Hotel Criticized for Charging for Water : : "Fri Feb 6, 9:46 AM ET
LONDON - Shades of Basil Fawlty. A hotelier who wrote to a client explaing why she couldn't have a free glass of tap water was showered with bad publicity Friday, being compared in some British newspapers to John Cleese's ill-tempered hotel keeper.
Sally Burchell, a guest at the Atlantic Hotel in Newquay, southwest England, complained to managing director Anthony Cobley that she was refused a glass of tap water with her 18-pound (US$32) meal.
Staff told her she would have to pay 80 pence (US$1.40) for a small bottle of mineral water or 2 pounds (US$3.60) for 1 liter.
Cobley wrote back: 'I buy water from the South West Water company. I buy the glasses that the water is served in. I buy the ice that goes into the water and I buy the labor to serve the water.
'I provide the luxury surroundings for the water to be drunk in and again pay for the labor and washing materials to wash the glass after you have used it, and you think that I should provide all of this free of charge!
'As regards your comment that you will not be returning to the Atlantic Hotel ever again, leaves me to say that customers who only drink water and complain about paying for it, I can certainly do without.'
'This is like a letter from Basil Fawlty,' The Daily Telegraph quoted Burchell as saying.
'There were a lot of us there and we spent a lot of mone"y on drinks between us. Some people were even staying the night so it seemed a little tight to charge me for water."
Martin Couchman, deputy chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, said Cobley was wrong.
"Looking after customers and making them feel happy is a major part of hospitality. One hopes that as part of customer after-care people who write letters do so in such a way as to make customers feel as happy as possible," he said.
Debbie Smith, head of marketing at the Cornwall Tourist Board, said complaints "ought to be an opportunity to review service and to see what improvements can be made.
"This is certainly not an approach to customer care that I would advocate."
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