London Heathrow Lodge
I would like to remark some things on the way the London Heathrow Lodge
Hotel treats passengers that want to travel back to the airport.
I was in a situation that I had asked the hotelstaff to call a taxi at
4:00 in the morning, which they supposedly did. 4:00 in the morning I'm
waiting for that taxi, a car stops by and claims to be 'the taxi'.
However, as soon as I step in I notice that the guy didn't have any
sign, no counter and couldn't accept credit cards. This set off some
alarms in my head, mainly because _if_ they guy was related to the
hotel (he must be, they called him), then he must be able to use the
same infrastructure the hotel had regarding credit cards and _if_ the
guy was related to the hotel then the travel to the airport was
included in the price already, so he was asking for money where he
shouldn't. The next problem was that he didn't exactly know how much
the travel to the airport would cost. He explained that they would
'call him' to tell the cost of the trip, which is a very strange thing.
Anyway, I step in and see what will happen, but am already thinkig off
a way to get rid of this guy. Luckily he was so distrustfull that he
stopped in front of a cach machine to let me get money, which is a
rather intimdating thing to do if your driving somebody to the airport
a) it is halfway the trip
b) those people typically work within a timeframe
c) if they don't get money how will they get to the airport.
The cash machine was broke (or broken). In any case I couldn't get
money out, which is a good thing since I was not planning to allow this
anyway. So I started to argue with the guy which suddenly explained
that he was part of the hotel but no taxi (I ordered a taxi, not a
family member !). The end result was that he threatehened to throw me
out which also happened.
Bottomline is that the London heathrow lodge is a highly unprofessional
place to stay. Watch your money and
the agreements you have if you go
there ! Make sure you have a backup strategy when they suddenly feel
they can misuse their negotation position.
