When you have a dispute with a business over money owed, there’s a right way and a wrong way to handle the situation. If you’re talking about a hotel, the right way would be to talk to the front desk and if that doesn’t work, escalate it to the manager, bring it up on Twitter or, as a last resort, go to litigation.
And then there’s the wrong way. The following is the wrong way…
Not long ago, the then-newly built Travelodge Liverpool had an unwelcome visitor in the form of an unhappy person with an excavator who obliterated the front reception of the building.
(Heads up that the video contains some adult language. Under the circumstances, I’m not the least bit surprised LOL)
The thing is, it wasn’t even an unhappy guest! According to the Washington Post, Triton Construction was the principal contractor for the Travelodge project. The man with the mini digger worked for a subcontractor, MF Construction (that name is not lost on me, BTW), who, he claimed, hadn’t paid him. So instead of working his anger out appropriately, he took it out on the hotel.
In another video, the driver can be heard shouting: “£600 f******* quid, all you had to do was pay me, my f******* £600 quid, £600 f******* quid.”
“It is alleged that the labourer couldn’t track down the owner of MF Construction and he became increasingly frustrated,” a statement from Triton Construction read. “Fortunately, there were no injuries to Staff Members or other operatives, subcontractors on site.”
The excavator driver was eventually found by the police and interviewed as part of the investigation. The aftermath of his plight, as well as what he has been living with that led up to his behavior is pretty sad.
The completed Travelodge
Triton Construction said at the time that there was no structural damage done to the building as a result of the man’s rampage. Based on Trip Advisor reviews, it appears that the hotel opened a couple of months later.
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5 comments
That is some video, Sharon.
Just one note: Travelodge in the United Kingdom is unrelated to — and supposedly better than — Travelodge in the United States; so some of those reviews are likely authentic.
Oh, I’m sure they are – I’m the one who just wrote a thing that says you can trust Trip Advisor (and then had a bunch of people telling me I’m wrong LOL). It’s just that the first guy who reviewed them in March was obviously alluding to the incident in January 🙂
Travelodge are nice hotels in the UK. They are cheap…. But back in Canada or the states I would never stay in a travel lodge.
At the risk of being pilloried for a political turn, I was most aghast at reading the Metro UK article describing the real state of the UK medical system and its treatment of a mental health issue.
I’ll stop there.
So cool! Speak softly and roll in a big excavator! This man was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take it anymore!
I should keep an excavator in tow for whenever the front desk of a hotel tries to jerk me around! I’d be transforming their enclosed lobby into an “open air” one while screaming at the top of my lungs, “All you had to do was give me late checkout!!!!”