The grumpy thread

[Westbay]

Condolances ...

[New POD]

On 16/02/2020 at 11:35, Tetleysmooth said:

Understood, but my grump is why should it take so long to get a form in the post?

Did you get it yet ? 

[Zelandeth]

Bloody profiteering hotels...

Kind of as expected I didn't make it through the lottery for residential places at a convention I'll be going to in May.  This isn't really a surprise as there are only a handful of single rooms and they're oversubscribed in terms of room demand overall by four or five times. 

Stayed at the Novotel at Birmingham Airport last year, was £582 for Thursday through Tuesday including breakfast.  I like that hotel so it would have been my first choice this year - except for them having hiked the price to nearly £900.  How about no.  The nearest hotel to the event is the Moxy, though that's always bloody expensive.  Yeah, they're after £1205 plus breakfast...I don't think so.  That's £20 short of double they're asking for the same room 7 days before. 

Fine, I'll go and bash my head against the various hotel comparison sites this evening when I've got enough time and am sitting at a proper computer. 

Surge pricing really has to be one of the most annoying concepts in existence.  If I ran a hotel the price on the door per room per night would be the price per room, per night irrespective of if we had one booking or 100 bookings. 

Yes, it would be per bloody room not per person per room as well.  That hacks me off royally as well, the cost difference to them to service the room is virtually nothing irrespective of whether I'm on my own or with my husband, so why should I need to pay damned near double the cost at a lot of hotels for the same bloody room if we're both there?!?  Oh, yeah...because they can get away with it and it makes them more money.  Right, of course.  Vast majority of the times I'm in a hotel these days it's because I've gone off gallivanting on my own anyway so it's not a huge issue, but I still run into it often enough that it hacks me off sufficiently that it sticks in my memory.

[sheffcortinacentre]

& all hotels look the same once your asleep.

[richardmorris]

22 hours ago, outlaw118 said:

After months of shouting at my PC and being denied access both at home, and at my previous employer, I've got on.

But, whilst I have a few bits to update, I'm sorry to say a long time member (more recently lurker) and my oldest mate @Autoplas passed away last Monday, after battling cancer. He was given 3 months about 4 years ago, and he fought, but it got him in the end.  He was 54, and we'd been mates since we were at school at 11. 

Still can't believe it. RIP Sean.

That’s awful news, I’m sorry for your loss. I’m in contact with a couple of friends from primary school still - like you this was early 1970s - it seems no time at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Saabnut]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Bloody profiteering hotels...

When we do the NEC we stay in the IBIS Coventry Centre and get the train to the NEC for less than a fiver return

[outlaw118]

21 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Autoplas...aftermarket plastic car parts, wipers, rear screen louvres etc - any connection?

Thanks
Yeah, he worked in Halfrauds while we were at sixth form, and was regularly told to shift more tacky stick on shite from aforementioned company!

[lesapandre]

"£1205 plus breakfast..."

Time to buy a camper van cheap in the dead of winter?

or AirBnB?

Or just bunk up with one of your colleagues without the hotel knowing?

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Saabnut said:

When we do the NEC we stay in the IBIS Coventry Centre and get the train to the NEC for less than a fiver return

Sadly given that events on the Friday/Saturday quite often don't finish until 1-2am, I don't think messing about with the train sounds like fun.  We seem to have attracted a small but persistent bunch of youths who have been harassing folks walking between hotels during the event, so taxis site to site tend to be the order of the day.  I mostly used Uber last year shuttling between the Novotel and Hilton (where we're actually based) and it was usually £5-10 and there in less than five minutes.

Kind of why I liked the Novotel.  Being an airport hotel means that basically everything is available 24/7 - which when you've dragged yourself in through the door barely still awake at 2am, having never had time to get a proper dinner is an absolute godsend, being able to with absolutely no nonsense have decent food available either in the bar or at your room in minutes.  Food there also while pricey, is actually really decent.  24/7 services, comfy bed, AC which lets me chill the room to a couple of degrees above absolute zero and never being more than 5 minutes away from a taxi is really a handy combination.  During the day it's a ~15 minute walk too, taxis only come into play later on after dark.

Plus having stayed there several times for work, it's familiar, and for someone with an anxiety disorder and sleep problems that's worth a lot.  It's not worth £800 though!

Holiday Inn Express over on the north side of the NEC complex is looking like the front runner at the moment at £415.  Has parking, has AC, is only a few minutes walk away from the Hilton and is far more reasonably priced.

1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

"£1205 plus breakfast..."

Time to buy a camper van cheap in the dead of winter?

or AirBnB?

Or just bunk up with one of your colleagues without the hotel knowing?

 

This is something the event are very strict on, and if found out to be harbouring non-paying guests overnight, you and whoever's staying with you will be banned for life on the spot.  Not least because pissing off the venue is very high on the list of Things We Don't Want To Do (TM).  Yes some folks are always going to do it, but that's never going to be me.

Plus doing something breaking rules like that would probably make my stupid autistic brain explode.

Camping in the hotel car park wouldn't go down well I reckon!

I did have to answer some questions and demonstrate to the hotel that when I'd taken my camper to a different convention back in 2019 (as it was by far the easiest option for carrying four peoples luggage plus the equipment to run two events in one vehicle) that there wasn't anyone staying in it...and that was at our old hotel who were pretty easy going.  Okay, that's actually an understatement - we had a fantastic relationship with the Livingston Mercure, and we really miss them.  However we'd massively outgrown the hotel so had no real choice but to move - and have now outgrown the Glasgow Crowne Plaza!  Which is a problem as there's really nowhere bigger to move to.

 

Could be worse though.  There's a similar convention going on over in the US in the not too distant future where one of the overflow hotels there have jacked the price for accommodation during the event to around $2500.  Price for the same room for the same amount of time a week either side of MFF?  About $130.  There's no way they can possibly justify that, other than because they know they can get away with it.

I'll get this sorted out, just seeing blatant profiteering like this irks me and makes me grumpy.  As does how stressful I find sorting stuff like this out these days.  I know I'll enjoy it once I'm there, but actually planning things out stresses me the hell out.

My target for next year though is to make it there under my own power rather than breaking down at the side of the road ten miles out and then proceeding to manage to make it take 10 hours to get from Milton Keynes to Birmingham by train after I was recovered home.

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, outlaw118 said:

Thanks
Yeah, he worked in Halfrauds while we were at sixth form, and was regularly told to shift more tacky stick on shite from aforementioned company!

I remember their products from my days at Longlife. 

[EyesWeldedShut]

8 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

...

If you are really, really, really stuck* there's a Days Inn at Corley Services (south side of the M6) which usually has free rooms when all else is booked - bit of a trek (15 miles-ish) from the NEC after a hard day though.

*I say really stuck as the food is in the Services - but it's a bed with a hot shower and tends to have space when others don't

 

[horriblemercedes]

8 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

, AC which lets me chill the room to a couple of degrees above absolute zero .

That is strong air con and you must be tougher than me

-271 degrees C is impressive! 

[Cavcraft]

Dave_Lee_Cartland isn't well at all, we think he might have had a couple of mini strokes. He's been to the vets and had blood tests, neither of which really revealed very much, so we hoped he'd just get better and yesterday he was ok. This morning he's had another set back, not as bad as the first one he had, but he's getting more confused, unsettled and lost looking

 

 

 

[Dyslexic Viking]

Properly burned the hand on a heat gun, this is the second time, I hate heat guns.

So left with one working hand now.

[vulgalour]

On 11/10/2024 at 20:11, Chas4545 said:

Get the nhs app on your phone and you will be able to see blood test results etc.  The nice thing about blood tests is they are either in  or out of the nhs limits. If they are out , theres the problem.  Good luck with it.

So er... yeah, I decided to give that a go right up until it wanted a scan of my ID and a photo of my face.  It's easier just to go into the surgery, or call, than trying to get my phone to believe my face is a face.

[maxxo]

So I moved into this flat about 3 weeks ago

new couple moved in underneath a week or so ago

constant drugs fighting on the stairway and now threatened me as I dared to make a noise during the day and they’ve set the bins alight

so yeah

fucking this place off and viewing loads of houses to rent this week

ill somehow find a way to afford the deposit

[loserone]

8 minutes ago, maxxo said:

drugs fighting

What is this? 

9 minutes ago, maxxo said:

threatened me

 

9 minutes ago, maxxo said:

set the bins alight

These need calling out to the council if it's a council flat.  

[maxxo]

12 minutes ago, loserone said:

What is this? 

 

These need calling out to the council if it's a council flat.  

No idea if it’s council or not tbh

[Zelandeth]

15 minutes ago, maxxo said:

No idea if it’s council or not tbh

Either way, if there's council housing in the block, they as a landlord should be made aware that nonsense like this is going on. Last thing they need is to be putting someone vulnerable into accomodation in a setting like that.

[maxxo]

Viewing another house at 5, honesrly I’ve decided to just go for somewhere else, then I can have family over without them struggling up the stairs and stuff

i want to live somewhere I can be proud of but I really feel quite ashamed whenever people come over

[High Jetter]

Combo van failed MOT today, pads all round, they advised discs too, and headlamp level motor N/S. Apparently, that means a complete headlamp assembly? 

[artdjones]

15 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Combo van failed MOT today, pads all round, they advised discs too, and headlamp level motor N/S. Apparently, that means a complete headlamp assembly? 

If it's a Combo C, the pre 2010 model I think they're available, if it's the 2011 Doblo clone, I'm not sure.

[IronStar]

Mini's exhaust, which I thought was fixed to at least not rattle is hitting the bodyshell again as it seems that the hanger snapped, and the exhaust mount starts making slipping belt noises(?!) after an hour or so of engine running. Back to the shop it goes tomorrow. 

[Metal Guru]

Second wrecked unrepairable  tyre this year. Sharp stone (mini obelisk) gone right through . Could put your finger through the hole! 150 miles from home with no spare. Thank* you BMW for a useless can of air and a pump.
Thanks to Halfords Stranraer for quick service even though they relieved me of £150. 
Going to buy a proper spare off eBay tomorrow.

 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

If it's a Combo C, the pre 2010 model I think they're available, if it's the 2011 Doblo clone, I'm not sure.

It's on an 11 plate, same shape as earlier years

[artdjones]

1 hour ago, High Jetter said:

It's on an 11 plate, same shape as earlier years

I think they can be got then.

[High Jetter]

13 minutes ago, artdjones said:

I think they can be got then.

Thanks. I've had a quick search and I think you're right, though it depends on which make of lamp is fitted.

[Remspoor]

On 16/10/2024 at 18:30, Zelandeth said:

Bloody profiteering hotels...

Kind of as expected I didn't make it through the lottery for residential places at a convention I'll be going to in May.  This isn't really a surprise as there are only a handful of single rooms and they're oversubscribed in terms of room demand overall by four or five times. 

Stayed at the Novotel at Birmingham Airport last year, was £582 for Thursday through Tuesday including breakfast.  I like that hotel so it would have been my first choice this year - except for them having hiked the price to nearly £900.  How about no.  The nearest hotel to the event is the Moxy, though that's always bloody expensive.  Yeah, they're after £1205 plus breakfast...I don't think so.  That's £20 short of double they're asking for the same room 7 days before. 

Fine, I'll go and bash my head against the various hotel comparison sites this evening when I've got enough time and am sitting at a proper computer. 

Surge pricing really has to be one of the most annoying concepts in existence.  If I ran a hotel the price on the door per room per night would be the price per room, per night irrespective of if we had one booking or 100 bookings. 

Yes, it would be per bloody room not per person per room as well.  That hacks me off royally as well, the cost difference to them to service the room is virtually nothing irrespective of whether I'm on my own or with my husband, so why should I need to pay damned near double the cost at a lot of hotels for the same bloody room if we're both there?!?  Oh, yeah...because they can get away with it and it makes them more money.  Right, of course.  Vast majority of the times I'm in a hotel these days it's because I've gone off gallivanting on my own anyway so it's not a huge issue, but I still run into it often enough that it hacks me off sufficiently that it sticks in my memory.

There are one or two issues that maybe increasing prices. One is dynamic pricing. Even airbnbs can use this. There are website tools that allow any entrepreneur* to work like the big guys. Here is an example.  https://www.beyondpricing.com/

 

Have you thought about renting a small camper and looking at this sort of website to find your free camping spot?  https://park4night.com/en

There are other similar websites.

[Zelandeth]

42 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

There are one or two issues that maybe increasing prices. One is dynamic pricing. Even airbnbs can use this. There are website tools that allow any entrepreneur* to work like the big guys. Here is an example.  https://www.beyondpricing.com/

 

Have you thought about renting a small camper and looking at this sort of website to find your free camping spot?  https://park4night.com/en

There are other similar websites.

Given the only site listed within the sort of distance I'd be considering for this is a layby on the A446 (which is still going to be a taxi trip away), think I'll stick to a hotel, thanks.  

To be fair, something like this isn't really set up for attending an event at major venues.  Sure if I was just going on holiday somewhere it would have the potential to be far more useful.

£416 for a site that's within a stone's throw of the NEC during the weekend where there's an event on that's pulling in the best part of 3,000 people isn't really too bad.  It's the ones trying to make a grab for the best part of a grand when it would normally be £2-300 that hack me off.

[junkyarddog]

Gave my old Mondeo a much needed wash and brush up today.

Half an hour later...........

Why do I fucking bother!!🙄