Looking for a holiday on AirB&B and I find somewhere looks decent .. then when checking the details it says “No manual workers”

So this doesn’t affect me, not because I’m not quite sure if I’m a manual worker or not but because I wouldn’t give my money to someone with that attitude.

It was however a bit of a WTF moment .. and got me wondering that if in a theoretical non-Covid handover what would happen? I’m aware profession isn’t a protected characteristic and it’s their caravan but lots of questions?

In the first place I’m not even sure what a “manual worker” is…farmer, outdoors instructor, bike mechanic ??? Is a science teacher not but a DT teacher ???

Like say you booked and paid and arrive and they ask “what do you do for a living”?
Is it just me or is this a bit off?

I guess we’d all have our own preferences.. “no married couples” or “no kids*” or “families only” so in some ways I can see but this seems totally bizarre.

I presume they mean no manual workers using it as digs while working rather than an outright ban on a particular profession

I’m on another continent but we often have “no crews” or “crews welcome” to indicate a places preference with respect to construction crews and the like.

Perhaps this is similar?

Yep, calm down OP – it just means no navvies allowed.

Presumably the owner has previously had issues with copies of the Daily Sport being put in the wrong recycling bin and the bog getting pebbledashed.

Post the link here and let us make some inquiries. Should be fun and kill a bit of time.

We have a holiday let in the Dales, we just say ‘No Daily Mail or Sun readers’ on Air B&B. Although to be fair, they’d fit right in with the locals who are mainly Express readers.

If this is a caravan (and given the recent Pontins debacle) is it code for ‘no travellers’?

As above, just sounds like it’s holliday only, not digs for people working away from home.

It can’t be that decent if they are concerned that manual workers would be interested in booking it.

Depends, the client usually books my hotels and they have a fixed budget usually. So I’ve had nice apartments during COVID while hotels have been desperate and some shockers in normal times. They just aim for the nicest they can get for £75/night.

Not about how cheap it is, as long as it’s the same price as the minimum acceptable digs in London.

No manual workers working away from home. In my years on the railway I’ve worked with some right manky folk, folk pissing the bed every night that kinda thing.

No manual workers working away from home. In my years on the railway I’ve worked with some right manky folk, folk pissing the bed every night that kinda thing.

Yeah but I’ve worked with some right manky folk in IT or what I’d class as “non manual Oil and Gas” TBF.

Depends, the client usually books my hotels and they have a fixed budget usually. So I’ve had nice apartments during COVID while hotels have been desperate and some shockers in normal times. They just aim for the nicest they can get for £75/night.

Not about how cheap it is, as long as it’s the same price as the minimum acceptable digs in London.

You saying that reminds me of the Britannia in Aberdeen. How they get away with HSSE escapes me as when I’ve been forced to stay there electrical sockets etc. hanging off walls.
That said it also seems the hotel drives behaviour? I don’t think anyone actually choses it… and you bumped into the same people in other hotels that were much nicer and the same price, it’s just the Britannia was always the last one booked up.. but when you did get there sleep was not something you could do… there were almost always all night parties in rooms.

As above, just sounds like it’s holiday only, not digs for people working away from home.

Weird wording but then I guess people on AirB&B aren’t necessarily professionals.

Just struck me as weird… and the more I thought about it the weirder in 2021 as many “manual” jobs are no longer really manual on the way I’d think manual? (Like many car mechanics are X% computer based).

Post the link here and let us make some inquiries. Should be fun and kill a bit of time.

As others have said I’m leaning to its bad wording for holiday only ???

OH sent it by text with a load of others and I don’t have air B&B on the phone so I got some weird combo of not the website (as it detected mobile) and not the app… but if you want to look it’s Bracklesham Bay (if you put that in and don’t mind clicking a few it should find it)

I guess as much as anything I started wondering what “manual worker” means in 2021?
I’ve never really thought of myself either way… some jobs have been very non manual and others I get dirty fingernails.

Is it shared bathroom, etc type of Air bnb? Maybe they don’t want a bath ring of tarmac or woodshavings every morning.

No dogs, no Irish?

but if you want to look it’s Bracklesham Bay

No Saturday kids obvs.

i’ve had an air b and b booking canceled because of the town we were living in. it was a town with a reputation for being pretty rough, but not everyone who lives there is a drug addict.

Probably another thread altogether, but ‘worst places you’ve stayed in’

In my last job I spent 6 months travelling around Scotland (I know! How bad is that? Have travel will bike) working in pretty much every hospital in the country, a fabulous time visiting fabulous places and meeting wonderful people.

I worked for a big corporate at the time who had a central booking person arranging (most of the time) accomodation for us. From top dig in Dundee and Edinburgh to pubs on the Isle of Skye It was cracking.

And then we got put in a pub in Conon Bridge. At the door to my room the receptionist offered me a key to open the door and in the end she just kicked it open as there was no jam for the lock, I pushed the single bed up against the door overnight, I had carpet in n the toilet and bathroom. My mate Stuart had a shower room with the light switch under the shower head in the bathroom. We all had shared bathrooms with the guys who were working on the Kessock bridge. They rolled in at 3am and left for work at 7am, the bathroom was a treat.

The food however was fantastic, £34 a night.

The ones I can’t quite fathom are the ones where the rooms are so much sruffier than the ground floor. Stayed in loads like that, mouldy carpet, smells, lumpy bed, shower doesn’t work, room barely bigger than a broom cupboard. But the breakfast room could pass for a fancy restaurant.

They rolled in at 3am and left for work at 7am, the bathroom was a treat.

Sounds like when the guys I worked with worked for BKs. Towns around Sellafield sound delightful.

Just struck me as weird… and the more I thought about it the weirder in 2021 as many “manual” jobs are no longer really manual on the way I’d think manual? (Like many car mechanics are X% computer based).

Still very much manual. Plus folk still have to install the cabling, trunking and false ceilings to hide them.

You saying that reminds me of the Britannia in Aberdeen. How they get away with HSSE escapes me as when I’ve been forced to stay there electrical sockets etc. hanging off walls.

I remember being at a wedding reception there years ago and it was fine back in the day but I’ve heard some right horror stories about it in the past 5 or so years maybe more

On the estate where we live, there is an AirBnB. There is a single normal access road, with little clusters of 4-5 houses off this road, accessed by a small private drive.

The property in question often as 2-3 contractors turning up in 2-3 lwb or xlwb vans. This causes mayhem for the rest of the residents in those little cul-de-sacs. ( no prob for me i hasten to add). I feel quite sorry for the access problems this causes for the residents.

So, my guess its a poorly worded courtesy for the residents rather than a slight on anyone who works with their hands.

Ian

No Saturday kids obvs.

Deserved more.

Saturday’s kids live in council houses, wear v neck shirts and baggy trousers.

Probably another thread altogether, but ‘worst places you’ve stayed in’

Britannia Airport Hotel in Manchester. Parked the car up and may as well have left the keys in the ignition for the chance that it would still be there in the morning. In reception I wouldn’t have been surprised to see a chalk outline of a body on the floor, and the room itself was cold, damp, musty, dirty, old, tired, and miserable.

I believe the Britannia group make a big deal of being awarded the “worst hotels in the UK” award each year so I can’t imagine it changing.

On the plus side it was fairly cheap. And the car still had all four wheels when it was time to leave.

It can’t be that decent if they are concerned that manual workers would be interested in booking it.

Can’t work out if that’s ‘humour’ or sneering, classist snobbery?

Probably another thread altogether, but ‘worst places you’ve stayed in’

White Lion in Machynlleth, dirty, damp, musty, telly didn’t work, mattress was very well used. Woke up at 3am itching all over and couldn’t get back to sleep, I had to wash the T shirt I was wearing in bed 3 times before the smell went away. I didn’t hang around for breakfast.

Naaa, worst “hotel” has to be the Darlington Spa Hotel.

It’s a collection of portacabins on Tees Valley Airport. I’ve no idea how they derive the name.

I’ve no idea how they derive the name.

The shop round the corner?

As OP quite happy whatever directions the thread goes.

I did stay in a place in Bath which rivalled the Britannia on cleanliness… but like above the ones with the breakfast/reception areas are the weirdest.

I once stopped in a doss house near st Thomas when my kid was in ICU that was the complete opposite. No reception but tiny rooms very clean!

(Recommended by the PICU staff)

Wandering off a similar one in Copenhagen the only downside being where it was and not having breakfast or food that doesn’t come from a vending machine.

I’m still intrigued however as to what everyone here classes as manual or non manual! (Even though I’m convinced the bracklesham one was just poor wording)

As mentioned above post diagnostics requires mechanics to touch stuff but then is a surgeon manual work?
I realise this isn’t a legal term I’m just intrigued … and something that’s changed (IMHO) a lot in the last 20-40 years. Ie is a crane operator manual or not ??

If I could post a picture I’d post one of Manuel off of Faulty Towers, but I can’t so the joke is lost.

I used to work all over the country, stayed away from home 6 nights a week doing “manual work”. Days Inn magor services was the only place I walked out of, it was rank.

My folks have an AirBnB on the outskirts of the Lakes. They’ve just instigated a similar clause to the OP ‘no manual workers’, but maybe better phrased. They had a long-term booking from a bunch of lads working on the new water pipeline, and they absolutely trashed the place – beer cans everywhere, kitchen uncleaned, curry spilled on the living room carpet and furniture, bathroom left damp to go manky, just used as a doss house during the week before (presumably) going home to the wife and a tidier home at the weekend. It’s not like it’s a fancy place, but the cost of cleaning up after them was significantly more than it was worth. Same group tried to rebook for a later stint and were politely told ‘no’.

to counter this.

We have some “manual workers” staying in some of the flats let out via ABat student accom I work at. They’ve been there for about 6 weeks now and are really good keep their kitchen area clean take their rubbish, lots and lots of beer bottles to bins and recycling. They are less trouble than some of the students still in the building.

Not disagreeing Bruneep, and certainly not wanting to tar every worker with the same brush, but it’s impossible for a provider to tell who’ll be tidy and who won’t in advance. We stopped allowing pets in the cottage, after many years of letting responsible owners bring dogs in for a small cleaning surcharge, because one family brought two great hairy things in and allowed them into the bedrooms. They shed absolutely all over the place and it took us a week to clean up properly – if we’d had a short same-day changeover, we’d have been handing over in a mess, which wouldn’t do anything for us.

it’s impossible for a provider to tell who’ll be tidy and who won’t in advance.

But that is true of every booking you take is it not. Do you think Mr & Mrs Middle class will be better than Mr concrete pourer?

We only take bookings via the company so the company pays and will be more likely to ensure their employee’s look after the place.

I think the worst was a place in Doncaster. I go back up to Durham every winter to meet up with old Uni buds, obvs by train (wouldn’t feel safe to drive for days after!) I normally get the early train from KX, but it was RWC final the same day so I got the timetable out to work out if I wanted to be in Durham around lunchtime, where would I need to leave after the RWC finished and be dead cheap. That was Doncaster (York would have been better but way more expensive)

I stayed in the second cheapest place (god knows what the cheapest would have been). My room was entirely internal, no window at all, bathroom vent went to the corridor. When you turned the light out it was pitch black….totally. Breakfast was a prepacked abomination. Fortunately the pub I had scoped to watch the RWC was advertised as doing breakfasts…but I was soon corrected on arrival, although they were perfectly OK with me getting a McD from over the road and taking it in instead. The clientele was….fun. I’ve never seen pints going down at such a rate at 8am, and that was just the women. It was when the half time whistle went, and the trays of Jagermeister and Tequila appeared that things got properly lively!

The oddest was a place in Switzerland, real old cuckoo clock place but the bathrooms were the real revelation, a single piece plastic moulding with sink, shower and toilet! And the shower was so small, to wash you front was no issue but I could barely turn round in it….so to get the shower on your back it was easier to leave the cubicle, turn 180 deg and then get back in again!

I’m OK … rubbish at manuals

But that is true of every booking you take is it not. Do you think Mr & Mrs Middle class will be better than Mr concrete pourer?

You’re right, it is, and no, you can’t automatically assume one will be better than the other – hence the statement about the dogs, they were owned by a nice, middle-class couple, but they were in for a long weekend and caused that much mess in 3 nights. The logic is now around damage limitation from extended bookings: With the workers we had a problem with, they were block-booked for a period of months while the job was on. Even though they were normally going home at weekends, their booking was 7 days a week, which means we can’t send a cleaner in during the booking (why should we, if they’re looking after the place?). Letting out student accom like you are, you may have different policies, I don’t know. You may have just got a better class of navvy.

As I implied earlier, ‘no manual workers’ is badly phrased: ‘No manual workers taking block bookings of more than x days consecutively’ would be better, admittedly. But it’s a case of damage limitation, damage that an older couple who rent out a holiday property they own and run themselves don’t want to have to deal with.

the bathrooms were the real revelation, a single piece plastic moulding with sink, shower and toilet!

I’ll raise you the entire room being a single-piece moulding like the one I stayed at in Japan. Even the bed base was plastic and creaked when you moved.

I used to go to Barrow-in-Furness and my employer did endeavour to try and save some money by putting us in some $hitty B&Bs. I seem to remember one where you had to open the bedroom door in order to open the wardrobe or some silly shoebox nonsense. Never got to enjoy the delights of the Magic Stick (Majestic) which the others ‘enjoyed’

I stayed in a hotel in Stockholm with no windows – just a big domed roomlight that every room in the courtyard could look down into. It was midsummer, there was no a/c and it was 30 degrees and we’d spent the evening drinking Aquavit in the finest Swedish midsummer tradition – I was wrecked. I spent the next morning on a boat cruise around the archipeligo because it was a few metres from the hotel door and so involved minimum movement – I just laid down a bench seat trying to sober up before flying home.

pyro

As I implied earlier, ‘no manual workers’ is badly phrased: ‘No manual workers taking block bookings of more than x days consecutively’ would be better, admittedly. But it’s a case of damage limitation, damage that an older couple who rent out a holiday property they own and run themselves don’t want to have to deal with.

Being perfectly honest I just don’t see how the manual workers bit ties in?
Being a even bit more honest, I’m sure my mum would be oblivious to her dog shedding hair, not for any other reason than it’s invisible to her.

I’m not even sure when/if I am a manual worker and not. If I’m doing remote consulting then that’s pretty cut and dry but I’d guess refitting a server room would be manual?

Having done this for quite a few “posh” hotels my perspective is BOH is often filthy and server rooms a real health hazard. I’ll only name one 😉 perhaps but the Thistle at Haydock Park was filthy… we needed breathing apparatus just to vacuum it out. (I was really there to set up some servers running VM’s (that could support their antiquated FOH system on supportable HW running some version of netware) and interfaces to the FOH/POS system but cleaning out the filth was necessary to ensure the system kept running)

The reason for picking this specific hotel out was the GM complained to my company about “the length of my hair” and “sending a hippy” (whatever the length its 12 yrs ago it was’nt long enough for a ponytail)
I have a feeling he thought “manual workers” should be shaved .. he did mention something about “when I was in the force!”
I still laugh when I drive past …

The clientele was….fun. I’ve never seen pints going down at such a rate at 8am, and that was just the women.

You must not have met Emma a reverends daughter on our Geology BSc. “boat race” team and about 6st dripping wet.
A pint of cider and black just disappeared.