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

p00hsticks

Lorian said:

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.

What do you believe the hotel could have done differently ?

Whilst I appreciate it must have been very frightening for the OP's relatives, if the attacker was staying in the hotel and hadn't exhibited any signs of violence or disturbance at the point of check in, I don't see how the hotel staff could have done much more than what they did at the time - which was to call the police as soon as they had reports of the behaviour. We can't expect hotels to carry out psychiatric evaluations before allowing guests to check in, or for normal hotel staff to try to detain knife wielding attackers,  or to have bouncers patrolling hotel corridors during the day in case of such attacks.

As I said in my previous post, I'm doubtful that the hotel staff themselves would have the authority to unilaterally override the parking fine, but agree that the fine should be challenged. And if they had been sufficiently disturbed by the incident to have wanted to check out rather than stay the remaining nights, then they should have been reimbursed.

But at the end of the day, as I see it, it's one of those very unfortunate incidents that is no-one's fault other than the attacker themselves (and if mentally ill, you can even argue about how much responsibility they themselves take).

Thrugelmir

The world has gone mad for compensation. Over the years I've worked with plenty of people who should have been docked wages for being useless at their jobs. Doubt that that suggestion would go down as well. As a business coughing up. 

Upsidedownandaround

Sounds like the Premier Inn including its staff are as much of a victim of this unfortunate incident as your in laws.

Maybe in an upmarket hotel I would expect more but I wouldn’t expect a budget hotel chain to be forking out money for something which they weren’t responsible for.

TELLIT01

Lorian said:

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.

This happened on their first morning and they stayed another 2 nights.  Although it was a very frightening event it clearly didn't disturn them so much that they didn't want to stay at the hotel any longer.  On that basis I don't see any basis for comping those 2 nights.

Keep_pedalling

dgerrard said:

Hi All,

Still in a daze about this one:

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 

The police don’t hold people who have been sectioned, they will be taken to a secure mental heath facility where they will be detained until they are deemed to no longer be a danger to themselves or others.

As the land owners PI have the power to cancel the overstay charge, but if they wont go to the Motoring board where there is a sub board with great advice on how to fight this. Whatever they do they should not pay it or ignore it.

TBagpuss

I agree that the only part of this which it would deem PI have any (Possible) control over is the parking, and I am a bit confused about how they overstayed due to speaking to the police when it was their first day, unless they were in a short stay / unloading area.

I think they can legitimately ask PI to waive the charge IF it is in fact PI's charge (most of the PI I have stayed at it hasn't been - the parking has been through a third part with provisions for it to be free or discounted if you register your car on arrival, and you tell them on check in how many nights you are staying, so you would only get  a charge if you overstayed on the final morning  so the most they could hope for is for PI to try to get the parking co to waive the charge.

I don't quite understand how or when they got the parking charge and how it related to the woman in the corridor 

Premier Inns don't normally have phones in the rooms and don't advertise them as having phones in, and it's not their fault that your in laws didn't have a signal. 

I can't see that PI were at fault - they had no way of knowing that the other customer would act in this way and they seem to have acted appropriately to resolve the issue. Also, while it was obviously a scary incident your in las didn't have to try to get past her - they could have waited in the room and tried texting or e-mailing you to let you know what was happening and to ask you to contact the hotel / police (I appreciate that it can be hard to think of the options when you are scared, but they were inside a (presumably) locked room so safe (if scared / annoyed) and while it is not standard to have a phone in the room, they do normally have wi-fi. 

If your in laws had asked, the hotel would probably have moved them to a different room, if they were worried about the person or their friends coming back.  

had it been a more expensive hotel then the hotel might have offered more, but in this case, the hotel themselves don't appear to be at fault and your in laws don't appear to have asked, or wanted, to move, either from the room or from the hotel, which are both things the hotel could have dealt with. And premier inn is a budget chain, I don't think you can reasonably expect the same level of service as you might have in a five star place.

My experience with PI is that they are generally pretty good when there is anything that's their fault / responsibility

pulliptears

'Comped'
Another American term for 'something for nothing'.  I keep seeing this more and more often lately.

CarolWHerts

I stayed recently in a PI with my (very) elderly parents and only realised after arrival that they have no phones in the rooms. They can just about manage landlines but mobile phones are beyond them. Because of my mother's physical disabilities we had booked them into a disabled room, which did have emergency alarm cords in both the bedroom and bathroom, so I could at least sleep knowing that they would be able to summon someone (if not me) in an emergency. And I know these work because my Dad (early stage dementia) couldn't resist pressing the strange button to find out what it did, and the swift response of the reception staff was commendable. 

I'm fine with the budget hotel, value management concept but this is just something to be conscious of in future. 

martindow

CarolWHerts said:

I stayed recently in a PI with my (very) elderly parents and only realised after arrival that they have no phones in the rooms. They can just about manage landlines but mobile phones are beyond them. Because of my mother's physical disabilities we had booked them into a disabled room, which did have emergency alarm cords in both the bedroom and bathroom, so I could at least sleep knowing that they would be able to summon someone (if not me) in an emergency. And I know these work because my Dad (early stage dementia) couldn't resist pressing the strange button to find out what it did, and the swift response of the reception staff was commendable. 

I'm fine with the budget hotel, value management concept but this is just something to be conscious of in future. 

Hotels were keen on phones in rooms when they were able to charge incredibly expensive rates from their guests.  Once mobiles became commonplace, phones were just an expense for a hotel and have mostly been removed.

There are very simple mobiles available with large buttons that your parents might be able to cope with.  These might be worth looking at and could be useful for your parents and possibly reduce your worries about them.

CarolWHerts

Thank you @martindow. We have tried, with something very similar to this, but it just caused a lot of anxiety (for all of us!). They are very much at the extreme end of possible users where loss of manual dexterity, severe deafness and inability to remember instructions (especially when you don't use something very often) combine in a sort of perfect storm of resistance!

The mobile sits on their worktop at home where it is treated like some sort of unexploded bomb! Likewise, Alexa was swiftly shown the door! 

Personally, it's made me determined to keep up with the latest tech for as long as I can!