Hi All,

I've just returned from a trip to Barnet, where my daughter lives and
works, to attend her wedding. Instead of it being a happy and joyous
occasion, it was rendered an utter disaster thanks to the
accommodation we experienced.

As Barnet had no wheelie friendly hotels, we were staying at the Days
Inn at South Mimms, as it had disabled accommodation, was handy for
the motorway, and close to where Eleanor (my daughter) lives. We had
booked disabled rooms (one for myself and Iain, my partner, and one
for my 90 year old mother who also has mobility problems)  back in
February via the Days Inn website. Our e-mail confirmation stated that
we had booked disabled rooms, so all seemed to be in order.

Seemed. On arriving there on Saturday, we were told that the booking
had not requested disabled rooms, and whilst they did have such rooms,
they were fully booked at present. We showed our booking confirmation,
and were told, to paraphrase "OK, but hard luck". The only
accommodation they could give us were the standard rooms. Having
bugger-all choice in the matter (the wedding was the next day), we had
to accept the standard rooms.

The usual problems reared their heads: scarcely enough room to get the
wheelchair through the door, due to design and furniture placement; no
way for myself or my mother to use the standard bath with shower over
it with no grab rails. We resigned ourselves to having to make do with
top-and-tailing, and tried to make the best of it. But the saga
doesn't stop there.

Firstly, one of our (only one each) pillows had a very obvious stain
which smelt strongly of vomit. On pointing this out at reception, I
was told that they were very sorry, but they didn't have any spare
ones. Secondly, we had ordered their "Continental" breakfasts; what we
got was actually half a breakfast, with one portion of cereal, one
orange juice, and one small milk. What was worse was that they left my
mother's breakfast on the floor outside her room, despite my
specifically requesting that they have a little patience and make sure
it was handed to her. Like me, she cannot bend to reach the floor, but
at least I had Iain to retrieve the tray. Mum had to 'phone our mobile
to get Iain to retrieve hers as well.

By this time I was ready to kill something in short order, but apart
from somewhat sulky apologies, no solutions were offered. Now, it was
the morning of the wedding, and I was having enough problems trying to
keep up a good front so as not to let my daughter know about any of
the problems, and not to let her know about the inevitable pain that
eight hours of travelling had caused. Such is....I know the cost
before embarking on the task, and I was quite happy to put up with the
pain so I could see my daughter married. But Days Inn hadn't finished
with us yet.

My Mum had removed her emerald engagement ring so as not to snag her
tights whilst dressing. As my father died some 40 years ago, this is
one of her most precious possessions, more for sentimental value than
any material value. It was sitting, on its own, on the dressing table,
not anywhere near any rubbish or other items to hide its presence or
to be swept up with by accident. Now, we all know that it's not
advisable to leave valuables in a motel/hotel room, but Mum is 90 and
can be a bit absent minded at the best of times (although she has more
marbles that most people half her age!), let alone when she's about to
see her only grandchild married, so she had forgotten to put it back
on again. Yes, you've guessed it. On coming back from a light lunch
before embarking for the wedding, less than an hour's absence, the
ring was gone. We searched the room *thoroughly*, to no avail.

Back to reception. I was diplomatic. I didn't accuse anyone of theft,
but suggested that it may have been "cleaned up"(although it was
obvious from the grubbiness of the rooms that precious little cleaning
was done at any time) accidentally, emphasising the point that we were
only anxious to have it returned. I might as well have been talking to
a brick wall, and I don't believe that any real effort was made to
determine the whereabouts of the ring. The usual sulky apologies were
made, but that was it.

So off we went to the wedding, which was beautiful, as was my
daughter, and we managed to keep all hints of problems far from her.
But all our experiences had left us with a very nasty taste in the
mouth, and the staff attitude had definitely not helped the situation.

We travel quite a lot, and have stayed at many other hotel chains,
booking via websites with absolutely no problems, and usally finding
staff to be exceptionally helpful and courteous. Days Inn proved to be
the disastrous exception to that rule. I have written to their head
office, detailing every problem we encountered, and I await their
reply, but in the meantime, I would advise anyone who might be
considering this chain for accommodation to think twice about it. Our
experiences may be an exception, but I would guess from the staff
attitude and general lack of cleanliness that there is a very lax
system operating.

Anne