to want a kettle, tea and coffee in a hotel room that costs £280-400/night?

[aloevera]

So, after a particularly difficult time dh & I decided to blow a chunk of our savings on 2 nights away. We went for a luxury hotel - Ickworth House - and it was lovely, but just felt like at every corner you had to pay for extras - no drinks in room, children's meal at breakfast not included (£3), cycle hire £6.50 for 4hrs (which used to be free), etc.

Am I missing something here? Is it assumed you are loaded and therefore don't mind paying £3.10 for a cup of tea in your room? Or have I stayed in too many holiday inn's where they throw it in for free???

It is a National Right. Up there with wearing sandals in May, regardless of the weather.

One of those typical British foibles that amuse and bemuse the foreigners, while endearing the Brits to them.

I am afraid really smart hotels don´t do kettles, it´s a bit "unclassy" and I guess that if you pay 400 for a room, you should go the whole hog and order room service when you want something to eat or drink.

I agree with posters (and OP) who love kettles. I love them. But would not expect a kettle in, say, The Ritz.

I reckon kettles only in rooms up to about 100 pounds.

Well The Gleneagles, which I'd consider to be very 'smart' as it hosted the G8 and is £410 per night, offers tea and coffee facilities in its rooms.

Had a lovely time at a Hotel du Vin a few years ago (in Birmingham seeing as you ask) and it stuck in my mind that it was one of the few places that gave you proper milk in your room,not those vile little capsules of
'We tell you it is just like milk but is it fuck'

'I am afraid really smart hotels don´t do kettles, it´s a bit "unclassy" and I guess that if you pay 400 for a room, you should go the whole hog and order room service when you want something to eat or drink.'

How smart and 'classy' is it to allow oneself to be taken for a mug and ripped off?

You are barking Chandon.

The hotel inspector, Alex-Whatever-mega-rich, royally told off a couple of proprietors who didn't offer kettle and accompaniments for their clients in the rooms.

She was driving a very smart car, too.

re the iron, surely, surely at any hotel ranging from basic to posh you could just call down to reception and ask to borrow an iron?
Or do Ritz-type places expect you to send things out to be ironed and charge the earth for it?

In Cairo there were no kettles in rooms (fire regs) but room service tea was 30p a pot

If I pay £200+ for a room, I call room service when I want a coffee or a glass of champagne or whatever.

Kettles in rooms with nescafé and teabags are for cheaper establishments.

I haven't read the whole thread, but tea and coffee making facilities in hotel rooms are down market. 24hr room service is the way to go. Actually, the best involves your own butler who you ring for and comes to check what madame would like.

butler surely way less efficient than room service though

you ring
butler runs from kithen
'I would like tea please'
he runs back to kitchen
makes tea
butler returns with tea

vs phoning kitchen direct

Also if I'm spoiling myself by going for a luxury holiday I don't want to be making my own tea. I hate tea with that UHT stuff and unless a fridge as well you have no fresh milk.

But Mrs B you might have to press more than one button to get hold of room service, very tiresome. And the butler can run my bath too.

Ah you see, tis because Ickworth is a five star hotel and guests of a five star hotel are not expected to amke their own brew so you pay through the nose for it.

Stick to a nice four star next time and they you'll get a kettle.

You are all plebs, when I go to a hotel I take a maid who sits in the room next to mine and when i want a cup of tea she phones up room service who bring it to her, she then brings it to me and holds the cup to my lips so I can continue typing on MN at the same time. If MrLibras is really pulling out all the stops then he allows me to pay someone to drink the tea for me. This is normal behaviour in hotels which cost more than £1,000 a night, that's why the truly rich are so thin.

I'll stick with cheaper establishments then,and the apparently downmarket Gleneagles, and no doubt a number of other upmarket hotels who offer such facilities if it means I can have a hot, not warm,cup of tea.

I have stayed in five star hotels where waiters hovered at breakfast to pour more tea for you, it unnerved me somewhat...

I'm with Expat on this.

I have stayed at Gleneagles and had no kettle in my room.

It says on the website that they offer tea and coffee in their rooms, perhaps it's recent though when I had a tour of the place about two years ago,far too common to actually stay there. I did notice tea and coffee facilities in the rooms we were shown.

The lovely Marriott Regents Park has tea trays in the rooms. I agree, it's a nice touch, though I wasn't expecting it.

If it is such a British thing, then even the 5* hotels should do it!
I love making myself a cup of tea in a hotel room, and then settling down to enjoy it. Makes it feel much more like home. But then I will never reach the heights of sophistication that posh hotels evidently expect from their customers. Ah well, my company's paying.

I find it irritating to rely on other peopel to do everything for you.I like to do thnigs for myself.
My dh works in a country that is so overpopulated ,everytime you move anywhere there is someone to open your door, stop the traffic for you to cross the road, push your trolley for you in the shop, carry your things to the car and so on and so on.

You end up wanting to scream 'I just want to do it MYSELF dammit!!'

"If I pay £200+ for a room, I call room service when I want a coffee or a glass of champagne or whatever."

Well yes Anna, but I hadn't paid for the room, I won it, but even if I hadn't, I drink ten cups of tea a day, it was around £4 for a cuppa from room service.
$40 a day for tea?
Even if I was rich I'd baulk at that and yes, I'd like to wake up and make a cuppa, not have to call out for it, then put on clothes to answer the door, smile and be polite, and offer a tip to receive it.