Cuppa No Longer Welcome
According to a thread on the uk.rec.youth-hostel newsgroup, the offer of a free cup of tea or coffee on arrival at a hostel is no longer to be made. A memo has gone out to hostel managers stating that “we now, no longer provide free tea and coffee for guests on arrival, other than as part of pre-costed packages”.
Now, this seems a little counter-productive to me. It surely can’t cost a lot of money to provide a cup that cheers on arrival (in fact, if staff are really expected to keep track of and report how many teas/coffees were provided on arrival as opposed to at mealtimes, that probably costs more in staff time than the drinks themselves). In return, YHA presents a friendly, welcoming first impression to its guests. Like that old advert used to say: “you never get a second chance to make a first impression!” Picture the scene:
- Warden
- Welcome to the hostel. You look frozen, would you like a cup of tea or coffee?
- Hosteller
- Yes please, that would be brilliant!
- Warden
- That’ll be 50p then.
- Hosteller
- Oh.
Is the YHA a warm, friendly organisation eager to attract new people into the fold, or is it just another penny-pinching budget hotel chain looking to get people through the door with apparently low prices and then squeeze every last penny from them with optional extras? I fear we’re drifting towards the latter.
Now, this isn’t an issue that I’d go to the barricades about. After all, you can always make your own cuppa in the Members’ Kitchen if you don’t want to pay for one. I do wonder, though, if YHA’s zeal to “increase the food and beverage spend per overnight” has gone a little far this time?
no its not like a hotel chain, it is worse than that. the last hotel i stayed at provided a kettel with tea coffee etc available at anytime i wanted and it was unlimited. this was not a fancy hotel but just a 50 quid a night for a twin room type hotel. it also provided free toiletries in the ensuite bathroom as well.
the yha removing the welcome cuppa is just yet another way of tightening their belts and increasing profit.
Comment by mark wallis — 7 Jan 2008 @ 3:34 pm