The plan was for a weekend away in Edinburgh. Had it been a dirty weekend there might have
been a problem as the guest house didn’t leave us any towels and the bathroom
was concealed behind a door marked “Manager”.
My husband is working in Edinburgh during the week and
comes home for weekends. It is just for
a couple of months while the Government works out policy and laws for the
crofting community. He is rubbing
shoulders with the “man”.
Rather than him travel home over the weekend we decided
that I would travel down to Edinburgh for the weekend. We planned to visit the zoo and see the
pandas. It seemed to make sense to book
a hotel on the zoo side of the city. I
left my husband scrutinising the offers on laterooms.com. He should have read the reviews of the guest
house he eventually settled for.
We arrived at the door to be greeted not by a friendly
porter or receptionist, but a notice on the door to phone someone. The door was locked. Joe’s mobile was out of battery and mine was
merely out of sorts. I roused a fellow
guest – not a friendly porter or a receptionist. He kindly let me use his phone. The instructions given involved a lot of
numbers and a combination lock to a panel on the side of the door. Once opened, a key was retrieved to unlock
the door and the room number was divulged.
The room was big and spacious. We had a kettle, cups, coffee and tea sachets
and something in little containers that didn’t claim to be milk. There was a TV
high up on the wall but no remote control.
There were buttons along the top of the TV, easily accessible if you
were a nine foot giant, not so easily accessible if you are not quite five
foot.
We planned to freshen up and then head off down the road
to find somewhere to eat. There were no
towels anywhere and apparently no bathroom either. I found a toilet in the basement. I also found a door to a bathroom with a
notice on the door in capital letters with lots of exclamation marks telling me
it was ONLY FOR THE USE OF GUESTS IN ROOM 1!!!!!!! We were in room 9. Another phone-call and we had instructions to
find the bathroom we could use (through a door marked “Manager”) and a promise
of towels in the next half hour.
I cannot complain about the bed(s) – yes, in a Goldilocks
moment I tried them all. The bed(s) were fine but that’s not to say that I
slept well. Deep down in some hidden
part of me I knew that no one was minding the fort – there wasn’t anyone on
night duty. Who’s to say that the guest
in Room 1 with his own personal bathroom wasn’t really a mass murderer? He probably wasn’t but I just felt very
insecure.
We had anticipated waking to the smell of bacon and
sausages. Another sign on another door said “Private” but underneath that it
said “Dining Room”. We assumed breakfast
was in there, but we were wrong.
Meanwhile I was dripping wet hair everywhere after a shower. Was there a hairdryer? No. The list of things the Guest House didn’t
have was added to.
I can take the budget experience. I can rough it if needs be. I am not such a softy that I need luxury all
around me. Budget experiences ought to
come with budget price tags. This one
didn’t. For the price one would have
assumed there were things like towels, TV remotes, night porters, breakfast
etc. We just had the use of a bed and a
bathroom (through a door marked “Manager”).
I am not really one for posting a review but I felt this
place deserved one. When I got home I headed for the laptop. I read the other
reviews. They were all very negative.
The locked door and the phone call were mentioned. Towels were not mentioned so I assume they
had them. Having an en-suite bathroom
appeared to be of no advantage as one or two taps didn’t work and the wall
paper was peeling off. The price was
also described as daylight robbery.
So, I have to ask myself, why didn’t my husband read the
reviews before he booked the place? I am
a review reader. I would not have booked
if I had read the reviews! All that
mattered is seemed was the place was near the zoo. Accommodation in the zoo might have been
better!
Why did previous guests post such damning reviews on the
laterooms.com website? So that people
like me would not make the same mistake they made.
There is something in the Bible about learning from the people
who have gone before us.
“These
things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us,
on whom the culmination of the ages has come. “ 1 Corinthians 10:11
Paul wasn’t writing about a bad hotel experience and a
negative review on a website. He warned
his readers – us – that despite all the miracles surrounding their exodus from
Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the daily provision of manna from heaven and
fresh water from the Rock the people of God, the nation of Israel, ended up
dying in the wilderness. Idolatry, drunkenness,
sexual immorality and snakes did them in. Their hearts were not set on God and
they came to a sticky end.
It’s all written down for us to read – to read and to
learn from – to not head down that same destructive path they travelled.
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