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(see also: why are British hotels so rubbish and expensive, page 94)
Saturday, village hotel, Wiltshire. Proprietor slightly odd, rants about the council, but seems nice enough. Showing us to our room, he gives a weirdly detailed explanation of how to use the key to open the door, which we largely ignore.
Coming back to the room later, the lock was a bit of a fiddle but we got in fine.
Next morning we're locked in. Can't open it at all. We call reception and the lady who let us out explains politely that we must not have followed the key instructions correctly. "But we were locked in! That's dangerous!" "Well, we do tell people to turn the key this way then that when they check in..."
Well, if we'd realised we might die in a fire then we'd probably have paid a bit more attention!
I tried the lock again. Sure enough: turn it one way and it opens. Turn it the other and it also opens - but then locks itself closed from the inside.
We checked out and got on our way.
Should I follow it up though? Seems pretty dodgy... :/
should probably at least send them a letter. Don't know if they'd do much about it. But still.
Book the MiL a weekend away on bonfire night?
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Scathing review on TripAdvisor?
So you ignored his advice and want to complain? Not sure that's his fault but the odd key system is, well, odd obviously.
Village hotels, pub B&Bs etc are usually a coin toss in terms of quality. Let it go.
Is that your only complaint?
Serious answer, they have a known fire hazard and for the price of a lock and fitting have done F all about it. Ask to see if it's identified on his fire risk assessment and whether he'd be comfortable with the fire service reviewing it in light of the fault with the door.
Just dangerous IMO, I'd report it to someone, not sure who though. Or just flag it up on trip advisor/booking.com if you booked through them.
Did you not say something at the time?
Village hotels, pub B&Bs etc are usually a coin toss in terms of quality. Let it go.
it's not that I'm affronted by the inconvenience, I'm concerned that someone could die!
Maybe i'm just a worrier, it's obviously pretty unlikely and it was only a first floor room. But but but....
village hotel, Wiltshire
Let me stop you right there...you were in swindon werent you!
(edit) but yes...like you mentioned would you feel ok if there was a fire later on and you'd said nothing. Just because they feel its ok to create a firetrap i dont think the local fire officor would, [i]maybe[/i] thats why the LL has beef with the local council 😐
Depends if it was a simple process that you were too hamfisted to follow 😆 or a genuinely stupid method of getting a rickety old lock to open....
If the latter, I would probably take it further, although don't know how. Perhaps ring them up explaining your concern & see how they react.
They must have fire risk assessments and stuff as part of their requirements....?
It would concern me that I'd feel very guilty if I was to do nothing and then hear a story about a hotel fire where people had died after becoming trapped by a stupid lock mechanism, that the owner reckoned was simple to use....
depends.... was his wife fit?
have you seent he film '1408' ?
http://gb.imdb.com/title/tt0450385/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_61