I arrived at a beautiful castle-converted-to-Hotel in England a few years ago with a very messy, noisy head cold. They had a lovely restaurant on the premises, but I was not in the mood to eat among strangers. We were pleasantly surprised when the hotel was willing to honor our request and make an exception to their “we don’t offer room service” policy. They served dinner in our room, bringing with them as many of the fine details of their dining room as could be brought up the stairs. Although the food itself was not particularly memorable, everything else was: the graciousness of the staff, their desire to accommodate me, and their attention to the details of making it feel like a special meal. As a result, this stands out in my mind as one of the best travel experiences I’ve had, and one that I have repeatedly shared with people. If you’re planning a trip to the countryside in West Sussex, I heartily recommend staying at least one night in one of the manor house rooms at Amberley Castle. We stayed in the Chichester room, which does indeed have a very special bathroom.

When you visit the web site, notice the photo of the private dining room that is part of the home page slide show. Turning the chairs toward the camera conveys exactly the sort of welcoming hospitality that I experienced there.

On the other hand, I was recently staying at a hot springs resort in California, and ate a few meals in the only restaurant on the property. Based on a previous experience I knew I wanted fewer potatoes (they typically serve a mountain of them) and an extra piece of toast (their bread is on the small side). Asking for fewer potatoes and extra toast seemed like a fair trade to me, so I was taken aback when the person taking my order hardened his face, raised his voice, and informed me that they could give me fewer potatoes, but that an order of toast is 2 slices and costs $2.50 if I want more than 2 pieces. I’m sure there’s history behind that response that I’m unaware of, but it still seemed unnecessarily unpleasant to me, and my desire to return to the restaurant was diminished by the experience. I do like going to the resort and it is the only restaurant there, so it won’t keep me away entirely. And I’m sure they realize that they have a captive audience.

In the first scenario I had no expectation and so I was pleasantly surprised. In the second scenario I had an expectation that my request was reasonable, so the refusal felt unreasonable to me, and the tone felt unnecessarily harsh. It seems that Amberley Castle has the philosophy that they can afford to be generous, and the hot springs restaurant has the philosophy that they can afford to be rigid.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Service Stories, Great Service, Service Tips, Service Extras. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.