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!

And being American they may well have given much bigger tips to secure the extras. I have no proof but it is part of the US culture to give 20% tips.

Not right though unless all the other guests had been advised that they were not getting all amenities they had paid for.

This is infuriating. We had it when we stayed at the Hilton in Southampton for a couple of nights before a cruise. The first night we had dinner in the hotel and all was fine. The following day we were having a drink in the bar in the afternoon when we had got back from Southampton and completely by chance we overheard the restaurant manager telling another couple that the dining room was closed that evening due to a private coach party but guests would be able to dine in the bar area where a full menu would be available. Nothing had been said on arrival the day before, or mentioned in the dining room on the previous evening but we were assured all would be fine.

When we came down for dinner in the evening the bar area was chaos. Unbeknownst to us there was also a wedding in the function room, guests were in the bar and there was a queue a mile long for drinks and to order food. The bar staff were young and run off their feet. they were running out of things, including drinks. It was murder.

We complained and said that had we been told that the restaurant would be closed we could have at least made other arrangements for dinner. The reception staff were disinterested to say the least. The best they could offer was a suggestion to make a complaint on the website which we did but heard nothing more. Needless to say we've never stayed there since.

In that case I think a partial refund is in order. Agree it's unlikely the Hen group's intention was to disturb other guests, but the management should be managing them - asking them to keep it down and placing them in areas where there noise will be less disturbing. The Hen party had obviously booked and arranged things in advance so the management had plenty of time to consider these issues and arrange to accommodate them in a way that wouldn't disturb other guests and instead decided to take the money (off the hen group) and fail to provide its other paying customers with the experience they claim to provide.

Not sure what the legal standing would be (apart from anything else, I expect it would depend on the jurisdiction), but morally I think they owe you compensation.

Agree, it's not the intention that matters. You booked on the assumption that you'd have a full and fair shot at all facilities available. Obviously that doesn't mean any given restaurant might not be full of other guests who got there first, or that there'd be a spare sunbed when you wanted one. But if you were only going to have a chance at say 60% of a particular amenity at certain times, that should've been made clear.

Yes I was thinking the same.
maybe it was a PR trip. Have you searched the hotel in IG or similar to see if they have been tagged in a celebs post?

I definitely think you should complain and request some commercial gesture of nothing else because the hotel may not have really taken the measure of how their favouring a group affected the enjoyment of their other guests. If they want to keep good reviews I expect they will be gracious. I would however write an honest review on various sites so others don't suffer the same. Not "we had a terrible stay because" but "be aware that the hotel accepts group booking of the hen party and wedding type and it could affect you and your stay in the following ways as it did me and my family". To be honest I'm amazed they sell themselves as a quiet retreat and then do parties .. That would be my worst nightmare 🙈

you should ask for a partial refund if you paid for full access to all hotel facilities and for part of your stay you didn't get it.

You would be well within your rights to complain and i would also make sure an accurate review was published on Trip Advisor. Keeping a large group of sunbeds empty, until a group of people getting preferential treatment scrape themselves out of bed is completely unacceptable.

Refund

This is infuriating. We had it when we stayed at the Hilton in Southampton for a couple of nights before a cruise

I had it on a cruise, @NeedWineNow - Cunard's Queen Anne to be precise, where the entire main pool, the deck above it and the attached food outlets were closed most of the afternoon, and not once but twice on a 7 nighter

Ditto several usually busy lounges on various days, all of which wouldn't have been so bad if people had been told, but of course they'd already got the money and faced with the chance of making a bit more "ordinary" guests came a very poor second

It's perhaps relevant that the cruise left from Southampton so was largely filled with Brits. Had it been Americans instead they'd never have got away with it (and for that matter probably wouldn't have tried)

I'd have complained and followed it up. You were booking - and presumably paying a premium for - a fairly exclusive resort and its amenities.

You should have been warned that those amenities would not be available due to a large group party. So you could have changed your booking or gone elsewhere.

I would have complained at the time and a hotel would normally give compensation for a guest being inconvenienced like this.

Nothing big but maybe a free meal in a hotel restaurant or something similar.

Hen parties should not be allowed in salubrious hotels.

I would not be happy with that.

We just stayed in a hotel and one of the nights there was a wedding there so the communal areas were all closed for exclusive use of the wedding party.

We were actually there with a large extended family group from all over and would have liked to be able to sit on the sofas in the big lovely room and hang out.

I really think that if some guests are unable to use all of the facilities then they should be compensated in some way-especially if they are not informed in advance.

Can you say what hotel, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an upmarket hotel so small that 14 people could have rhe type of impact you say, which I’m afraid makes me wonder if uoire exaggerating the impact on other guests.

I had a similar experience at a posh hotel that had a renowned AA starred restaurant in an Elizabethan wing. Amazingly furnished and decorated, beautiful gardens, moat etc. Turned up for dinner and the restaurant was being used for a wedding so we were shunted off to a frankly hideous room in a modern conference extension round the back. Fine for a meeting but awful if you expected the restaurant. We weren’t allowed in the garden or main wing of the hotel at all.

None of this had been even hinted at when we booked (and it was over the phone by my internet averse FIL so they had the opportunity to tell him).

To top it off the food, usually superb, was shit. It was a reduced menu (although still at full price!) and although described the same when it came it was a much simpler version, presumably to enable the B team to cook it. It was also really badly cooked - I recall ordering a fish cake main, which they normally did really well, and was some ready prepared grossly overcooked deep fried cannonball that our local pub would not have served.

I still remember this vividly as it was a real treat place where people saved up to go. So greedy of them. We never went back.

You paid to use facilities which were then not available. Seems reasonable to complain. And leave an honest review on trip advisor.

My first thought is influencers - might have been a paid brand deal so the hotel needed to go above abs beyond to look good in the marketing materials

I would be raging if I booked into a high end hotel, to find it dominated by a loud hen party.

Equally, I would also be raging to encounter one while lying in the gutter, half cut. 😁

There is no more obnoxious company, regardless of location.

As others have said, maybe they were spending serious cash or "connected" with hotel staff somehow.

In any case, its wrong for some guests to get such special treatment - unless perhaps there is a charge / booking mechanism for those sun loungers?

The presence of this kind of hen party ruins every event. Even if they seem tolerable at first, you get anxious as to when they might suddenly "turn" - after a set number of drinks, or triggered by a particular song or game or whatever.

Truly horrible, my sympathies OP. I'm genuinely surprised places still accept "large single sex bookings", especially hen parties it has to be said.

I would definitely complain - you cant lose anything. You might score a voucher, goodwill payment or something! My last complaint got me £150!

That reminds me of a Swim Trek holiday I went on. Something like 14 people who knew each other from their local lido plus 3 of us others. They were cliquey and dominated everything. I don't think it was the company's fault as it sounds like they all booked separately, very inconsiderate by the lido people though (Swim Trek will do private group trips).

This happens because Americans are big tippers to staff! The staff know if they look after them then they will be rewarded well. I frequently travel to a beautiful top of the market ( all inclusive) hotel for work purposes. The staff there fawn all over the Americans while doing as little as possible for every other guest! When I questioned why this was i was quite openly told it was because of the American tipping culture.

I just remove towels that are "reserving" beds
By pools

Yes I noticed staff almost falling over themselves to serve the Hen ladies which I totally understand in view of the US tipping culture*. But when the hotel is not exactly over-run with staff (e.g. there were lengthy waits at the bar as only one person was serving) it was a bit galling to see so many attending to a smaller number of guests.

*A US colleague once visited our London office and forgot his bag in a restaurant after our evening out. I accompanied him back to the restaurant the next morning. When a member of staff found the the bag he was so grateful and offered her a £10 tip as a completely natural reflex. She just stared at him and lauged nervously. My colleague was confused!