Hotel Refund

SusieBlue · 28-01-2020 11:26am #1

Just looking for some opinions.

I was staying at a hotel over the weekend and on the last night of our stay, the fire alarms started going off at around 5am.
We got a huge fright and made our way to reception to evacuate, along with many others, only to be told it was a false alarm and all was ok. We went back to our room and the alarm went off twice more (for 5/6 mins at a time) within the next hour.
We went to evacuate again but met another guest on the stairs who said it was another false alarm.

We were so shook and on edge none of us could go back to sleep and it ruined both our nights sleep and the following day, as we were exhausted.
Nothing was mentioned at checkout the next day, the receptionist didn’t even acknowledge it until we specifically asked what had happened. It turned out a drunk guest had been setting it off for fun.

Now if it was a technical issue or something I would have no issue, I’d consider it to be just one of those things, but I’m really annoyed that the guest was left unsupervised and roaming around the hotel for long enough to be able to set off the alarm 3 times. If drunk guests are that much of an issue they should really have security on hand for instances like these.

I’m tempted to email and complain, but I don’t know if I’m being unreasonable or not. I’m not trying to be a money grabber but it frightened the life out of me and ruined the last day of my holiday, and I’m really annoyed that it even happened.
I’m obviously happy and grateful it was a false alarm but it really was a massive inconvenience.
Would you be annoyed and seeking a refund if this happened to you?

Whocare · 28-01-2020 11:32am

You sound exactly like a money grabber

SusieBlue · 28-01-2020 11:40am

Whocare wrote: »

You sound exactly like a money grabber

Very helpful, thanks for the in depth reply. I was just querying if this was par for the course or something I should expect and tolerate.

Timfy · 28-01-2020 11:42am

I would not be looking in any way, shape or form for a refund... however, I would have been scouting round the breakfast tables the next day looking for the bollix responsible.

EachSmallChime · 28-01-2020 11:44am

I'm not sure what you expect from the hotel? A security guard on every fire alarm?

Johnny Sausage · 28-01-2020 11:46am

jesus wept,

pure compo culture

SusieBlue · 28-01-2020 11:52am

EachSmallChime wrote: »

I'm not sure what you expect from the hotel? A security guard on every fire alarm?

He was setting off the alarms in the reception and lounge area, where there was plenty of staff around.
After the second time he should have been thrown out imo, that’s why I want to complain.

As I said if it were a technical issue or something like that I wouldn’t have an issue but I’m really annoyed this person wasn’t reprimanded. He woke the whole hotel.

Henry Ford III · 28-01-2020 11:53am

You should have brought this up with the hotel at checkout time OP. They might have offered you a free breakfst or somethong?

It's too late now imho.

JustMe,K · 28-01-2020 12:00pm

I would have expected an apology on check out on behalf of the hotel, but the staff may have managed the drunk guest as best they could in the situation and you may not know what happened after the fire alarms went off.

charlietheminxx · 28-01-2020 12:38pm

I'm sorry, saying this is compo culture is ridiculous. When you've paid a couple of hundred euro to stay somewhere for a relaxing break, you shouldn't be getting dragged out of bed multiple times during the night for false alarms. I absolutely would complain. I wouldn't be expecting a full refund or anything but this was really badly managed by the hotel.

slave1 · 28-01-2020 12:45pm

I'd make a phone call to the manager while it is still fresh and then let it go, life is too short.
At the beginning of the phone call I would be explicit that I was not after and would not accept anything, the phone call is to allow you to vent and move on.

B-D-P-- · 28-01-2020 12:59pm

Ahh now to be fair, I wouldn't go immediately shouting for a refund.
But I can understand OP.
Some people dont get away often, due to one reason or another.

So if you built up all month or season for this break away, really looking forward to it, to have to get out of bed 3 times because the fire alarm going off is sh1te.

I'm not sure, maybe a decent discount on a future stay or dinner would be fair?

golfball37 · 28-01-2020 1:01pm

Put up a review on Trip Advisor mirroring your first post is my advice. If its accurate then you have nothing to feel guilty about.

Mint Sauce · 28-01-2020 1:03pm

A discount, or a free breakfast. Yes.

Refund. No.

Sunny Dayz · 28-01-2020 1:05pm

I wouldn't have thought you would be entitled to a full refund. To be fair the hotel should have said something to you and apologised on check out. But it seems from your post that you didn't bring it up with them either. Normally you are asked on check out was everything ok with your stay. Why didn't you say anything thing then? Now that you are home, I don't think there's anything else you can do other than draw a line under the incident, it's a bit late now going back to them about it.

We had an incident in a hotel a number of years ago where a drunk guest was roaring and shouting and banging a door in the hall of our floor. There was only so much the night staff could do and the Gardaí had to be called. The following morning the manager went around the breakfast room to make sure everyone was ok, I think we were given a little bit of money off our final bill on checkout.

elperello · 28-01-2020 1:12pm

It's called the hospitality industry.
They should have a protocol to deal with guests after incidents like this.
The receptionist should be briefed on how to treat anyone who complains.
As others have said a free meal or a discount voucher should be the default.

Boardnashea · 28-01-2020 1:13pm

I would expect a voucher for a similar stay if this happened to me.

brightspark · 28-01-2020 1:17pm

I once stayed in a hotel where the guests at a wedding were making noise throughout the night. Without hesitation they removed the accomodation charge for the night. I was going to claim on expenses anyway so it made no difference to me.

KildareP · 28-01-2020 1:21pm

It's not really something that is within the hotel's control.

Security = cost = higher price to you (ultimately).

Even then, there's little security can do in the absence of Gardaí if a guest gets unruly.

Follow a drunk person who thinks it's great craic to set a fire alarm off and you'll probably just antagonise them.

If they threw the guest out there and then you'd have a huge social media outcry about a disgraceful hotel ejecting some poor guest out on the street just for having a few drinks, as well as further escalating the situation to hand.

You physically cannot disable a modern fire alarm system to preempt a known idiot wandering around pulling the alarm trigger.

An apology - yes would have been a basic token gesture.

But honestly, would that have been enough to satisfy you?

If a hotel were to automatically refund everyone disrupted as a result of someone acting the maggot then the prices would go up or the hotel wouldn't last long.

Unfortunately some people - like said drunk - are just ignorant, selfish gits.

TuringBot47 · 28-01-2020 1:23pm

Boardnashea wrote: »

I would expect a voucher for a similar stay if this happened to me.

Not sure about a refund...

But I had a terrible stay in a hotel in Dunadry a few years back, with the family.
Black mould on bathroom ceiling, breakfast cold and a guest smoked in their room setting off the fire alarm in the night. No communication, so had to get dressed and run down to reception to see if it was a false alarm or not.

Didn't want a refund, but only spent 1 day out of 2 booked there.
Told the general manager I didn't expect to be charged for the 2nd cancelled night. They did give a voucher for another stay, but I never went back.
Under new management now, could see that coming a mile away.

Really, the hotel should have serious financial penalties for guests who completely disrupt the hotel like that, then use that to compensate the guests.

But you can't blame the hotel too much for drunken guests. Hard to predict who will act like that.

Seth Brundle · 28-01-2020 1:23pm

SusieBlue wrote: »

I’m tempted to email and complain, but I don’t know if I’m being unreasonable or not. I’m not trying to be a money grabber but it frightened the life out of me and ruined the last day of my holiday, and I’m really annoyed that it even happened.
I’m obviously happy and grateful it was a false alarm but it really was a massive inconvenience.
Would you be annoyed and seeking a refund if this happened to you?

Firstly it's Tuiesday so at least two days from when this occurred so you can't be that annoyed about it.
Secondly, it woke you up and you had to go downstairs. So what. How did that ruin the last day of your "holiday"?
Did you manage to get back to sleep?
You were (as you say) inconvenienced. So what? Why do you think that entitles you to compensation?
What are you hoping to be compensated for? For you allowing an inconvenience to become more than that? Isn't that your fault and not the hotles?

eviltimeban · 28-01-2020 1:27pm

Similar thing happened to me years ago. We were staying in a hotel with a young baby. In the hotel that night, across the way in the venue, there was a band playing. While the noise was tolerable, the band had a smoke machine which proceeded to set off all the smoke alarms in the hotel.

This included the alarm in our actual room, that kept going off and waking the baby up. It was dreadful.

We complained at check out and we got some kind of discount, can't remember the details but it wasn't a full refund. I think a discount or free meal / breakfast would've been an appropriate response from the hotel in your case OP.

gmisk · 28-01-2020 1:31pm

I don't see any harm in emailing them to let them know about issue in writing so to speak.
I wouldn't particularly expect anything refund wise if in your situation it was outside of their control really.
I had an experience recently enough in a hotel.
A band from an event shouting at each other while moving and dragging gear out to van at 130am in morning I went down to reception about it at the time. This was a really expensive 5 star place and room literally above this exit.
People from same event back at 8am next morning moving and shouting at each other, so woken again. I am an extremely deep sleeper so it was seriously loud.
It is a crappy place for a room tbh.

I mentioned it at checkout, they were extremely apologetic and polite and asked for my email address.

Day after get a really apologetic email from manager offering a free nights stay.

boombang · 28-01-2020 1:37pm

I hate the compo culture thing, but I think the OP is right to expect a voucher or at least a partial refund.

I think what you are buying in a hotel night is a reasonable expectation of a good night' sleep. If the hotel doesn't have the capacity to address REPEATED disturbances by other guests, then I think they have failed to offer the service that can be reasonably expected.

If I was the hotel manager I would be giving out a voucher. Quite surprised by the responses here TBH

Prominent_Dawg · 28-01-2020 1:37pm

I'm sorry but I would definitely be asking for a refund, you're there for one reason to get a good nights sleep.. especially after them not even acknowledging what had happened, that would annoy me, had they acknowledged it, sincerely apologised or offered a gesture of goodwill that would be a different story!

SusieBlue · 28-01-2020 1:40pm

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Firstly it's Tuiesday so at least two days from when this occurred so you can't be that annoyed about it.
Secondly, it woke you up and you had to go downstairs. So what. How did that ruin the last day of your "holiday"?
Did you manage to get back to sleep?
You were (as you say) inconvenienced. So what? Why do you think that entitles you to compensation?
What are you hoping to be compensated for? For you allowing an inconvenience to become more than that? Isn't that your fault and not the hotles?

Firstly I only got home yesterday evening, and I’ve been mulling over what to do since then.

Secondly the noise was like something from Doomsday, the alarm was deafening and all the windows in the room sprung open as well, it must have been a security precaution.
It honestly frightened the life out of me, I got such a fright I started crying.
I thought the building was on fire.
We ran down the stairs, frantic, not knowing it was a false alarm, out into the rain and cold.
So not just ‘I heard a noise and went downstairs’.

Then we got the all clear, so we went back to the room.
We were just falling back to sleep when it happened again.
Unsure if it was another false alarm or not, we made our way back downstairs again.
The third time it happened, it was close to 6am and we gave up trying to go back to sleep at that point.

If it was a technical malfunction or something along those lines I wouldn’t have an issue but the fact that this was allowed to happen 3 times is unacceptable.
I paid good money expecting to have a peaceful nights sleep and I didn’t get that. It spoiled the last day of my trip cause I was exhausted.
It wasn’t just an inconvenience, it wasn’t value for money.

If it had been acknowledged by the hotel at check out I wouldn’t be so p*ssed off but they acted as if nothing has happened.

I doubt you’d be so understanding if you were woken to the sound of an emergency 3 times by some joker having a laugh after paying good money to stay somewhere.

Fann Linn · 28-01-2020 1:40pm

It's not unfair for a paying guest to expect a duty of care from an establishment.

Prominent_Dawg · 28-01-2020 1:43pm

Henry Ford III wrote: »

You should have brought this up with the hotel at checkout time OP. They might have offered you a free breakfst or somethong?

It's too late now imho.

Did you even read ops post she clearly brought it up at check out!

kennethsmyth · 28-01-2020 1:48pm

charlietheminxx wrote: »

I'm sorry, saying this is compo culture is ridiculous. When you've paid a couple of hundred euro to stay somewhere for a relaxing break, you shouldn't be getting dragged out of bed multiple times during the night for false alarms. I absolutely would complain. I wouldn't be expecting a full refund or anything but this was really badly managed by the hotel.

Bull, I would expect a refund of the final night and the hotel can go chase the drunk guest for the cost.

Fann Linn · 28-01-2020 1:54pm

kennethsmyth wrote: »

Bull, I would expect a refund of the final night and the hotel can go chase the drunk guest for the cost.

Exactly. I think people are too slow to say it as it is. I've sat in cafs and restaurants listening to people complaining about the meal being cold, the door always open, kids running around etc and yet when the waiter comes over asking 'is everything okay? ' all the little heads nod positively.

If people don't say it as it is how is a service supposed to improve or rectify a problem. A customer can be assertive without being impolite.

Prominent_Dawg · 28-01-2020 1:56pm

slave1 wrote: »

I'd make a phone call to the manager while it is still fresh and then let it go, life is too short.
At the beginning of the phone call I would be explicit that I was not after and would not accept anything, the phone call is to allow you to vent and move on.

Or just make it clear that you want your money back after paying for a service that wasn't provided

Hotel Refund

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