Sometimes luxury hotels will do all the right things and help to make your time away perfect. We’ve been able to have such experiences in several places, such as the Renaissance St. Pancras in London, the Grand Hyatt in Kauai, the Goldener Hirsch in Salzburg and the Hyatt Regency in Da Nang.
Other times, a hotel might be less than perfect. I mean, it happens. They could be short staffed on housekeeping and your room may be delayed on being available. Maybe your food at the hotel restaurant was less than perfect. But I’ve never heard of a hotel – a luxury hotel, at that – refuse to allow guests to borrow a plug. Especially not for the benefit of a terminally ill child. But apparently that’s what recently happened at the Duck Bay Hotel, in Scotland.
The Duck Bay is located on the banks of Loch Lomond, in Arden, about 28 km (17.4 miles) from Glasgow Botanical Gardens. Family-owned and under the umbrella of the Cawley Hotel Group, the hotel’s website says that Duck Bay is, “…an ideal base for those seeking family fun and adventure, R&R, or romance.” It gets good reviews on Tripadvisor, with mentions of its grand views, great restaurant, and polite, pleasant and attentive staff.
PC: Duck Bay Hotel / Facebook
However the family of a very sick infant named Charlie had a much different experience at the hotel.
Charlie is 3 months old and breathes through a tracheostomy. He’s considered to be terminally ill and is under the care of Robin House Children’s Hospice in Balloch.
On March 16th, Charlie’s mother and her fiancé brought him to the Duck Bay Hotel, which isn’t far from the hospice. His family claimed that someone who worked at the hotel wouldn’t let them use a plug socket so they could give Charlie a nebulizer treatment (a nebulizer is a device that converts liquid medication into a breathable mist).
Charlie’s uncle, Bradley Raynham, wrote about the incident in a Facebook post so that it “doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
Raynham said: “It got to the time Charlie needed his nebuliser so as the restaurant was so busy, they asked at the reception of the hotel if they could use one of the plug sockets so he could get this. While they’re holding him in their arms they were told ‘no we don’t do this here’.
“Even after explaining the situation they weren’t interested one bit. They had to leave and get back to the hospice immediately so they could give him this, when going back they’ve spoken to the nurse there as were obviously upset.”
Raynham continued that a hospice nurse attempted to call the hotel to speak to a manager but was denied as “other people will be waiting to call us and we can’t help.”
“How in this day and age can ANY place turn someone away for something like this,” he said. “Especially after being there and spending money. Literally holding a baby in their arms who needs this.”
The feedback was fast and furious, with over 200 comments and over 10,000 shares. It seemed as if everyone was angry at the Duck Bay Hotel – and rightly so. I mean, who says no to something like that???
A few social media outlets said that Tripadvisor got wind of the situation and even preemptively shut off reviews of the hotel.
However, there’s something of a happy ending to the story. Well, as “happy” as one can get when the story involves an infant who’s on hospice care.
Slightly more than 24 hours later, the Duck Bay Hotel put out a public apology. They explained that the staff member who told them no was very new to the hotel, very inexperienced and apparently very young, as well. The hotel took full responsibility for the incident and said they plan to review their training and procedures to make sure something like that never happens again. They also reached out to both Robin House and Charlie’s family to apologize and to make amends.
They did the right thing.
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