Hotel reserved area of beach and facilities for hen party guests

[Eastie77Returns]

Have already returned from our holiday so the" AIBU to complain" ship has sailed but I'm curious if anyone things the hotel was unreasonable.

We (family of 4) were staying in a very nice, upmarket hotel abroad. Staff were lovely. There was a large hen party contingent of about 14 women staying at the same time as well. They were not raucous or rowdy at all but very, very loud which irritated several guests. The hotel was on the smaller, boutique style side and I overheard a few people tutting and complaining. The fact they were American probably did not help.

The hotel had a small private beach which tbh was inadequate relative to the number of guests. On two occassions we arrived quite early to find a dozen sunbeds 'reserved' for the hen party women (there were towels with "<bride name> Bachlorette Party" on the beds). This meant all other guests were shunted to the further end of the beach and there were not enough sun beds for everyone eventually people ended up going back to the hotel pool side which was quite a walk away. When guests complained, staff apologised and said it had all been pre-arranged for the special occasion. What made it worse was the hen contingent did not arrive until about 1pm so the beds were just un-used. Staff would not allow anyone to sit there in the meantime.

One of the restaurants on-site was not available for several hours as the hens had a private meal booked in there. There were only 2 restaurants and 1 serving bar food on-site and the hotel was in a remote area so going out to eat involved a costly taxi journey.

There were a couple of other incidents where the hen party seemed to absorb all the staff's attenion and spaces that other guests could not comfortably mingle in because of the loudness and hen themed games going on. This would not have been eventful in a large hotel but the small size of the venue meant it had an impact. We shared a transfer back to the airport with another couple who are lodging a complaint and requesting a partial refund!

Are you not going to complain and request a partial refund too?

This would have annoyed me - maybe even enough to complain at the time!
I would want to know what arrangement had been made for other guests if they knew that this party was going to take up so much space.

I would also have a look on Tripadvisor and see if it's a common thing to happen or if you were just really unlucky. If it's common, the hotel need to rethink this policy or inform people better. If it's not common, then they need to know not to do it again.
I wonder if the hens paid a lot more for all of this.

The whole ‘sunbed reservation with towels’ thing is a nightmare in most hotels I’ve stayed at.

The last hotel I was in never had any spaces at all, unless you were there at 8am.

I generally agree a boutique hotel with small shared spaces cannot accommodate a single large party without disrupting others.

I've never known any 'very nice, upmarket hotel' to allow hen parties.

I'd certainly be complaining and looking for a partial refund.

It sounds like the issue is the communal areas are not adequate for the number of guests. If 14 guests can dominate a beach it can't be a very big beach? I don't understand why the pool was such a long walk away at such a small hotel?

But yeah, the time to complain and negotiate (eg them covering you cabs to another restaurant) was at the time. There were still 2 other places to eat on site though.

In the scheme of things you’re not being unreasonable. It sounds like arrangements were made between the hen party and the hotel to host this party akin to booking a hotel for a wedding. Not ideal but it happens. Tbh I doubt you’d get anywhere complaining. You might get an apology but I doubt you’d get any kind of refund. You can always leave a honest review on the likes of Tripadvisor.

It is all about the money. Big group, big bill. The hotel will give them first dibs at anything they want.

I would read the small-print of the hotel, and check if it said anywhere that pre-arranged group bookings could affect the availability of facilities. If you find that documented then there's not much you can do. If you can't find it (which I suspect will be the case) then I would formally complain and ask for a refund.

It's highly likely the hen party will have paid extra for the private use of sun loungers and restaurant, so that additional income for the hotel should be passed to the other guests as compensation.

If they don't offer an apology and a partial refund then I'd be leaving a very bad review.

If 14 people are causing this much disruption the hotel has inadequate facilities. I’d complain and I’m not a complainer at all.

I think the sun beds are unreasonable, but the closing of a restaurant for a private party isn’t.

YANBU. Please write a factual but terrible review on TA to warn others.

@Credittocress it's unreasonable if they weren't notified in advance. You can't sell a hotel room on the basis of specific facilities (eg restaurant open every day from 7pm till 11pm), knowing that those facilities won't be available as stated.

Speak to the travel agent and tell them you are not happy and would like a partial refund as you were not allowed to use the hotels full amenities. If they refuse give them a stinking no star review

Presumably they paid the same amount of money to stay in the hotel as you.

I wouldn’t complain or look for a refund. It sounds like they were trying to manage a rowdy group that were getting on others’ nerves. In the end they failed because you can’t please ‘em all.

@FKAT I'm amazed you think it's OK to close a restaurant for a private party because "there were still 2 other places to eat on site". Imagine if you paid for a 3-bed apartment, and when you arrived there were only 2 bedrooms. Would you think it was OK because there were still 2 bedrooms to sleep in? Maybe OP didn't like the food in the other restaurants.

@JMSA that's not what they did. They gave the group extra perks that other residents didn't get (exclusive use of the restaurant and the sun loungers), presumably for a fee. Which the hotel kept, at the expense of the other residents. It's not fair.

Well I guess money talks. That party had a lot of money to further privatise their enjoyment of the facilities. It's just a step further than the general guests enjoying a privatised beach that is obviously not available to local residents because wealthier people don't want to share.

I

But then the OP got less than they did for the same amount?

I’d complain as your experience was impacted due to the size of the hotel. As you say a bigger hotel could have absorbed it.
you didn’t get the full experience so I would complain

Generally, I don't think you're unreasonable to complain if you felt the hotel's facilities, service and ambience didn't live up to the way it billed itself.

Where your complaint may fall down is on whether your expectations were reasonable compared to the way the hotel advertised itself. Did it promote a quiet ambience or did it promote its suitability as a venue for groups to celebrate?

A boutique hotel with two restaurants and a bar, doesn't really sound like a boutique hotel to me. Ditto one that has a huge distance between facilities. Did it bill itself that way or was that the way a travel agent/independent source billed it?

One restaurant not being available for two hours on one evening doesn't necessarily seem that unreasonable to me because a restaurant could just be at capacity for any number of reasons, unless the hotel promises they have enough capacity that no one will ever have to wait for a table in either restaurant that doesn't seem like a lack of facilities (if the non-booked restaurant was unable to cope with demand of the other guests because one restaurant was catering to just 14 guests, that would be different, though).

If they are disturbing other guests and management do nothing at all about it when they bill themselves as having a quiet ambience, that's a problem. But if they bill themselves as being a bit of a party spot/exciting/etc. I wouldn't expect that to go anywhere - presume you wouldn't have been so annoyed by it if you'd booked a hotel that promoted itself like that, though. But, again, was that the hotel or from some other source?

I would definitely complain. You were presumably not warned that in effect your access to the private beach would be severely curtailed, you would not have use of all the restaurants, it would be noisy and the staff would prioritise other guests' celebrations above anything you might want - so in effect you booked the hotel on the basis of a misrepresentation. If they won't give you a refund, leave truthful reviews on Trip Advisor etc.

They had private hired for an event. Perfectly ok.

I can't get past how much this hen party must have spent for this treatment, and from USA to Europe. Celeb perhaps?

not ok if other guests couldn't have what they had expected and had paid for