Have your say - busker & husband charged for dog hair in room
Talkback time - or type-back time to be more accurate.
This is the nice lady who sometimes busks near Woodward Street on the Quay, with her faithful guide dog at her side. Been a while since we saw her there.
Olivia and Jonathan Godfrey spent their honeymoon in a professed guide-dog friendly hotel in Palmerston North Wellington. When leaving, they were presented with a bill for an extra $85 for cleaning up unwanted dog hair.
I'm inclined to the side of the couple here, it seems the hotel refused the opinion of a guide-dog minder who was sent in to view any damage on the couple's behalf.
Besides... the hotel spokesman said:
"There were two big dogs in a one-bedroom apartment ... You can imagine the smell..."
I can actually, I imagine you could hardly smell them at all & that 5 minutes with the windows & doors open would have clinched it.
And even if the dogs were moulting, how long does it take to vacuum a one bedroom apartment? Nice hourly rate.
Full story here
Go for your life with the outraged comments either way.
Update:
The hotel has apologised to the couple & offered a couple of free night's accommodation.
... and to shoehorn this into the Wellingtonista, anyone know which of Wellington's hotels/motels are "dog-friendly"?
I decided since she was the blind busker from the corner below she kind of fit intoi our territory.
"dog friendly" is relative - I visited a dog friendly place in Wanganui once, they told me they were friendly to dogs so long as you left them in your car...
But I think most places would take guide dogs.
I am so indignant after reading this story-it seems to me that blatant advantage of this nice couple is being taken by the establishment as surely they realise that this is a necessary(not too mentioned well behaved) animal and as mentioned before by llew, a vacuum cleaner and not to mention some Glade room spray suffices just nicely. Last I checked, renting a vacuum cleaner and buying a can of room spray does'nt cost 85 bucks!
Oh and this comment in the article by the Hotel just pissed me right off:
"We did something nice for them because they wanted a harbour view, which I kinda thought was funny because they're blind ... but we put them in a nice room."
What Ignoramisus!(sp?) So Blind people don't get to enjoy a Harbor view? I bet they do enjoy it just fine!! I bet their other senses surely can pick up on the beauty through the air and sounds and such more than most sighted people for god sake!
But i Digest......
And they may not be totally blind.
Palmerston North? The article says "the Centr@l Terrace Heights Serviced Apartments in Wellington"
You are, of course, correct. The couple are from Palmy, and stayed here. Fixed.
I mean, who would spend their honeymoon in Palmy? And harbour views? Be a pretty tall hotel...
[cough]comprehension[/cough]
I thought they were from Welly, visiting Palmy. I was gonna follow up with a big post about how Palmy is the perfect honeymoon locale for blind people.
I think it's fair enough that they should have to pay.
Providing what the hotel said about the couple refusing the room normally given to blind people, in order to get the harbour view, is true.
If they didn't charge the blind couple, then the hotel would have to charge every other guest in order to recoup the costs.
This would put them at a competitive disadvantage with other hotels, possibly making the hotel go out of business, because the hotel accepted blind guests.
This would mean one less hotel available for blind people.
Is that the conclusion you want?
It doesn't seem fair, but what is?
Gotta admit that comment about the harbour view was hilarious (even if of questionable taste ...)
Also, Michele, just because they're blind doesn't make the couple nice (although obviously we all hope they are).
Thanks "anonymous(not verified)it is irrelevent if the couple are nice.
(although it has been confirmed by people who have seen them in town that they are)but hey, thanks for the condescention~
Recoup what costs? Bankrupcy? How do you figure?
Glad the Hotel apologised- see some things ARE fair!
Well... for their guide dogs anyway.
Personally, I think the hotel was on a hiding to nothing for the very fact they penalised a blind couple & their cute guide dogs. Great PR.
And I think that the $85 charge was outrageous. Maybe an extra $10, so long as they make sure the guests know about the cute guide dog surcharge.
Bwahaha! I'm getting (probably inaccurate & definitely inappropriate) pictures of the designated blind persons' room. I mean, you could give them anything right?
I imagine that all the windows face the carpark but that it smells really nice and has good acoustics.
What windows?
if you are going to charge for cleaning up after a dog, tell people before they take the place.
As someone who has cleaned many restaurant high chairs of baby goo, it comes with the territory. Just as housekeepers have to clean up after a night of corporate debauchery, so they have to clean up the reasonable level of disorder for different reasons. It's not as if the dogs crapped in the bidet.
What Zippy Gonnzales said. It's an outrage.
I'm not sure it is the busker - Olivia (who is the woman this story is about) is a lawyer, who trained at Otago Uni. I don't know if she busked in Welly during uni holidays, but I think you may be talking of someone else?
Maybe - but it sure looks like her AND her dog.
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