to expect everyone to boycott the Metro hotel Woking

[cheshirekitty]

because it is their management policy not to give rooms to military personnel.

Story is injured soldier from Afghanistan was in UK on sick leave and was visiting another injured soldier. Tried to book a room in this hotel and was turned away because he is in the military.

The **. Please do not book at this hotel and tell your relatives and friends.

[wannaBe]

if he was drunk or stoned the hotel would have mentioned it, why wouldn't they? They've been slated in the press, initially they refused to even comment, and now they've had abusive phone calls/there have been campaigns set up on the internet for mass booking/boycotting of this hotel, it would be in their interests to mention if he was under the influence and they haven't, so I think it can only be assumed that he wasn't.

[hf128219]

How do you know he would have got a room if hasn't military? Do you work at the Metro?

[hippipotami]

The sad thing is, the hotel was reacting based on past events. Just as teens wearing hoodies are banned from shopping centers because some teens wearing hoodies have caused problems.
Just as some cornershops ban children from their premises because some children have pinched stuff.
Just as some Spanish hotels (or anywhere for that matter) ban football supporters because some supporters have instigated fights/thrashed the rooms.

The hotel was trying to protect itself. And this particular soldier was unfortunately punished for his colleagues actions. (and I mean colleagues in the loosest sense as this guy may not have anything to do with those groups of soldiers rampaging through Woking starting fights)

[Ronaldinhio]

He did meekly go off and slept in his car his mum was the one that went spare.

[Ronaldinhio]

What hippopotami said

[hf128219]

Mmmm, typical his mum went spare - and no doubt went to the press. And got her family and friends to make threatening calls to the Hotel - which the police are investigating

[hippipotami]

The thing is, I can understand his mum being upset. Because if my son was treated like that I would be upset to.

But it is a sad inditement (oh gawd, spelling) of our society today that business feel forced to turn away certain members of society due to teh behaviour of their peers.

Sorry, am not phrasing thsi at all well, have stinking flu.

I feel for teh soldier, I really do. But this is the way society is going, and soldiers as a whole ahve had a hand in this. Because if they had never fought or created mayhem in pubs/clubs/hotels in Woking, then this situation would never have arisen.

[VanillaPumpkin]

I am gobsmacked by this policy to be honest. Whenever we (admittedly rarely) stay in a hotel we get a forces / government discount as DH is in the RAF .

[PavlovtheCat]

I for one wont be going there. Not that I would anyway, but they are a chain I beleive, and I wont be using any of their chains, even if the opportunity arises.

If the opportunity does arrive, I will however make a point of telling them that I am not using them because of their awful behaviour towards a person who deserves the best room in the hotel.

[missorinoco]

it is discrimination.

i'm certain some military personnel get drunk and trash the joint, rather like civilians. but they can't blanket ban them. i suspect they could enforce a no tolerance to intoxication and resultant behaviour rule.

lol at plastered wannabe.

[combustiblelemon]

I have no experience with how the military works, but if the hotel had trouble with military people in the past, why didn't they contact the base? Wouldn't the MPs have helped them deal with it?

I have personal experience of being groped by a group of rowdy drunken squaddies on a train as a teenager- in the middle of the day- so I know how they can be. That doesn't excuse a blanket ban on military personnel. To those who've likened it to banning groups of football supporters, does that mean that it would be ok to start booking a man into a room and then refuse to continue because he had a club loyalty card in his wallet?

[mayorquimby]

yanbu to boycott it yourself.
yabu to expect everyone else to.

anyone who has worked in a bar/restaurant in a squaddie area will know exactly why certain businesses would want to enforce a non-military policy.

so unfortunately it is a case of the small minority ruining it for the rest of the group.

hopefully it will get the military to look into controlling the behaviour of their members when on leave, as it is their past conduct which has lead to places enforcing such rules.

no this man didn't deserve this, but unfortunately the conduct of his colleagues has forced certain places into enforcing such rules.

[cheshirekitty]

The thing that surprises me (I am OP) is the animosity expressed by some posters towards military people. Not every dog bites, not every cat scratches. It is discrimination. The hotel only refused him a room when he got out his forces id.

We holidayed in USA a few years ago (hubby just back from Iraq). One of the theme parks gave us all FREE entry because hubby was British Military!! We were gobsmacked.

And what do we do in little old blighty?
Refuse an injured soldier a bed for the night, when he was trying to arrange a funeral for one of his fallen brothers.

WHAT A PATHETIC NATION WE ARE.

[Ronaldinhio]

Sorry but to be honest I haven't really seen any animosity to armed forces in general on this thread.
Just an understanding of the drivers motivating some people and businesses.
Therefore no, not all soldiers will cause trouble, of course not! But this hotel's recent experience was trouble caused by the military and based on that recent experience they decided not to rent rooms to them.
Unfortunately this innocent was caught up in it and that is unfortunate but a realistic outcome.

[mpamcohen]

When I read this story it MADE ME SICK!!!! I don't care if they have apologized, the damage is done. Their behavior is replusive. I will NEVER NEVER stay here and I am sending an email to all my contacts, personal and business. I hope that this hotel suffers financially and the owners are forced out. I also hope they become so broke that they are forced to sleep in a fucking car, better yet the gutter where they belong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[mayorquimby]

"Refuse an injured soldier a bed for the night"

don't see what his injury has to do with anything.
i know that the story reported it as a soldier injured while on duty so it sounds as though he bravely lost a leg in battle.he broke his wrist jumping out of a jeep.yes he's still injured,but i don't see why a broken wrist would give him any sort of priority.

and i'm not having a go at the guy, fair play to him for joining the army if that's what he wants to do.i think that common sense should have dictated that he was obviously not a pissed up squaddie on leave and giving him a room would have caused no harm. but i'd imagine that the receptionist knew it wasn't worth his/her job to hire out a room to military personnell when it was against hotel policy.

and has been said on here countless times already, they business reasoning for having such a policy in place is sadly based in logic.

[beanieb]

I have just realised what tis story is about. While I thik the policy the receptionist thought the hotel had is a bit silly, I am laughing at the fact that the man involved 'had' to sleep in his car. There are other places to stay you know. Personally I don't think it's wrong for a hotel to make their own rules so long as they are not discrimination on the grounds of race or sex/sexuality.

[Oliveoil]

pubs round here ban football shirts on match days (and some ban Stone Island and other 'hooligan' wear) as SOME tossers start fights

iirc around Eid, some car hire firms have an unofficial policy to decline hire to asian men as SOME hire cars and zoom around Rusholme burning rubber like idiots

IF the hotel had had problems in the past, then that is why they banned military

all valid reasons if you are the business concerned but if you were a law abiding football fan / asian / miliary then you would be rightly pissed off at being tarred with the same brush as other idiots

I do feel sorry for the staff at the hotel tbh, they were just obeying the 'rules' and yet will be getting all sorts of abuse today

[Claire236]

My husband is ex RAF & I've been out with him & the lads he worked with on numerous occasions where there was trouble. On every occasion this trouble was started by civvies with a totally illogical (& sometimes frightening) hatred of our forces. Me & a friend were called squaddie shagging sluts when we were out with our husbands once & all because we walked past a couple of complete morons on our way to the loo. To blame the military causing trouble for this poor guy not being allowed to stay in a hotel is ludicrous. The hotel were totally out of order & I get mightily sick of our forces being treated like brainless thugs. Win a gold medal for swimming really fast & you're hailed as a national hero but go to Iraq & Afghanistan & see friends killed & maimed on behalf of their country & you can't even stay in a hotel. What sort of country do we live in?

[mayorquimby]

"Win a gold medal for swimming really fast & you're hailed as a national hero but go to Iraq & Afghanistan & see friends killed & maimed on behalf of their country & you can't even stay in a hotel. What sort of country do we live in?"

(looks around room....decides to light the troll fuse...then runs and hides)

one that likes the olympics but hates illegal wars that kill thousands of innocent civilians based on oil and greed.

[Claire236]

The reasons for being in Iraq & Afghanistan are not the fault of the personnel serving in those countries. I'm not a troll. It genuinely strikes me that our definition of heroism is slightly skewed when winning Olympic medals is declared as heroic. Personally I love the Olympics, hate our military risking their lives for the sake of greed but love our military for their dedication & true heroism.

[theressomethingaboutmarie]

I think that anyone with half a mind would have considered that this one bloke is not a gang of drunken, destructive military vandals. Their behaviour of him is discriminatory and very inconsiderate. He wanted a bed for the night; he had a car (so let's assume he drove there), it's fair to assume therefore that he was neither drunk, nor high. A tired bloke wanting a bed for the night and some idiot on a power trip refuses him on the basis of his career.

Imagine was this bloke has seen, imagine what he has been through. He gets home, prepares for a fallen comrades funeral and gets treated like dirt by someone in home country.

The hotel in question should certainly not be expected to put up with abusive, threatening calls etc. However, as hp128219 suggested, to assume that the callers are his family, serves only to further tarnish the reputation of this bloke who has done nothing wrong!!

[theressomethingaboutmarie]

Umm "their behaviour towards him"...

[cheshirekitty]

To blame service personnel for going to a war you don't believe in is like blaming NHS personnel for the lack of funding in the NHS.

Mind you, I have been verbally abused,smacked etc by the great Britsh public in my job as a nurse because there where limited resources ie, people had to wait for a bed in A&E.