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!

@Maddy70 not if the other people who'd also paid for the venue weren't told! You wouldn't be happy if you bought a ticket for a show, only to find you weren't allowed in because someone had paid to hire the whole place for their friends.

Were they talking lots of pics/videos? I wonder if there was an influencer or two among them.

I think you have reasonable grounds to complain, even now you're home.

Complain

and make a very factual review to warn others. The hotel is completely at fault for not warning guests that instead of a "smaller, boutique style side", half the facilities will be shut or out of bound when a large group is around.

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
Wrong on so many levels, and every guest should have requested to book a bed every day for the rest of their stay!

I hate it when hotels do this, you book somewhere nice and 1. It’s not cheap but you book for certain things you can experience, one I booked had a really nice rooftop bar, we booked the hotel only to find that on the weekend we were staying Friday and Saturday night the rooftop bar was closed in the evening for a private event…it’s annoying. Tell people beforehand when they are booking. I’m okay with people booking exclusively for private event but the hotel should tell prospective guests or give some form of refund or free dinner etc

I would leave a stinker review.
You booked believing all facilities were available to guests to find this was not the case.
Very poor.
I would warn others booking that it is a hotel that takes large Hen bookings, leaving other guests negatively impacted.

Leave a bad review and complain.

i mean if they'd organised private booking of these specs beforehand then its on the hotel as they offer that service and don't see it as an issue reducing the amount of access for other guests.

the argument from the hotel is that the places where just at capacity and that could be normal occurrence private booking or not.

sometimes you can be in a large hotel with 7+ restaurants and its still impossible to get a booking at the time you want. its just the nature of it being busy

Email them and complain!

They probably are going to spend more on booze and other drinks. They were a large booking so also a large spend in the restaurant.
The hotel probably could have filled their bedrooms up with families/couples but the hen party are likely spend more.

The hotel should make it clear if they are hosting private groups that mean facilities for other guests will be restricted. So its definitely worth flagging up. Whether you'll be able to show sufficient losses to monetise I don't know, as ideally it should have been raised at the time and the hotel given opportunity to put it right. The fact other guests complained isn't helpful to you in your case if you didn't.

I mean it's not the same thing. But whatever.

I hate it when hotels do this. We once had a weekend away in a fancy hotel, what we were not told in advance by the hotel is that they were hosting a wedding that weekend. It was awful. We couldn't use the restaurant because it was booked for the wedding, we were kept up by the loud noisy wedding reception that went on beyond 1am. The worst of it was that the wedding guests obviously made up a large number of the guests so they basically took over the whole hotel and made us feel really unwelcome if we went into the lounge or bar or gardens! We ended up sat in our small room with an M&S picnic listening to their party.
Definitely complain OP, if hotels want to host private events that's fine but the private party books out the whole hotel otherwise they don't get to dictate to the other guests!

And they got to use ALL the facilities and restaurants whilst the OP and other guests had facilities blocked off

I've just come back from a Bachelorette party similar to this in Mexico ( our party are Canadian so probs not us). The hotel does heavy market to this kind of group and the package isn't cheap. We did let loose and we're probably very noisy. I do think North Americans are generally loud on vacation and it can be a bit jaring. I guess all you can do is complain to the hotel and ask for some compensation

No it’s not. The beach is owned by the hotel so it’s like someone with a pool not letting the neighbours swim in it.

or in this case inviting people over for a pool party and only letting some of the guests use the pool

It’s not completely different. If you hooked because the place had 3 choices of eating establishments and once you got there you discovered only 2 we’re available to you then how is it different

I'd have been looking for a partial refund at the time. I would complain now about the experience. Really poor for everyone not in the hen group

I'd have said something at the time, but yes would be complaining now.

There was actually a wedding on our second night! We couldn't use the rooftop bar as a result as that's where the reception was and it was noisy until about 1am. But the bride or groom were lovely. We bumped into them the next day and I couldn't begrudge them their big day. Their guests were no issue, I don't think any of them were staying at the hotel though.

@FKAT it's similar. When booking holidays people look at lots of factors. Maybe OP saw that particular restaurant and booked the holiday as a result. If that restaurant is then not available because the hotel have allowed it to be hired by a private party, then OP's holiday has been mis-sold. Travellers should be told at the time of booking that certain facilities (eg restaurant, sun loungers) may be unavailable due to being used exclusively by private parties.

We too have had a holiday ruined by other guests. In this case it was an extended family of about 16, complete with noisy kids dominating the pool and generally running rampage and even coming onto private patios to look inside other guests’ rooms. But all the facilities were available to all at all times, so the hotel could hardly be blamed. In your case some of the facilities were denied to you, so the holiday was not as advertised, so I think you have grounds for complaint.

You absolutely should both complain and put up a trip advisor review! This is really shoddy - I’d be really upset to spend £££ on a boutique hotel to find this issue.

This.

If it’s a boutique hotel then it should be a case of complete private hire for groups (no other guests) or just regular hotel bookings. They shouldn’t be hosting large groups at all, and definitely not giving them priority/special reservations over other guests.

It's a 5* spa hotel that promotes itself as a serene oasis of calm. There is no mention whatsover on it's website of it's suitability for group events. It mentions wellness retreats, body and spirit sessions etc along with a private beach which turned out to be tiny unfortunately. There is no notification that if groups are in attendance there may be delays in service, some facilities partially available etc but I don't suppose any hotel in their right mind would publish that.

I'm sure they were not intentionally disturbing anyone's peace but when you have a group of 14 congregating in various parts of a small hotel and all talking over each other it get's a bit much.

I would have complained while still there.

Many smaller hotels now manage the sun bed reservation better - I have stayed in 2 where if you are away from a sun bed for more than a certain length of time the staff put your things in a basket and clear the space, They could have spoken with the group and agreed certain hours or whatever.

Closing half the beach was something i would have complained about.

Sometimes restaurants will be closed for private events.

I think 'social group noise' is just unfortunate. One couple with a booming voice can disturb the peace.