Upset with UK weekend aways

[JulyDreams]

To feel completely deflated with British weekend aways…

I don’t mean to come across as ungrateful especially considering with what is going on at the moment with all the travel in the airports! This is one reason we booked a weekend away in the UK, just can’t win.

Everywhere and I mean everywhere is now totally understaffed. Prices have gone through the roof. Me and DP ordered a coffee and a tea- £9. X3 different places were working out between £9-£16 for just a tea and coffee. Weather crappy also
Everywhere also adds service charge.

I just wanted a little break while we could and we’ve had the worse time really. We are on our way home tomorrow and back to normality

[Jas5mum]

Where are you at??
Haven are struggling due to their poor management.
My OH has just handed his notice in and now a lot of people he work with have decided to move on too. They don't care about their employees, run them into the ground. Sent the manager up from cornwall to weymouth to train staff up. He gives himself 2.5days off and everyone else gets 1.
I love to get away, anyway over the tamar. Wanted to be in London for the jubiler but didn't get tickets so now gotta wait until August.
Last summer in Cornwall was mental! Everywhere was rammed.
Thats some pricey tea and coffee even starbucks costs less than that! X

[TizerorFizz]

We just use coffee shops. Hotels always charge way more. Nothing new there. Plus the service charge issue. Very American! Just get savvy and go elsewhere. People will be pleased to see you.

[Honaloulou]

I'm on a UK break now and not playing anything like that for tea and coffee. You're not at the Ritz, are you?

[Ukholidaysaregreat]

Wetherspoons do refillable coffee for £1.20 - you can thank me for this tip later. Get to a wetherspoons and enjoy your last day!! 😁

[ElephantsFart]

I just paid £7 for two cokes! People will stop using these services, we are in for one hell of a contraction in the hospitality industry. I asked about the lack of staffing (Devon) and the poor overworked waiter I spoke to said that the main problem is a lack of affordable accommodation in the town for people to live in.

[BarbaraofSeville]

Who on earth is charging those prices? I've never seen anything like that. Weren't they on the menu to see before you ordered?

You're right about the weather though, it's often shit so can't be relied on.

I agree that we're in for a big contraction in hospitality, so maybe that will solve the staffing issues at least?

People are going to think twice about spending their declining disposable income on something that is getting more and more expensive, and sadly many places won't take enough money to make a profit.

[JulyDreams]

@Honaloulou

I'm on a UK break now and not playing anything like that for tea and coffee. You're not at the Ritz, are you?

Not at the ritz... we are in Torquay harbour.

[JulyDreams]

It's the coffee shops also!

[TizerorFizz]

I think affordable accommodation is a red herring. Usually these places are staffed by school 6th formers and Europeans who have gone home! These places need to recruit from schools after the exams! Torquay Harbour is expensive. I’d pay a premium to avoid Weatherspoons and it’s awful owner but I’d look at Costa. Or invest in a flask!

[MrsSkylerWhite]

£16 for a tea and coffee. Where the hell are you going, a five star hotel?

[Rebelmcstreettuff]

Currently on holiday in Bournemouth.
Everything seems so expensive.
Weather has been shite and there are so many homeless people here I'm shocked.
Prostitutes and junkies on every bench near our hotel.
Not the UK getaway I had imagined.

[MackenCheese]

Sounds ghastly!

[JulyDreams]

Had the exact same experience @Rebelmcstreettuff

[TheRoadToRuin]

Just spent a ridiculous amount on a seaside apartment. Booked last year but had to postpone due to covid.
I used a local accommodation company who manage a lot of apartments. In 2021 they were booked solid. Prices have gone up dramatically and I notice they are offering last minute vacancies in school holidays.
People won't holiday in the UK if it's cheaper to go abroad.

[ElephantsFart]

It was a bar in an inland place that charged £7 for two halves of coke, not prime real estate on a sea front or with a spectacular view. I was shocked and wondered if I had just lost touch with what things cost these days. We won’t be returning that’s for sure!

[BarbaraofSeville]

I paid £3 for a Coke in a pub (cheap chain pub in a very ordinary part of Yorkshire, not touristy) years ago, definitely prepandemic, maybe 2019 and found that shocking, but it was one of those places that does a cooked lunch for about £7 so I assumed their business model was to make money on the drinks not the food.

I was annoyed because I could have had half a lager for less but I was working not drinking.

There's another Mumsnetter trying to resell a week in a 2 bed flat in Cornwall in August. For £3k . It is on the seafront in a popular area and has parking, but still. You could get AI abroad for that, but with this place, you've also got the cost of feeding and watering a family for a week in August in the height of the tourist season and I dread to think how much that will cost, if you can get in anywhere that is.

[Franklin12]

I refuse to go on any sort of weekend break in the UK. We did a few last year and the rip off prices, the less than welcome (in Cornwall!), the WEATHER. Its all pretty grim and I honestly have better things to do with my money.

Having said that the abroad option is looking challenging but I would rather try that then pay £££ for a average hotel with no guarantee of the weather.

[Whammyyammy]

This is one of the main reasons I won't ever holiday in the UK, and the crao weather.

Husband and I done the Somerset and Devonshire coast road with a night stop on his motorbike. Each place we stopped were selling a single scoop icee cream cone for £5.95, on the med you pay €1.50 for the sane.
British tourist traps set out to rip you off and for that reason never holiday here and hope these little rip off places go bust

[Whammyyammy]

@Rebelmcstreettuff

Currently on holiday in Bournemouth.
Everything seems so expensive.
Weather has been shite and there are so many homeless people here I'm shocked.
Prostitutes and junkies on every bench near our hotel.
Not the UK getaway I had imagined.

This quote could be used to describe ANY UK seaside destination. So very true

[BottlingBurpsForGrandma]

Bloody hell! Torquay Harbour is obviously very expensive.

In Norfolk ice creams are about £2 for a whippy cone, £2.50 for a Magnum, £2.50ish for a sinģle scoop of something local. Tea £2, a latte type coffee maybe £3?

We love our UK breaks away and can nearly always get out and about in dry (albeit often overcast!) Weather for at least part of every day. But YA definitely NBU to stop them if they feel like a chore!

[OnceuponaRainbow18]

Everywhere’s expensive at the mo, we got 4 ice creams for £15

[AliMonkey]

Currently having a lovely week away on the England/Wales border. Not saying it’s cheap (cottage was £1400 but is top quality and large) but not those sort of prices - had lunch today of four massive filled rolls for £15 and huge local ice creams were £2.70 each. And had sunshine every day and only had a couple of short showers all week. I’d much rather do this than have the misery of air travel!

[grapehyacinthisactuallyblue]

I'm sorry, but from a pov of a person who can't afford weekend away, it's none issue.
Maybe you are lucky you can spend £9 on tea/coffee when people in the world is starving to death. Just embrace your luck.

[balalake]

Sympathy if you were one of the 48%, none if part of the 52% or voted for Mr Johnson.

Understand about the high cost of everything and it not being pleasant.

[Kite22]

Blimey. We were in London recently, and didn't need to pay £9 for a coffee and a tea.
That isn't my experience of being away.