The Hotel withdrew £120 from our card after we left for body wash and cream already in the room!

FindMyWayBack

shared toiletries......disgusting

vacheron

So it sounds to me like you must have taken a 300ml bottle of soap and cream from each of the two rooms almost every day of your stay.

At £10 per bottle, 2 bottles x 2 rooms x 3 nights = £120.

I know you said you were cleaning, but were you really using 600ml of soap (and "cream"? ) every day just to clean 2 rooms, and apparently with no empty bottles remaining to show for it? 

Anyway, regardless of where they "went" if it was not made clear that you were expected to pay for them, or the cost of taking them, then you were well within your rights to complain. 


It is a good potential moneymaker for the hotel though because we use these "posh" soaps at home.

Our local fancy shop sells one 300ml bottle for £9.99, but we buy ours from hotel supply companies. I pay £17 for a 5 litre bulk refill bottle that will refill 8x300ML bottles and you can buy the empty branded bottles for £1.60, so each bottle costs just £3.64 (or just £2.04 to just refill) and I'm sure the large hotel gets a far better discount than I do!  

[Deleted User]

Grumpy_chap said:

We've just returned from a luxury spa hotel and quite surprised at the way "because of COVID" is used as a catch-all excuse for simply appalling service.  I was also charged a £50 damage deposit, which I've never been charged by any hotel ever before.

It is time now that hotels find a way to risk assess providing a proper service as the situation with regard to COVID is not going to change meaningfully for a very long time, so the service they can't provide now can't ever be provided.  It was noticeable that the hotel we stayed at was able to provide close-contact (but chargeable) services (massage) but could not provide (normally included) housekeeping during stay or provide the complimentary car wash "because of COVID".

The £50 deposit (normally a reservation of funds on the card) is perfectly common, you'll find it at pretty much every hotel in the US as an example, it depends on the hotel. The house keeping is a bit hit and miss in the US as well (I follow a sub on Reddit for front desk staff as it's amusing) e.g. not done or done once during the stay unless you specifically ask

powerful_Rogue

Do terms and conditions have to list everything you can't take and the amount you will be charged?

TV - £200

Fridge - £150

yksi

Continental Breakfast = bread, cereal, cold meats, cheese, yoghurt, juice, fruit etc. Basically things that don't need to be cooked.
"Full English" or Cooked Breakfast = sausage, beans, toast, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns etc.

If you booked a room which included the continental breakfast or simply "includes breakfast" then one would expect that it's going to exclude the hot dinner plate. Looks like you simply misread/misunderstood what was included.

In all my time running B&Bs (over 500 sets of guests) I've never had anyone come close to using up a whole bottle of body wash even on a two-week stay, and you only stayed four days! If you used four whole bottles of body wash and threw out the bottles then I'd consider it either greed or theft, and if we're talking about expensive stuff, then it isn't madness to charge you for its replacement.

You're angry as if you were a mistreated guest but they're seeing you as an entitled money-grabber. Considering you think you deserved the money back, the hotel wouldn't be crazy to think so.

ItsComingRome

So OP got the breakfast they paid for and is also complaining about being charged for the obscene amount of toiletries they used for no reason and they think the costs of everything they help themselves to needs to be given to them in a price list?

And they got refunded by the hotel AND the bank (near enough).

Christ...

[Deleted User]

yksi said:

Continental Breakfast = bread, cereal, cold meats, cheese, yoghurt, juice, fruit etc. Basically things that don't need to be cooked.
"Full English" or Cooked Breakfast = sausage, beans, toast, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns etc.

If you booked a room which included the continental breakfast or simply "includes breakfast" then one would expect that it's going to exclude the hot dinner plate. Looks like you simply misread/misunderstood what was included.

In all my time running B&Bs (over 500 sets of guests) I've never had anyone come close to using up a whole bottle of body wash even on a two-week stay, and you only stayed four days! If you used four whole bottles of body wash and threw out the bottles then I'd consider it either greed or theft, and if we're talking about expensive stuff, then it isn't madness to charge you for its replacement.

You're angry as if you were a mistreated guest but they're seeing you as an entitled money-grabber. Considering you think you deserved the money back, the hotel wouldn't be crazy to think so.

"Includes breakfast" would, rightly, be assumed to be anything on the breakfast menu to most people as it's not saying anywhere there is an exclusion. 
"Includes continental breakfast" or "free breakfast excludes hot foods" would not

TBagpuss

Deleted_User said:

yksi said:

Continental Breakfast = bread, cereal, cold meats, cheese, yoghurt, juice, fruit etc. Basically things that don't need to be cooked.
"Full English" or Cooked Breakfast = sausage, beans, toast, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns etc.

If you booked a room which included the continental breakfast or simply "includes breakfast" then one would expect that it's going to exclude the hot dinner plate. Looks like you simply misread/misunderstood what was included.

In all my time running B&Bs (over 500 sets of guests) I've never had anyone come close to using up a whole bottle of body wash even on a two-week stay, and you only stayed four days! If you used four whole bottles of body wash and threw out the bottles then I'd consider it either greed or theft, and if we're talking about expensive stuff, then it isn't madness to charge you for its replacement.

You're angry as if you were a mistreated guest but they're seeing you as an entitled money-grabber. Considering you think you deserved the money back, the hotel wouldn't be crazy to think so.

"Includes breakfast" would, rightly, be assumed to be anything on the breakfast menu to most people as it's not saying anywhere there is an exclusion. 
"Includes continental breakfast" or "free breakfast excludes hot foods" would not

I think 'includes breakfast' means that you get breakfast - I would never assume that it automatically means everything on the breakfast menu or that it automatically means a cooked breakfast.

In the same way, if you book on a 'dinner, bed and breakfast' basis that 'dinner' will often be a set menu or a limited choice, not the full a la carte option. 

TELLIT01

'Free breakfast' is often a Continental breakfast, not the full English.

Spendless

I originally read the OP's comment that the breakfast didn't come with sausages, eggs, mushrooms or beans as that it did come with items like bacon, tomatoes, hash browns, toast rather than it was a continental. Years ago I stayed in a Blackpol B & B like this and it only had certain breakfast items and not other 'commonplace' ones. One woman I was with didn't like bacon and asked for sausage as a replacement and was told 'they'd do it just once but to not ask again'  I think I'd have realised earlier on that I'd been served a continental breakfast if the offering was croissant/toast/pastries.

Glad you've sorted it now. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, I'd be tempted to pop out and look for the nearest convenience shop and buy a few packs of cleaning wipes instead, rather than use the toiletries.