AIBU or Do people want servants?!

[NoTime2025]

This morning I was at a hotel that offered a buffet-style breakfast with plenty of options, including gluten-free and vegan choices. A woman asked for oat milk, and the staff kindly offered to bring it to her table, but she still seemed a bit huffy about it not being readily available. She then complained that she had already put yogurt in her bowl and couldn’t understand why granola wasn’t available as a topping. The staff pointed her toward the nuts, seeds, and cereals, but she didn’t seem satisfied. After that, she asked a staff member to wash her apple for her, in a rather patronizing tone. To me, it felt like there was more than enough food available, and she was just trying to make extra work for the staff, who were already working hard. This wasn’t a 5 star hotel and I appreciate she had paid for breakfast but she seemed to want 5 star service for 3 star prices the way she was so demanding.
This seems to be an ongoing thing that I am seeing from people wanting to pay less but expecting more from a service/convenience point of view.

One person isn’t a very large sample size.

No but you do get a few batshit people. They probably have mental health issues. I organised a conference once when I was a junior member of staff ,and I’ll never forget one women amd ger endless demands about her food, her pillows and god knows what else. It’s just a form of attention seeking and ego stroking.

It's a good job I don't work in a service role because if someone asked me to wash them an apple I think I'd laugh in their face.

That was the tipping point for me. I couldn’t believe my ears

Agreed. Id probably tell them I'll do it in a minute when I've finished peeling this grape

Oat milk and granola are pretty standard buffet breakfast items to be fair.

The apple washing was weird though.

I'd assume they were already washed before being put out, so perhaps she saw something you didn't?

My first career was in hospitality. I'd estimate about 5% of customers are cunts. One even threatened me with a gun. Happily, about 15% are lovely and the rest are various shades of okay.

People who go out of their way to make things difficult for service staff are telling the world a lot about themselves, and it's not what they'd like everyone to think.

One of the most entitled thing I've watched was a man snap his fingers at a waitress to get her to pour his wine. The wine bottle was on the table!

Having servants doesn't mean you treat them like shit. My family have servants in my home country. They are treated just like you'd treat your cleaner here. Small talk and niceties, but you're their employer.

Your AIBU should be more like, "AIBU or do customers treat people in the service industry like shit."

I went on a wonderful cruise recently. The ship, crew, food, locations, entertainment etc were all absolutely wonderful. But I had a constant feeling of unease due to the attitude of a surprisingly large number of fellow passengers.

They complained to the crew about absolutely anything, and seemed to expect to be waited on in a way that felt totally unreasonable to me.

I heard complaints that the deck was too windy, too hot, or too humid- as if the crew could control the weather.

Complaints from passengers sitting by windows looking out over the ocean that the sun was too bright.

Complaints that the pools were too hot and too cold.

A group were chatting about their disappointment that bed sheets were not routinely changed daily- despite it being an option on request.

I heard people speaking to their cabin stewards horribly rudely, and wielding their option to complain like a weapon to the crew who were already bending over backwards to help.

It was hideous to watch and I won't be returning.

@hungryduckat no point did I imply having servants meant you treated them like shit. I was trying to express my views that normally in a breakfast buffet setting the staff are not solely working for you like a servant would be. They are doing the very best to run the morning shift without having additional duties of washing peoples apples.