Shame on you! - Premier Inn

Money-Saving-King

catgil wrote: »

I understand that FGS! But in exceptional circumstances such as awful weather people could and maybe should put themselves out and help someone in distress. Life isn't always so black and white.

Such as do what?

Funny thing is people like you never actually say what you expect other people to do. Why? because it's so easy to criticise and moan isn't it!

If PI had someone come in with no rooms and said we don't have any rooms but because the weathers so bad you can sleep on the chair over the there then it would be someone on here saying:

"Premier Inn just pointed at chair when I wanted a room"!

Seriously that would actually happen! (take this thread to be an example of how unreasonable people actually can be)

Again Catgil, criticising is easy. Such as do what?

System

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You've made the classic mistake of applying trying to apply your own experience (I imagine in a different town) to this scenario. Sadly they are not the same.

A hotel is in a far better position to source alternative accommodation than someone in a strange town at 3am. It appears they didn't even try. That is terrible customer service. In exceptional bad conditions then I believe that shows a lack of basic human decency.

It's certainly not the blitz spirit that the press likes to refer to when things like this happen!

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Bantex_2

You appear to have no idea of the power and resources a PI desk clerk has. They do not even have open internet access and at 3 i the morning would not be able to contact higher management. What would you expect them to do?

donnac2558

Okay I have questions???

It was well known this storm was coming and would be very bad(national newspapers on TV), why did you go ahead with said journey and not stay home?

If the train had arrived on time, where were you expecting to stay? Why had you not booked a place in advance? Did you just expect to wander in the PI and they would have rooms available?

vikingaero

Some of us have berated the Premier Inn receptionist as being cold and heartless.

Maybe, just maybe with a full house they had 1001 other things to do? Maybe they were covering from another PI and just don't know the area? Maybe they didn't want to phone B&B owners at 2.30am in the morning? Maybe they got a rollocking from previous calls to B&Bs at an ungodly hour?

martinbuckley

donnac2558 wrote: »

Okay I have questions???

It was well known this storm was coming and would be very bad(national newspapers on TV), why did you go ahead with said journey and not stay home?

If the train had arrived on time, where were you expecting to stay? Why had you not booked a place in advance? Did you just expect to wander in the PI and they would have rooms available?

She doesn't want to answer those type of questions. ;-)

System

Bantex wrote: »

You appear to have no idea of the power and resources a PI desk clerk has. They do not even have open internet access and at 3 i the morning would not be able to contact higher management. What would you expect them to do?

Phone around alternative hotels to see if they have room for the OP. You don't need approval from higher management to be a decent human being.....

bluebeary

this is something she could have done on the train goater

devongina

Thank you to all posters (whatever your opinion) for your interest in this thread.

I got home yesterday, and after a good night’s sleep in my own bed, the awfulness of Friday night has faded slightly.

When I left Premier Inn I was in an obvious state of distress. I told myself to ‘get a grip’, think logically and take positive action, which I did. I am very grateful to the B&B that took me in in the early hours of the morning and I will promote them appropriately, but not necessarily through this forum.

They say that you learn from experience. I can’t claim to know what it’s like to be homeless. My predicament was very temporary and I had the ways and means to get myself out of it. I did, however, have a brief glimpse into just how wretched it is to be wandering around alone in an empty town, in the middle of the night, feeling tired, cold, hungry, thirsty, etc, to be at the mercy of the weather and to not really know where you are going.

This experience has taught me that I need to be more considerate in my own behaviour towards homeless people. From now on, when a homeless person sat on the street asks me to spare some change, instead of ignoring them and walking past, I’m going to make a point of stopping and talking to them. [This doesn’t happen to me very often because I live in a rural area and don’t spend much time in towns or cities] I might give them some change (this is something that I sometimes do already, but not always) or I might offer to buy them something to eat or drink. Having been on the receiving end of an uncaring attitude when in need, I can see just what a difference a small act of kindness, or the lack of a small act of kindness, can make.

To sum up, I had a bad experience, I vented about it, I thought about it and I learnt from it. Time to move on.

PS, Having vented, I would now like to praise the railway staff for going above and beyond in trying to keep their passengers moving. In particular, the driver of the South Western train from Southampton to Weymouth. He worked for hours after his shift must have ended. He had the responsibility for the lives of all the people on board the train and drove with great care through atrocious conditions. On the three times that we came across a fallen tree on the line, it was the driver who leapt out of his cab with a chainsaw to chop up and remove the tree. Truly an unsung hero!

System

bluebeary wrote: »

this is something she could have done on the train goater

Yes she probably should have done but that's irrelevant to the situation at hand.

This situation was at 3am in terrible weather conditions the staff at the premier inn made no attempt to help the OP out of her difficult situation. They didn't have to do anything but a decent human being would try and do something to help her out.