A leading Perthshire hotel has revealed a countdown of the strangest grievances received from its customers.
Bosses at the Crieff Hydro say they take all complaints from guests seriously.
But over the years, some have left them speechless.
A spokeswoman for the award-winning resort said: “Everyone working in customer service knows the customer is always right. But some complaints are a little hard to take seriously.”
TV trouble
“A guest trekked down to reception in the late hours of the night to complaint that he was unable to watch TV.
“The issue at hand was that when lying on his bed flat, he was unable to see the wall-mounted TV. The reason? His feet were in the way. The guy even brought a photo along to prove it.”
Breakfast in bed?
“The phone goes at reception. It’s a guest who’s complaining about the breakfast in bed – but this one has nothing to do with the food.
“He said: “Hi, we’ve just had our breakfast in bed delivered to the room. Is it okay if we eat it on the chair by the desk, and not actually on the bed?”
The receptionist responded: “Erm yes, of course you can. You could even eat it in the bathroom if you’d like to.”
The guest replied: “Right, well that should have been made clear to us.”
She’ll have the chicken to go, please
“A woman complained after being refused a room reservation. Sound a bit harsh? Well, it turns out that on her previous visit she sneaked a chicken into her bedroom, a live one.
“But wait, there’s more. She ordered it room service and allowed it to peck, poop and generally make a mess of the room, causing hundreds of pounds of damage.
“So yeah, in this case the hotel was happy to recommend she take her custom, and her choice of room-mate, elsewhere.”
The resort that stole Christmas
“Crieff Hydro once received a complaint (in March) from a gentleman who was looking for compensation from Christmas time, as he didn’t get his Christmas lunch – not even a pig in a blanket.
“The reason? It seems, he had eaten so much that morning that he had no space left for the most important meal of the year.”
I’m dairy free, I think…
“This one wasn’t so much a complaint as an interesting request. A woman attending one of Crieff Hydro’s functions told a staff member that she was dairy free and therefore could not have the creme brulee that was on the menu.
“Which is totally fine, dietry requirements are always catered to at Crieff Hydro. But the team became slightly suspicious when she proceeded to ask for ice cream.”