VERY strange situation: In-laws attacked in a Premier Inn, poor response

dgerrard

Hi All,

Still in a daze about this one:

My wife's parents came to stay with us a couple weeks back, at a local Premier Inn.

First morning they were there, a woman with clear mental health issues tried to force her way into their room, screaming at them, saying her friends were staying in that room, etc.  They managed to keep her out, but when they went to call for help there was no phone in the room, and neither of their mobiles had any signal.

She was sitting on the floor in the corridor so they tried to get past her, but she leaped up & pulled a knife on them, cutting a hole in my mother-in-laws coat as they ran past.  So lucky that they weren't injured.  

Anyway, they got downstairs and told the desk what was going on, they said they'd need to get the manager, but they couldn't find her for ~15 minutes.  When they did, she told them "we know, she's attacked other guests as well, we've called the police".  They asked how she'd been able to get up to their floor, the manager said that she and her friends were guests of the hotel.  

They got a call later in the day from the police telling them that the woman had been in a mental health crisis & had been sectioned, so they could safely go back to the hotel.  I strongly protested this, as who knows how long the police hold someone in a state like this, plus what if her friends are still there & have similar issues?  But they said they were fine & stayed the remaining 2 nights (so 3 nights in total).

They were also given a £100 parking fine due to their ticket expiring while they were talking to hotel staff & police about the attack.

Having worked in hotels all my life, I assumed at the very least they'd get the room stay comped, the parking ticket quashed, and the slashed coat replaced at a bare minimum.  My mother-in-law's been in touch last night though to say that she wrote to Premier Inn asking about next steps, and they responded to her with a form letter saying something along the lines of "as this is now a police matter there will be no further communication from us".

I'm completely shocked about this and want to give them advice on next steps.  I normally just use the site Resolver for something like this, but they're more about flight delays & dirty sheets, not having your life threatened.  Feels to me like there was a total lack of duty of care, especially having no phone in the room in case of emergencies, and the fact that they knew she was a danger & had attacked guests but did not have proper security in place to handle it while the police arrived.

That said, I've never dealt with a case of an attack like this, so maybe Premier Inn are right and there IS nothing further they can do.

I've told them to ring Citizen's Advice anyway, but:  any thoughts on all this?

[Deleted User]

dgerrard said:

Having worked in hotels all my life, I assumed at the very least they'd get the room stay comped, the parking ticket quashed, and the slashed coat replaced at a bare minimum.  

That's closer to the absolute maximum than the bare minimum. One night's refund may have been appropriate   - have they actually asked for that? Or was the letter just a general enquiry?

You may have a case for the parking if it was controlled by Premier Inn. Again - did they ask? Alternatively, deal with that via the motoring board.

If you want to make a complaint, don't use Resolver. That is only suitable if you don't have details of who to complain to or want to slow the process down. CAB would also be the wrong people. 

dgerrard

The parking is controlled by them, yes.

So what would you say, all communications via Premier Inn?  Normally I just make any complaints on Twitter to get them resolved, but as this is a police matter they (and I'm sure Premier Inn) would rather have this handled privately.

I'll reach out to Premier Inn directly to see what they say, but I'm sure it will need to be via the people it actually happened to.

Abbafan: tell me about it! 😆 I've worked in hospitality for over 20 years and I've never heard of a situation like this, let alone have it happen to my wife's family.

mr_stripey

I was in a Premier Inn the other week and as I came out of the lift there was a full scale brawl going on in reception! But for the most part I've always found them to be quite good at handling things.

Not many hotels have phones in the room and I suppose that could be an issue in an emergency if you have no means of calling for help from a mobile but it is likely to be a miniscule amount of times when it is a problem.

You'd expect given the severity of the situation the Premier Inn would be sympathetic, particularly regarding the parking issue!

TELLIT01

Parking at many Premier Inns is managed by APCOA so it may be necessary for them to be contacted with any appeal against a parking charge.  They need to check the letter to confirm who is responsible.

What doesn't make sense, regarding the parking charge, is that the OP says this incident happened on their first morning so it's unlikely that waiting 15 minutes for the manager would put them over their time.  Parking is generally charged on a 24 hour basis.

onashoestring

It sounds a very frightening experience. However if Premier Inn called the Police as soon as they were notified it is difficult to see what else they reasonably could have done . Staff could not have been expected to put themselves in danger and tackle the woman, the police would have advised them to stay away until they got there.Quite likely  the reason that the manager couldn’t be found initially was that she was on the call to the police or briefing the staff .

The charges for damage to the coat would be against the woman not the hotel. I assume your parents gave witness statements to the police and have a crime reference number . 

Your in-laws were reassured by the police response and “were fine & stayed  the remaining 2 nights”  so a refund for these nights is not due . 

A direct request for the parking charge to be cancelled would be a reasonable request but often the hotel is not responsible for the parking arrangements - as another poster has said the motoring board will help you with this . 

Budget  hotels have minimum staff to respond to such an emergency- fortunately such events are rare .  However costs of these hotels would increase considerably if they increased staff numbers . 

In recent years, most  ( if not all ) budget hotels no longer have phones in the bedrooms . 

jon81uk

Not sure why Premier Inn are liable for damage to the coat. Talk to the police about that. What would have happened if that incident was on the street?
Yes the parking should be resolved.
But can't see why Premier Inn should refund any nights.

p00hsticks

dgerrard said:

The parking is controlled by them, yes.

Personally, I'd double check this to make sure you are challenging the ticketing with the right people - if you look up the particular hotel on the Premier Inn Website it will tell you who manages the parking. As you say they needed a ticket and they got fined pretty promptly I suspect it's not going to Premier Inn themselves (the one that we stay in most frequently offers free onsite parking and you simply enter your registration at reception with the number of days you stay, but even that is managed by a company on behalf of the hotel chain).

It sounds like a horrendous experience for your in-laws, but I personally cant see that Premier Inn are particularly liable. If the room had been advertised as having a phone in it but that wasn't working that would have been a legitimate cause for complaint, as it would have been if the attacker was not a registered guest in the hotel but had simply tailgated their way in to the private areas of the hotel (even then, I think there is a limit on what the hotel can be expected to do - the provision of keycard locks to access those areas would probably be considered adequate security by the majority of people). As others have said, I don't see how you can hold the hotel responsible for the damage to the coat, in the same way that they wouldn't be responsible if another person staying in the hotel backed into your car in the car park.

It's unfortunate that they had to wait 15 minutes until they got to speak to the manager, but from your account it sounds as if she was dealing with similar complaints from other customers and/or speaking to the poilice during that time. 

Lorian

Well I'd be at least logging a claim against the good night guarantee.

Lorian

And actually I'd say the whole stay should be comped. I stay in hotels a lot (ok not PI) and its the least I would expect.

jon81uk

Lorian said:

Well I'd be at least logging a claim against the good night guarantee.

What stopped them from sleeping? It happened in the morning.