Thirsty, called into hotel for directions but refused water.
Bill Clinton
Posts: 9,389 Forum Member
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Was driving in North Wales, lost and looking for a campsite where I was visiting friends. Couldn't find it at all along this road, and got to the point where I thought of stopping somewhere and asking for any directions if a local had heard of it. I was also very thirsty, at first a side issue but getting a bit more serious as I hadn't found the place I was looking for as easily as I first thought and nowhere seemed open. So I swung into this hotel, it had a daunting winding uphill drive complete with the sort of speed bumps most local councils would salivate over.
I pulled up, it was a building that looked like a stately home, with mostly very obviously expensive cars parked around it. I called into the reception and it was like something out of a hollywood movie, a nice cosy fireplace and a very lavish decor. When I could find someone, I got put on to someone who turned out to be the hotels manager. I told him about the local campsite I was looking for and he gave me some admittedly rough directions with a couple of snide comments about missing something obvious, and then I asked for some water, which he just abjectly refused to give. Sensing I was hitting a brick wall and wasn't going to get my thirst resolved in a traditional way, I offered to buy something at the bar, no dice, he just wanted me out o his hotel sharpish, I was practically ushered back outside.
Luckily I did find where I needed to be, but only really after a local stopped and asked why I was stopped in the road and gave me some directions that were better again, I was actually resorting to stopping at every last place along the road and checking if it was a campsite or not, visibility was that bad by this time on a saturday night that I could hardly make out anything as I was driving past it.
The plus side, ended up pulling into a campsite with the intention of asking directions there only to see my friends walking towards me, that and the scenery around Tywyn and on the A493 was absolutely spectactular, well it was when I could see it!
I did later have an entertaining time reading some hilariously bad reviews on TripAdvisor of the same hotel before contributing one of my own based on the experience I had just had which I classed as "mans inhumanity to man".
Still annoyed about it, I just rang them tonight at 1.15am demanding an explanation. It was timed deliberately, they really didn't like it but we ended up almost getting on in a weird kind of way, this was after the threats of calling police etc, he, the Basil Fawlty character apparently mistrusted everybody who wasn't an official customer after having previous bad experiences of being "done over". I explained there was no way I could form an instant good impression and sometimes there has to be a little trust of strangers or else it all breaks down, I also tried to drive home the potentially dire consequences of turning down someones request for water if they were potentially diabetic, or were lost in the countryside having turned to somewhere with a light on, as a relatively public place to turn down such a request I thought was very callous and outrageous. His response was that I could have easily gone to a pub in the area, of course even being a fan of maps and the geography of North Wales as I am, I had no real knowledge of that particular area and as far I was concerned didn't know where the hell to go! so if I hadn't found somewhere, I think I could have been in for something a bit more serious to go wrong as a result of not drinking water for hours upon hours, everywhere seemed to be shut, even to find a 24 hour garage is usually a 30-40 mile ordeal as I quite vividly recall from the time I left with less petrol I realised and ended up into the yellow light by the time I could finally get to one of the THREE 24 hour garages in the whole of North West Wales!
I could post a link to the TripAdvisor page, but I will wait to see how the thread goes first. What I can say, is the bad reviews, all point to extreme moneygrabbing and mercenary tendencies which is sadly all too typical of this world.
I pulled up, it was a building that looked like a stately home, with mostly very obviously expensive cars parked around it. I called into the reception and it was like something out of a hollywood movie, a nice cosy fireplace and a very lavish decor. When I could find someone, I got put on to someone who turned out to be the hotels manager. I told him about the local campsite I was looking for and he gave me some admittedly rough directions with a couple of snide comments about missing something obvious, and then I asked for some water, which he just abjectly refused to give. Sensing I was hitting a brick wall and wasn't going to get my thirst resolved in a traditional way, I offered to buy something at the bar, no dice, he just wanted me out o his hotel sharpish, I was practically ushered back outside.
Luckily I did find where I needed to be, but only really after a local stopped and asked why I was stopped in the road and gave me some directions that were better again, I was actually resorting to stopping at every last place along the road and checking if it was a campsite or not, visibility was that bad by this time on a saturday night that I could hardly make out anything as I was driving past it.
The plus side, ended up pulling into a campsite with the intention of asking directions there only to see my friends walking towards me, that and the scenery around Tywyn and on the A493 was absolutely spectactular, well it was when I could see it!
I did later have an entertaining time reading some hilariously bad reviews on TripAdvisor of the same hotel before contributing one of my own based on the experience I had just had which I classed as "mans inhumanity to man".
Still annoyed about it, I just rang them tonight at 1.15am demanding an explanation. It was timed deliberately, they really didn't like it but we ended up almost getting on in a weird kind of way, this was after the threats of calling police etc, he, the Basil Fawlty character apparently mistrusted everybody who wasn't an official customer after having previous bad experiences of being "done over". I explained there was no way I could form an instant good impression and sometimes there has to be a little trust of strangers or else it all breaks down, I also tried to drive home the potentially dire consequences of turning down someones request for water if they were potentially diabetic, or were lost in the countryside having turned to somewhere with a light on, as a relatively public place to turn down such a request I thought was very callous and outrageous. His response was that I could have easily gone to a pub in the area, of course even being a fan of maps and the geography of North Wales as I am, I had no real knowledge of that particular area and as far I was concerned didn't know where the hell to go! so if I hadn't found somewhere, I think I could have been in for something a bit more serious to go wrong as a result of not drinking water for hours upon hours, everywhere seemed to be shut, even to find a 24 hour garage is usually a 30-40 mile ordeal as I quite vividly recall from the time I left with less petrol I realised and ended up into the yellow light by the time I could finally get to one of the THREE 24 hour garages in the whole of North West Wales!
I could post a link to the TripAdvisor page, but I will wait to see how the thread goes first. What I can say, is the bad reviews, all point to extreme moneygrabbing and mercenary tendencies which is sadly all too typical of this world.
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Comments
I can see how it would have been nice for them to have served you on a human level, but you weren't a paying guest, just bothering them with directions. I feel if it was me in their shoes I might have behaved in exactly the same way.
Look at it from their perspective. They are trying to run a business, a prestigious business and can do without people taking up their time who aren't even paying them.
Would you walk into any petrol station, shop, office or even another cheaper hotel like a Premier Inn and ask the front desk for a glass of water?
It's odd behaviour, in my books.
I normally like whatever it is you have to say Hypnodisc, but I don't like that kind of mercenary attitude where the only valid reason you have to exist to someone else is your commercial value to them, not your value as a fellow human being. Most public facing business places, although not required to by law, have a policy of offering free tap water, and of course in my case if you've read my account you'll see I didn't even get the choice of paying for it!
It was indeed a prestigious business, but what I found from reading some of the more disgusted TripAdvisor reviews was that you can get a flipside effect of the "you get what you pay for" concept, in which places that are particularly arrogant, exclusive and rather full of themselves tend to be very mercenary and end up offering extremely poor value dressed up as "luxury".
If you would admit turning away someone's request for water deliberately, I would probably disown you as a friend. I would in fact expect to be able to get some in Premier Inn or even at a petrol station whether buying something or not, I've not really tested it though. But at least at a petrol station they would generally have bottled water, wasn't an option there.
I got some water from Wirral Council offices when we were there at the end of a bedroom tax demo, it wasn't FOR the bedroom tax by the way!
And your point about their precious time, how often can this really happen, if they had a good and welcoming attitude towards you, you might feel like becoming a customer too, positivity is its own reward.
A mean spirited mercenary attitude even if supposedly morally or legally justified (probably not morally let's face it) it's not something that could ever be admired.
The fact you ranted so long in your OP, you know you are wrong and just want oher bellends to agree with you.
hey welcome to the real world
It's one of those things though - such few people would feel they can do this, so on the odd occasion somebody does ask I might easily say 'yes', but on the flip side if I was very busy I could easily say 'no'.
It's nice, but I really wouldn't expect it from anywhere. I think you're kidding yourself if you think this is within the realms of social normality.
Well, I think this is a bit of an exaggeration. They generally don't unless they serve food or drink.
Places that serve alcohol for consumption on the premises must offer free tap water to customers, but that's about it.
Most restaurants and cafes will give free tap water, but outside of that, most businesses don't have the means (no spare/clean/disposable glasses) and may not wish to make themselves liable for anything by serving you.
Don't soft soap it will you:D
So you'd tell someone who went into your bar to "f off" if they requested tap water. I don't think it's the people who would agree with me that could be described as "bellends" in this scenario.
People are only worth the money they spend, I sometimes realise why it is that Robin Williams decided to leave this world, at least I know I'm a nicer person than the posters in this thread already.
I've been perfectly nice to you.
I just feel that going around with such a feeling of entitlement simply isn't correct.
Makes me glad I'm not "socially normal" then, because I would do it if I was ever in the reverse position.
Surely a hotel that serves alcohol would be covered by your example and would have to serve the tap water. I heard from one of the reviews that they charge £7.50 for bottled water, now that is man's inhumanity to man!
I hate the use of "sense of entitlement" as it is, when it applies to benefit bashing, but to apply it to someone who is thirsty and that they have a "sense of entitlement" for wanting water is actually bad for my blood pressure just thinking about it.
Water is a basic human need, people who are thirsty do not have a "sense of entitlement".
If it's gotten to a desperate stage, you've got to demand water.
You do seem to be a quite reasonable person based on many other posts, but you seem to have taken a decidedly right wing stance on this one which is disappointing. Consider that I could have been diabetic, or nearly passing out, and they decided to arbitrarily refuse water because I had a "sense of entitlement" what is more important?
Well, you have to be a customer already IIRC.
If you've been refused access to the bar area and haven't eaten or drunk anything there you couldn't be described as a customer.
If it was as you say then anybody could get into any club on Friday/Saturday night just to get a glass of water, but realistically, you can't. They just refuse you entry.
You weren't dying of thirst or even dehydrated I'd imagine so this route of the argument is lost already.
Thanks for reminding me of at least one reason why I hate clubs!
That's right at first I was trying to freeload their water supply, but I couldn't become a customer in any case.
I wasn't really putting the hotel into quite the same category, people can be such aseholes, made me glad when I found some hippies the next day who were hitchhking. THEY agreed with me on a LOT of things, although maybe they had to!
Anyway you are arguing that a status quo exists where serving water when asked for is not a social norm, I propose that this status quo change to something else, better,
Many DS people argue for something that already exists to be maintained even if it is oppressive and in need of improvement.
I don't see how you can know, just to suit your own point. It was over about 3-4 hours, because I had been looking round a long time and everywhere seemed closed or distant, and I started out thirsty in the first place but just pressed on thinking I would make it fairly easily. I definitely had a dry throat and the beginning of one of those headaches you get from not having enough water. But weirdly when adrenaline kicked in due to being sort of lost, it sort of cleared the thirst.
Yes but I don't respect this "real world", whilst it might be real, it can be changed for the better, and to do that, we don't champion those with mercenary attitudes as being in the moral right and me as the one who dares to challenge them as being the one that somehow has the fault, I exist, with an alternative view to yours, THAT's also the "real world" too and in my world, we give water to those who are thirsty.
I find out things I don't like about the "real world" I live in all the time, but I don't cowtow to them, I want them changed to something better!
For example the disgusting attitude of that bartender who replied before, who said that certain people are not worth his time, surely he can't be that nice in his job. Hopefully he has gotten himself "TripAdvised".
Meh, I see what you're saying but this is the world we live in. We don't live in some sort of utopian-socialist society, we live in world driven by capitalism and economics.
This is what most people seem to want as expressed by their voting decisions, so what more can be said?
If you hadn't drunk anything for 12+ hours you get to claim dehydration, but anything less than that isn't really any sort of emergency unless you are very ill or diabetic.
Your motivation to obtain water was to quench thirst - for comfort.
I think you should remember how little many people around the world have to drink on a daily basis if you want to push this point. You were not being hard done by. There are kids in Africa and even developing countries like Brazil that don't have decent access to clean water. It wasn't going to kill you to wait an hour or whatever.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma
And now you're sort of positioning into the field of being a forum medical expert in order to declare I couldn't possibly have been experiencing dehydration just to win a point against me, I went on a bike ride and got dehydrated after half an hour, and then developed the migrainey headache you often get with that all for having no water with me. I classed that as dehydration, and I classed that last experience at least as near dehydration and I don't really have to care what you think if that's what I want to call it. And let's have no more tangents about unrelated kids in unrelated Africa, I care about those issues but it's got sweet FA to do with this, capiche.
I got one too
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Make_a_mountain_out_of_a_molehill
BIB and i have done on many an occasion.
You (or them) are not a customer so I have no obligation to meet your pathetic demands.
As for rest of your post:
"People are only worth the money they spend"???????????? again the word pathetic comes into play.