No ifs, it's butter...

Posted by Adam Bell on February 11, 2008 11:26 PM

Working in the hectic world of Malmaison can prepare you for most things, special requests and particular guests are all par for the course. It’s a pleasure to be able to make a guests stay as comfortable as possible and nine times out of ten we are shown gratitude for our efforts but of course there is always one...

As expected, the official opening weekend for the Capital of Culture brought a lot of celebs and dignatories to the hotel, all were a joy to look after I hasten to add. When it came to testing our patience it was a member of the general public who had us on our tip toes.

We knew things would be difficult with this guest from the moment he walked through the doors. Greeted with the usual welcome from our smiley reception team he was on the attack immediately. Guest X was so rude to our staff that other hotel guests complained about the way that he was talking in the lobby.

Numerous special requests were dealt with during his stay and one in particular really stands out. When dining in our brasserie Guest X called the manager over and asked for some real butter as he doesn’t like the margarine which had been put on his table. When the brasserie manager explained that it was in fact unsalted butter that we provide with the fresh baked bread Guest X demanded to see an unopened packet to compare. We obliged and brought the unopened roll of butter to the table and Guest X then decided that the two were different.

Reassuring Guest X simply outraged him further and after causing an uncomfortable atmosphere he demanded that some of the fresh butter be left at his table to come up to room temperature to prove that his suspicions were right. Fifteen minutes later the samples were put to the test and to the embarrassment of Guest X both were found to be fine unsalted butter!

There was no apology at the time and as the table was being cleared after the main course it was noted that both butter dishes were empty! Fast forward another day in our care and we seemed to have mellowed our guest a little, even receiving a compliment on our ‘spectacular cocktails.’ Just when we thought we were winning, Guest X disappeared – walked out to be more accurate! This happens more often than you’d think, it seems that any recollection of leaving credit card details upon checking into the hotel completely disappears.

Of course hotels are unique as we only ask people to pay after they have used our services, imagine saying to the checkout lady at Sainsbury’s that you will only pay once you have consumed everything in your trolley to your full and total satisfaction! This said we always make sure we have your payment details so after Mr X did a runner he was charged fully and we may have even added a slight tip for the waiter.....

• add or read comments (0)

• Post to:
•  del.icio.us
•  Digg
•  Newsvine
•  Nowpublic
•  Reddit