Told off by hotel owner for way I disposed of nappies. Was I in the wrong?

[Heidi3333]

Hi there.

This is my very first post so please be gentle!
I'm just looking for opinions as I'm feeling v annoyed about something and I'm not sure if I'm being unreasonable by feeling this way.
I'm on holiday in a UK hotel for a few days with my 2 year old daughter. We are still potty training so still have wet or dirty nappies at times.
Late last night - around midnight - she had a dirty nappy. When she's had wet nappies I put them in nappy bags and then put them in the bin in my room. However, I didn't want to do that with a soiled one as it would stink out the room. I decided to put the nappy (wrapped in a nappy bag) in a bin in a communal toilet 2 floors up from as it was the only one I could find.
I never thought anymore of it but this morning the hotel owner pulled me aside and clearly p!ssed off told me off for leaving the nappy where I'd put it. He said I'd stank that floor out and had left on lots of lights behind me. He said he knew it was me as he played back cctv to find out!! I asked where I should have put it and he said outside my room and someone would have collected it. I was raging but apologised and walked off.

The owner has been unfriendly and cold to me and my daughter since we arrived. He has made no effort to chat to me at all and hasn't spoken to my daughter at all. I got the impression right from the start tjT he didn't like me although he seems nice with the other guests.

I rarely leave negative feedback for hotel ratings but seriously contemplating doing just that when I leave tomorrow.

Am I being unreasonable?

I'm with you OP. Not sure why you got such a hard time here (oh wait I forgot, it's MN!). And how funny that the manager suggested you put it outside your room!

Surely if he wants you to dispose of them properly he should provide a nappy/sanitary bin for guests to use. How are you supposed to know that outside his door is where you are supposed to put it! What you did isn't ideal but he sounds odd!

I sympathise with you about the nappy and the cctv. I guess the best rhing would have been to ask how they wanted you to dispose of it and to at least double bag it.

I don't get the issue about the hotel.owner making no effort to get to know you though. Was it a small family run hotel or something? I've stayed in hundreds of hotels all over the world and would be shocked if the owner was particularly friendly. I definitely expect it to be a business relationship.

The CCTV thing makes me think he needs to get a life so to be fair getting to know guests would be a healthier hobby

I think what you did was fine and I wouldn't appreciate being reprimanded by the manager of a hotel I was staying in, either.

I travel a lot and while I am always polite to hotel staff, I don't expect them to chat to me any longer than is needed to preform their duties. I don't see that as cold and unfriendly, but professional and efficient. I would never presume to be the only guest in a hotel and I know they need to divide their attention between me and all other guests staying there.

Why did you not take the nappy to a bin outside the hotel, if you didn't want to keep it in your room? I do feel YABU. How would you feel if you entered a communal toilet and it reeked of a shitty diaper someone else had disposed off. Pretty damn selfish if you ask me.

Also I have never removed poo from a nappy to flush it down the toilet I had no idea people did this with disposable nappies!

Give it up op, put an unfair review on and he’ll probably reply with nappygate

Your child isn’t of interest to most random people, he provides a hotel room, you sleep in it, you’re not making friends for life here

I think yabvu. No doubt he had received a number of complaints from guests and to prevent a further occurrence he told you what he expected you to do. If it happens again , please follow his instructions, then you cannot be blamed for any complaints. Personally, I wouldn't have wanted him to interact with my child but that is just my viewpoint. If he was friendly and pleasant towards me ,then it would follow on ,that he would acknowledge my child. From what I understand that didn't happen ,so I would be pleased that he wasn't interested .

Nappies don't always go in sani bins, so please don't put them in there, if you need to ask a member of staff if you can find one, where to put it, they'd rather be asked than find one in a random place. Often sani and medi waste bins are handled by a seperate company that changes the units/bags. I think it's illegal to mix this kind of waste, with normal rubbish, so it can put the cleaner in a conundrum. And can lead to fly infestations (literally flies round shite, especually if the nappy unrolls in the bin which isn't changed daily like the main bin).

So they were communal toilets, ones that customers will use, incl to change their baby/toddler.
Why is it that there was no nappy bin in there?
Was he also expecting people to take their dirty nappy with them?

As for leaving the bag outside the door. I mean if it was so smelly, he was advising you to stink the whole corridor? And annoy the other people too? That’s the most unhygienic idea he could have got tbh.

No his issue is that he thought you should have kept them dirty nappy in your room. But knew he was on shaking ground there. There is no problem with leaving a dirty nappy in a communal toilet. That’s what they are for.

Wicked a communal customer toilet is NOT a random place!

I think it’s awful not to try to flush some solids at least from a nappy down the loo.

Not directed at OP, btw.

Why didn't you turn the lights back off? It sounds like an independent or less formal chain; they don't keep all the lights on like they do in the Hilton or something. You turned then on.... So why didn't you turn them off again?

You're coming across as quite selfish, so maybe get off your high horse about the owners attitude.

You sound like you haven't stayed in a hotel before. I'd be mightily surprised if a hotel owner/receptionist started talking to my toddler. Definitely not their job and wasting their time. Pleasant to me, yes, more than that, no. You sound like someone who thinks they are a special snowflake.

I didn't deliberately leave the lights on!! Jeez. Why would I do that? Anyway - it's hardly a huge crime.

You don't believe a lump of poo would stink out a whole floor, but you weren't willing to have it in your bathroom overnight? In fact, you walked up two flights of stairs to ditch it.

And you think he's being dramatic?

I don't understand how people cannot think of the next step regarding their rubbish. Yes, that is a bin, but it is really the right place to put it? No. No it was not. It was the lazy/easy option. And deep down, you know that.

Unless it's a EBF Nappy, human poo smells, regardless of the age of the human. It absolutely stinks. One or two Nappy bags (Single use plastic!!!) will not prevent that. As an experiment, why not leave a dirty Nappy out overnight, then the next morning, go for a walk. You will see how smelly it is when you come back in.

I work with young families and we have a strict 'take your used nappies home' rule. Dirty nappies are put outside the window (to prevent stinking up the rooms) and collected by the parents on the way out. Without this rule in place, with a large amount of people passing through, it can get smelly so incredibly quickly. Even from babies and toddlers. Because it's poo. And poo smells. A lot.

@Heidi3333

You turned them all on and then didn't turn them off again. Thanks deliberate. And really inconsiderate, and adds extra cost onto the running of the hotel. And your reaction that it doesn't even matter... well, confirming the selfish attitude you have.

I would not like to be wandering around a hotel at midnight with a two year old - far easier to ring reception surely.

I think he way over reacted and the many child hating Mumsnet posters are giving you an unreasonably hard time too. I think a toilet bin that most people won't even use is a perfectly reasonable place to leave a nappy. If there isn't a nappy bin in it that's on them. I don't think it's acceptable to expect families to leave shitty nappies in their room overnight, the hotel should provide an adequate place to leave them in the bathroom if they allow children to stay.

(Obv that experiment was for home, not in the hotel. Otherwise you risk another confrontation).

OP, I think you are being entitled and more ridiculous. I am sorry that you feel his conduct wasn't good towards you and his manner was less than welcoming but YABU, you have been told this by the majority of posters.

I think it's time to be more considerate of those around you, and to let it go.

I walked 2 floors up because i could not find a loo closer!! Not because I was desperate to put distance between me and the nappy.

It's called hospitality! Of course the staff should be friendly and welcoming.

I would be worried about leaving a sleeping child alone in a hotel room even for five minutes though.

Good point that he really should have a changing space with nappy disposal somewhere in his hotel.