests were moved to a better room and offered a free meal I would think 'this hotel recognised their standards fell short, and clearly care about improving the guests experience'.

@DappledThings I think this thread definitely shows the divide between people who are bothered by things and people who aren't, doesn't it. And I don't think we will ever understand one another. I am in camp not bothered unless it's actually affecting me.

No, a faulty shower so you have to call reception and someone has to fix it is a mild inconvenience. A ceiling falling on you and leaving you shocked (as it would); a bit more than that.

My comparison was a shower that then couldn't be fixed, not one that could. The outcome to both is a room move.

And just to say those PP who would just accept what happened and get on with their holiday. You're NOT the reason businesses have excellent standards. You're the reason businesses allow standards to slip. The 'moaners', 'complainers', 'chancers' these people are in part why businesses improve or maintain good standards.

I'm not exhausted, although thanks for the concern.
From the hotel's POV, it'd go much better with them to have this guest go home and say, 'The ceiling fell down in X hotel – it was a real shock, but they were so decent and gave us a dinner on the house' than 'The ceiling fell down in X hotel – it was a real shock, and then after they moved me to a new room they thought that was it and I had to ask how else they were going to make it up.'
I know I wouldn't stay in a hotel if I heard the second story, but would if I heard the first.

If you want it to be.

I'm pretty confident in the end I'd be the one having a better time on my holiday by seeing it as a mild inconvenience than those catastrophising it and spending their time working out what to put on TripAdvisor and how much money they are deserve.

How could they possibly mitigate this risk, when the building is full of a continuously changing group of people?

sigh mine was 'a faulty shower that someone had to come and fix'
but in any case, in the scenario of a shower they couldn't fix I wouldn't expect anything more than a new room; if a ceiling fell down and gave me the shock of my life, I would. I think there's a fairly clear distinction between those two scenarios, personally.

They've resolved it by moving her to another room. Job done

They've moved her to another room, presumably are fixing the ceiling (which could easy have been entirely created by user error as opposed to lax standards) and given her 2 bottles of wine. That's a perfectly acceptable standard of service.

It might not be outstanding service but it certainly isn't poor service.

'catastrophising' is a bit strong. I'd spend a few minutes when I got home and was asked for a review thinking of what to say, personally.

I do think it's interesting how many people are so keen to jump on the OP and accuse her of, basically, grifting, over what is really a fairly reasonable enquiry. There is a strong element of 'don't make a fuss'.

Waving to the Four Yorkshiremen

My old dad used to say to me: "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son."
He was right! I was happier then. We had nothing-- use to live in a tiny old, tumbled down house with great holes in' err roof.
A house? You were lucky to have a house! We used to sleep in one room, 26 of us. And half the floor was missing. We were all huddled in one corner, for fear of falling.
You were lucky to have a room. We used to live in corridors.
Oh...We used to dream 'a livin' in a corridor. Woulda' been a palace for us. We used to live in an old watertank on top of a rubbish tip. Got Woked up every mornin by havin the lot of the rotten fish dumped all over us.
House? Why woulda say house? It were only a hole in the ground, covered by a couple foot o torn canvas. But they were house to us!
We were evicted from our hole in the ground. We had to go livin in lake.
You were lucky to have a lake.There were 150 of us, livin in shoebox at middle o' motorway.
Cardboard box?
Nay.
You're lucky. We lived for three months in a rolled up newspaper in a septic tank. We used to hadta get up a'six in the morning, clean da newspaper, eat a crusta stale bread, go to work down the mill, for a 14 hour day, week in week out for 6 cents a month, and when we got home, our dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt.
Luxury. We used to hafta get 'out the lake, 3 am, clean the lake, eat a handful 'o hot gravel, work 20 hours a day at mill, for a penny a month, and dad would beat us about the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were lucky.
Well o course we had it tough. We used to have to get up outta shoebox, in middle of night, and lick the road clean with our tongues. We had half a handful of freezing cold gravel, worked at mill for 24 hours for a penny a year, When we got home, our dad would slash it in two with bread-knife.
Right.. I used to get up in the morning at night at half-past-ten at night, half an hour before I went to bed, Eat a lump of freezing cold poison, work 28 hours a day at mill, and pay da mill owner to let us work there. And when I went home our dad used to murder us in cold blood, each night, and dance about on our graves, singing hallelujah.
Yah, you try an tell the young people of today that, and they won't believe you...

Sigh I know what your comparison was, I moved mine on to say and if it couldn't be fixed...

Anyway, that's fine if you want to complain and have it impact your holiday, I'd be ok with it not affecting mine. Also ok.

I dont think at all that it's "don't make a fuss". People would absolutely make a fuss if they felt it necessary. For example, if they weren't moved rooms and there was a hole in the ceiling. Fuss all day long until sorted. People are choosing not to fuss because they don't think it warrants it. That's ok, we all have different expectations.

And what are you going to put in your email? You are being grabby. Wine has been offered and taken, and that wasn't even needed. It was a minor inconvenience that was sorted very quickly. You come across as you have litigation culture embedded.

Disruption from the ceiling falling down disturbed the holiday. Nobody benefits from the martyrdom of sleeping in a pile of plaster and wet floor, the hotel needs to return friend to the state of being happily on holiday. So far they just sorted an emergency bed. It really doesn't take much effort to say to the manager that the friend had a shock and has been put in a worse room. If her toothbrush got plaster on it or whatever then I'd mention that too. So that's the same or better room, plus refund the night or something nice like spa or dinner to take her mind off it. Sorted before the martyrs have set up by the pool to praise themselves for being so terribly stoic.

How would a ceiling falling in be 'user error'? If they were hitting it with a sledge hammer or flooding the room above with water it's still the responsibility of the hotel to check all rooms, and regularly montior floors for noise level, as a minimum standard.

However, I agree giving the guests 2 bottles of wine is an improvement on simply moving rooms.

Im a travel agent, if this happened to my clients I would be absolutely fuming, you would be moved rooms - hopefully into an upgrade, and I would expect that night refunding AND the hotel to be falling over themselves to look after you - that means at least a bottle of wine on top of the refunded night.

It might not be the hotels fault but you can be sure if she was injured you could be expecting compensation, thats we have health and safety regulations.

A decent hotel would have been all over this!

How would a ceiling falling in be 'user error'? If they were hitting it with a sledge hammer or flooding the room above with water it's still the responsibility of the hotel to check all rooms, and regularly montior floors for noise level, as a minimum standard.

An unsupervised child blocking a sink with a towel and leaving the tap on. Easily done with quick impact.

No one is sleeping in a room with plaster, the room move had happened and in OPs words is the same standard. A spa dinner to take her mind off it 🤣🤣 ffs someone hasn't died. Take her mind off a hole in the hotels ceiling that has nothing to do with OPs friend? Heard it all now.

Ask him to swap the bed from the other room for the singles, if it isn't wet?

2 bottles of wine is lightweight, I would send the email to the chain - they can't think ceilings dropping on people is acceptable.

Or perhaps she'll put in her email that the roof ceiling caved in on her first room, and she's praying nothing goes wrong with the second room as the manager made it clear the hotel is full?

Implying she will have to live with any further issues whether she likes it or not.

If this was the case then the OP would have noticed a dripping ceiling prior to the ceiling caving in but nice try at normalising ceiling collapses. However, if there was water damange prior to her visit again it falls under the hotels responsibility to remidy the situation.

Sure, if she wants to sound needlessly dramatic to boost her chances of getting additional cashback that would be the way to go.