(see also: why are British hotels so rubbish and expensive, page 94)
Saturday, village hotel, Wiltshire. Proprietor slightly odd, rants about the council, but seems nice enough. Showing us to our room, he gives a weirdly detailed explanation of how to use the key to open the door, which we largely ignore.
Coming back to the room later, the lock was a bit of a fiddle but we got in fine.
Next morning we’re locked in. Can’t open it at all. We call reception and the lady who let us out explains politely that we must not have followed the key instructions correctly. “But we were locked in! That’s dangerous!” “Well, we do tell people to turn the key this way then that when they check in…”
Well, if we’d realised we might die in a fire then we’d probably have paid a bit more attention!
I tried the lock again. Sure enough: turn it one way and it opens. Turn it the other and it also opens – but then locks itself closed from the inside.
We checked out and got on our way.
Should I follow it up though? Seems pretty dodgy… :/
should probably at least send them a letter. Don’t know if they’d do much about it. But still.