Friday, October 31, 2008
No room at the Inn.
On Friday 12th December it is Gail's birthday. Each year she chooses where to have her birthday celebration meal. She invites friends and family to join her. Generally she chooses a Christmas Festival meal deal and this year she is going for the same type of thing. There are a lot of places around Cardiff for her to choose from and she had decided to go to the Castell Mynach Llantrisant Road, Groesfaen, Pontyclun. This is a country pub which trades under the branding of Vintage Inns which is part of the mighty Mitchells & Butlers which run around 2,000 pubs in the UK.
The offer is for a 3 course Festive Season meal deal at £15.95 a person. You have to book your table, choose your meal from the menu and pay a £5 deposit per person in advance. This booking cannot be done over the telephone, you have to book and pay in person over the bar. We went to the Castell Mynach this afternoon to book for a party of 15 adults.
Much to our surprise they said no, they will not accept bookings for a party of 15 on either a Friday or Saturday night. This was not because they were fully booked but because the manager, Ian Stadden, decided he did not want the business. We were shocked, you hear so much about pubs closing because of challenging trading conditions and here is a pub, with no houses nearby, turning down a booking with a value of over £300. What is up with these people? You cannot afford to turn away business but we shall not darken their door again because of their attitude.
On Friday 12th December it is Gail's birthday. Each year she chooses where to have her birthday celebration meal. She invites friends and family to join her. Generally she chooses a Christmas Festival meal deal and this year she is going for the same type of thing. There are a lot of places around Cardiff for her to choose from and she had decided to go to the Castell Mynach Llantrisant Road, Groesfaen, Pontyclun. This is a country pub which trades under the branding of Vintage Inns which is part of the mighty Mitchells & Butlers which run around 2,000 pubs in the UK.
The offer is for a 3 course Festive Season meal deal at £15.95 a person. You have to book your table, choose your meal from the menu and pay a £5 deposit per person in advance. This booking cannot be done over the telephone, you have to book and pay in person over the bar. We went to the Castell Mynach this afternoon to book for a party of 15 adults.
Much to our surprise they said no, they will not accept bookings for a party of 15 on either a Friday or Saturday night. This was not because they were fully booked but because the manager, Ian Stadden, decided he did not want the business. We were shocked, you hear so much about pubs closing because of challenging trading conditions and here is a pub, with no houses nearby, turning down a booking with a value of over £300. What is up with these people? You cannot afford to turn away business but we shall not darken their door again because of their attitude.
Comments:
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I expect that the senoir management at Mitchells & Butlers would be very interested to know about Mr Ian Stadden's unique approach to business and customer service.
I also suspect that Mr Stadden would fully understand the meaning of "recession" and "dole queue" if they did and that you would recieve a letter of apology with maybe some discount on a future purchase.
John
I also suspect that Mr Stadden would fully understand the meaning of "recession" and "dole queue" if they did and that you would recieve a letter of apology with maybe some discount on a future purchase.
John
# posted by 
: 2 November 2008 at 19:14
: 2 November 2008 at 19:14
Gail was furious at his attitude and has sent off an email to Mitchells & Butlers to complain. If she receives a reply from them, I shall update the post. I doubt that she will get a reply but what really annoys big businesses is when bloggers write about their business and anyone can find their thoughts/posts by using a search engine!
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