New Years (almost) Fiasco
On the 30th of December Mrs.MM, myself and our close friends Carl and Shell all decided we fancied doing something out of the ordinary for New Years Eve. We phoned round loads of resturants and hotels to find somewhere with something special on.
Eventually we found a hotel in Bromsgrove who had on offer a New Years Eve afternoon tea, dinner and gala evening, a room and breakfast deal. We booked and payed for the tickets at £120 each (EACH!!!) and prepared ourselves for a great, if not cheap, event...
We arrived at the hotel around 3pm, took our stuff to the rooms and went down to afternoon tea. Once that was out the way we got down to some serious drinking to make sure we were ready for the celebrations.
We've stopped at the hotel a few times and dinner is always served between 7:30 and 9:30, so we proceeded down to eat at 9pm. When we got to the function room it was decorated nicely and the party was in full flow. "Table for 4 in the name of Moggy", I said, "Sorry sir, we don't have any bookings under that name, nor do we have much food left, as dinner was served at 7:30".
"Ok", I said, "but we booked and paid in advance for this and when we checked in, we informed the desk that we were here for the gala and they said nothing about the eating time." The chap looked uneasy and kept going through his papers and said, "No, I'm sorry sir but you're not on my list, I'm afraid we have nothing for you". "Hmmm, okay. I understand that my name isn't on your list, but your list is clearly wrong, as we've paid in advance for these seats and the error must be down to reservations. If you were to contact them I'm sure they'll clear this up, the front desk was expecting us when we checked in this afternoon.", I said, feeling a little nervous of the fact that everyone else in the room was finishing their meals and now looking at us.
The chap continued to go through his papers again, and again, and yet again, I was starting to lose my rag now, "look mate, I'm not being funny, but you can stare at that list all night, my name isn't likely to appear suddenly now is it? Could you please contact reservations and clear this up.", I said in my most controlled voice. "Ok", he replied, "you go wait in the bar and I'll go to reservations". I rolled my eyes. 🙄
So we're all in the bar feeling a bit dejected when the chap returns to us with some bad news, "I'm terribly sorry, but it seems there has been a mix up in reservations. They've taken your booking and money, but the dinner is now finishing and we don't have a full set of the proposed 5 course meal. What I can offer you is a 3 course meal alone on the terrace", he looked very uneasy about delivering this news to us.
"May we see the terrace, the menu and discuss what sort of refund you'll be offering for this new plan?", Mrs.MM asked in her most official tone. "Yes of course", he replied, "please follow me.". I love it when Mrs.MM gets all official, she used to work in customer relations and she always knows what she can swing in a situation like that.
We went to see this room, which was really cosy, and we were getting to dine in a private room! The 3 course menu was the same as the other menu without the soup and sorbet in there, which isn't much of a loss if you know anything about food. The chap scuttled away and came back with the following offer of compensation, "We'll credit you for the meal and gala, which means you'll only have to pay for your room and breakfast at £40 each. Plus you can join the gala party as soon as you're finished eating and we'll also give you a complementary bottle of Champagne".
After he went we all burst out laughing, we were getting to eat in a nicer room, have free champagne, still join the gala, have our room and breakfast all for £40 each, quite a drop from £120 each!
Needless to say we took the offer and had a great evening. I'll post some piccy's as soon as I've put them on my comp. 😄