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It is difficult to understand this thread as although one can express sympathy with @Cat how would it work if there weren’t access restrictions for the spa and lots of guests thought they could spend hours there?
As for the alleged mis-selling – the original message posted contains ‘subject to availability’ so any potential guest is immediately on notice that there will be limitations and they would be well advised to ascertain what they were at the time of booking.
I think the main issue is that it’s not made clear enough at the point of booking. This is a particular gripe of mine as well – when I book a hotel, after the price what I want to know most is what time is check in/out and what time breakfast is served (as well as any details about things like spa access). Yet I normally have to scour the entire website or even contact the hotel to find these things out.
Hilton hotels are also a PITA for not putting email addresses in their contact information!
I agree about the nice bits of The Majestic though.
@JDB, I’m sure that someone as well-informed as you is aware that the Department for Business and Trade announced an investigation into drip pricing in early 2024.
It is a problem. Consumer goes to hotels.com, filters for hotels with a certain rating and a pool and sorts by price. But some hotels charge if you stay in the pool for more than an hour; others don’t. What should be a simple search becomes a hard one…which is exactly what the hoteliers want.
The FCA has also weighed into a fight against ‘sludge practises’ that use behavioural biases to encourage consumers to make poor choices.
Glad you got the extra Turkish Bath slots! I’m not at all into spas of any form yet enjoyed my times there so it must be good. Really like the historical feel of the place. Shame the rest of your stay was similarly busy. I’ve only stayed in the Doubletree during non-peak times in recent years so never experienced any issues; the bar and breakfast have always been well used but still with ample space, and favourable on the price/quality ratio. Like all historic buildings, rooms can be almost anything in terms of size and shape but never got a duff one.
I do have a real soft spot for the Majestic, as in its older (and far dumpier) pre renovation form many many years ago I attended some exceptionally memorable student balls there. I’m amazed they kept letting our faculty back in every year to be honest. 🤣
@JDB, I’m sure that someone as well-informed as you is aware that the Department for Business and Trade announced an investigation into drip pricing in early 2024.
It is a problem. Consumer goes to hotels.com, filters for hotels with a certain rating and a pool and sorts by price. But some hotels charge if you stay in the pool for more than an hour; others don’t. What should be a simple search becomes a hard one…which is exactly what the hoteliers want.
The FCA has also weighed into a fight against ‘sludge practises’ that use behavioural biases to encourage consumers to make poor choices.
@jj – the guest in this instance booked on the Hilton website and copied above the details, confirming the fact pool/spa access was ‘subject to availability’. That’s clear notice to make further enquiry if that’s a feature of the facilities you plan to use. There’s nothing hidden. It does seem remarkably unrealistic to expect unlimited/uncontrolled access; that would obviously be chaos and not in the interests of those who do want to visit the spa. It’s another reason for booking with a hotel directly (not even a central hotel website) to make sure all the things that matter to you for your stay are covered.@Cat That is disappointing but I am glad you’ve been able to enjoy yourself.
I have never stayed at a hotel where access to the swimming pool is time limited. I would be very disappointed if that was the case. I shall definitely avoid Hilton in the UK on that basis.
I think when you complain you should say it would be clearer for all future guests that the hotel instead of stating “Access to The Harrogate Spa is included with this bedroom, subject to availability.” the wording should state:”Access to The Harrogate Spa is included with this bedroom, subject to availability, limited to one hour per day”
I wonder how many people would book a room on that basis?
We’ll be returning to Puckrup Hall in a few weeks, which I believe has gone from (pool) free to charging to…free?! Will report back!
I have never stayed at a hotel where access to the swimming pool is time limited. I would be very disappointed if that was the case. I shall definitely avoid Hilton in the UK on that basis.
Interesting approach to a franchised business.
I could perhaps understand avoiding hotels owned and operated by Cairn Group on that basis, but why also boycott those owned Valor Hospitality (for example), who also have hotels branded as Doubletrees?
Will you also avoid Marriott and IHG hotels in the UK? Some of those are owned and operated by Cairn Group!
@Alex G Yes I would avoid all of those hotels and groups if they have this time-limited access to facilities. I am paying good money to stay somewhere. I do not like being told that I cannot use certain facilities for part of the time if they are ostensibly included in the room rate. They would never do it with the hotel room itself. It’s like booking a rate for a room including breakfast which is offered between 6am and 10:30am and then being told that you can only have breakfast between 6am and 7am.
To my mind if the hotel opens up its facilities to non-residents then those are the ones who should have limited access. The hotel residents should take priority and have unlimited access within opening hours of the facility. Especially when they’ve booked a rate where the room includes access to a particular facility.
@AJA – if everyone who booked a room had that same sense of entitlement that solely by virtue of booking that room that would have unlimited access to the pool/spa, where would that end?
No doubt lots of unhappy punters as the facility was full or overcrowded so you would be complaining about that. It’s quite obvious that such facilities have limited capacity and that access will be controlled. To expect to be able to spend hours in the spa to the exclusion of others seems quite bizarre. If such facilities are important to a particular guest, it would seem blindingly obvious to check the conditions prior to or at the time of booking rather than waiting until the last minute.
The hotel in question is also a cheap one so to expect luxury unlimited spa treatment feels very unrealistic.
If I was spending £170 for my partner and I to have a half day at the spa, I would be rather annoyed if I discovered that hotel guests who had paid half that price for a room had unlimited access.
The Spa would not exist if it wasn’t for day guests and local members. It just wouldn’t be viable. Not unless the hotel went upmarket and upped its prices substantially.
Perhaps “Subject to availability” means different things to different people. To me, it means that there is some variation in availability – perhaps due to facilities being out of order, or being taken out of use for routine maintenance. The steam room was out of action yesterday morning, which sometimes happens. Sometimes they need to clean the pool filter (side note: I sincerely hope they do this soon – K and I were peeling hair off our arms, after our swim yesterday morning, and kept feeling hair getting caught in our fingers while taking a stroke. It was really quite disgusting). To me “subject to availability” doesn’t mean it’s always available for the same fixed amount of time, regardless of how busy the hotel and facilities are. That I would describe as “Limited access” or “restricted access”.
Those that are saying that allowing unlimited access would lead to overcrowding – I can’t speak for the Doubletree Harrogate, as this is the first time I’ve stayed there, but I’ve stayed at many, many spa hotels that didn’t charge guests for pool / spa use (mostly pre-pandemic), nor did they limit guest access, and they never felt too crowded, whether that’s big spa hotels like the Syon Park Hilton, Hanbury Manor, Luton Hoo or Pennyhill Park or small hotels like Alexander House or the Langley. The same hotels with the same number of rooms suddenly finding they need to restrict guest usage now feels like a financial decision, rather than a capacity-based one.
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