Anyone thirsty?
underco...@hotmail.co.uk
The offer of a free cup of tea/coffee upon arrival at a YHA in England
and Wales has now been removed across the network (except costed
packages).
What do you think?
Mr X
underco...@hotmail.co.uk
Oh small technical hitch (double post) - sorry ppl.
Chris Hunt
but it's nice to have chapter-and-verse to go with.
I don't think it's all that big an issue - you can always brew up your
own tea & coffee in the members kitchen (unless it's one of the new no-
members-kitchen hostels like Crowden). It does hand an easy advantage
to the independent sector though - how does the offer of a free tea/
coffee add to the ambiance of a place? How much does it cost? Maybe
the (coffee?) bean counters have got carried away wth themselves here?
Obligatory Travellodge reference: I heard a TL exec interviewed on the
radio a few weeks back. Asked about the minimum requirements of rooms
in the UK market, he said that they'd once tried removing tea & coffee
making facilities from their rooms, but had to reinstate them due to
customer demand. Apparently it's an essential facility over here -
they don't offer it in similar hotels on the continent.
I should add that I'm not a tea or coffee drinker myself, so my
interest is academic.
Helen Deborah Vecht
> I should add that I'm not a tea or coffee drinker myself, so my
> interest is academic.
It need not be. Even if you dislike said beverages many other drinks and
some foods can be conveniently reconstituted by adding boiling water.
Having tea/coffee facilities means you can have cups of soup, hot
chocolate or even (yuk!) Pot Noodles you might bring along.
--
Helen D. Vecht: helen...@zetnet.co.uk
Edgware.
Nigel
<ch...@leicesteryha.org.uk> wrote:
>Do you have a source for this statement? Not that I don't believe you,
>but it's nice to have chapter-and-verse to go with.
>
I can corroborate the statement having also seen it in an internal YHA
document.
>I don't think it's all that big an issue - you can always brew up your
>own tea & coffee in the members kitchen (unless it's one of the new no-
>members-kitchen hostels like Crowden). It does hand an easy advantage
>to the independent sector though - how does the offer of a free tea/
>coffee add to the ambiance of a place? How much does it cost? Maybe
>the (coffee?) bean counters have got carried away wth themselves here?
>
I think a lot of hostels will continue to supply it, it's just that
they can't put it through the budget as an item in itself.
Nigel
replace SPAMHATER with n and t*sc*li with totalise
Judith
<ch...@leicesteryha.org.uk> wrote:
>I don't think it's all that big an issue - you can always brew up your
>own tea & coffee in the members kitchen
Surely you mean "Self caterers' kitchen" - the YHA doesn't seem to
like the word "Members" anymore. "Member" implies a group with common
goals and a sense of ownership...... apparently not very fashionable
nowadays.
>(unless it's one of the new no-
>members-kitchen hostels like Crowden).
I've not seen the new Crowden, although I had a very pleasant stay at
the old one a few years back. The warden couldn't have been kinder
(No pun intended!) to me after I'd arrived late after getting a wee
bit lost on the walk up from Edale.
When I have walked to the hostel it is nice to have a free cuppa. To
me it does seem welcoming, especially if I am tired and possibly cold
and wet and know I have a plastic bag with some dried milk and coffee
somewhere in my rucksack but really don't have the energy to take it
out.
If I am hostelling with my car then I can easily carry in my
supermarket carrier bags of milk and teabags and make a brew, but when
under my own steam a hot drink is very welcome.
Judith
Nick Pedley
<underco...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1192651178....@v29g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
Complete rubbish. I've been offered free tea/coffee at Ambleside,
Patterdale, Brecon and Malham in the last few weeks/months. Just had to find
the self catering kitchen and make it myself from the supplied ingredients
or use the hot drink machine provided.
Ambleside gave me a printed voucher to hand in at the bar/restaurant for the
staff to make me one.
Hartington Hall had a kettle and cups in the room they gave me.
IIRC it was always FairTrade goods.
Only catch? I don't drink tea or coffee!
Nick
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
John Mann
<nichola...@npedley.freeserve.co.uk> writes
>
><underco...@hotmail.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:1192651178....@v29g2000prd.googlegroups.com...
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> The offer of a free cup of tea/coffee upon arrival at a YHA in England
>> and Wales has now been removed across the network (except costed
>> packages).
>>
>> What do you think?
>>
>> Mr X
>>
>
>Complete rubbish. I've been offered free tea/coffee at Ambleside,
>Patterdale, Brecon and Malham in the last few weeks/months. Just had to find
>the self catering kitchen and make it myself from the supplied ingredients
>or use the hot drink machine provided.
>Ambleside gave me a printed voucher to hand in at the bar/restaurant for the
>staff to make me one.
>Hartington Hall had a kettle and cups in the room they gave me.
>IIRC it was always FairTrade goods.
>
So, has the situation above NOT been banned? Are we only talking about
cups of tea made and personally served to you by the staff?
Although you can of course bring your own milk etc. I always seem to
forget it with all the last minute difficulties of getting the kids out
of the house, so the availability of coffee on arrival is welcome.
John.
--
**** jo...@evenlode.demon.co.uk ****
http://www.evenlode.demon.co.uk
John Mann -- Hook Norton -- Oxfordshire -- UK
Nigel
<jo...@evenlode.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>So, has the situation above NOT been banned? Are we only talking about
>cups of tea made and personally served to you by the staff?
>
This is the quote from the memo
"we now, no longer provide free tea and coffee for guests on arrival,
other than as part of pre-costed packages"
Now there is no guidance on how that statement is to be interpreted.
So it could be read that Hartington's prices include coffee making
facilities in rooms, Ambleside's prices include a voucher for use in
the restaurant etc.
How I interpret it is that it comes down to is a reminder to managers
that they can't make a separate budget entry for tea/coffee solely for
reception purposes. Of course if a manager wants to continue the
service as they can, they just need to find another way to fund it
e.g. donations from customers but that is a local matter and not
something they are going to get central funding for.
Chris Hunt
and milk for use at breakfast time and with the evening meal. Do they
really have to account for where/when every teabag is used? I think
managers' time would be better employed looking after their customers
than filling in such insanely detailed reports for Matlock.
Still, we can use it to our advantage. If you're going to the Regional
Coucil AGMs either tomorrow (Central and Northern) or next month
(Wales and Southern), ask them how much it cost the YHA to provide the
welcoming cuppa. My guess is that it's not very much. When balanced
against the welcoming effect, it's probably money well spent.
It's just another instance of the ethos of today's YHA management: If
you're not of limited means when you arrive at a hostel, you will be
by the time you leave!
Nigel
<ch...@leicesteryha.org.uk> wrote:
>Presumably most hostels have to buy in supplies of tea, coffee, sugar
>and milk for use at breakfast time and with the evening meal. Do they
>really have to account for where/when every teabag is used? I think
>managers' time would be better employed looking after their customers
>than filling in such insanely detailed reports for Matlock.
>
Now you're twisting the words somewhat. Managers don't have to fill
in 'insanely detailed reports' but they do have to complete budgets
like any business which do not require detail of where every teabag
has gone.
underco...@hotmail.co.uk
Nice to see a bit of online conversation taking place.
Personally, I'm not a hot drink person, but the 'welcome' at any place
(hotels etc included) is very important. A smile, eye contact,
efficiency, answering questions and a cup of tea is all part of the
'welcome'. Lose one or two of the list and you lose a little bit of
that welcomed feel.
I don't believe it can cost that much to provide, but I reckon its
abused at times. I've seen people filling up flasks in the morning -
these are not 'welcome drinks' and probably lead to an overspend on
budget.
Has peoples greed lead to the removal of a great service? It would be
interesting to see if this type of greed is extending into the new
style buffet breakfast. Again, I've seen people filling up plates full
of stuff and making sarnies with the bread, cheese and ham etc etc.
Mr X
Chris Hunt
> of stuff and making sarnies with the bread, cheese and ham etc etc.
Since YHA is now making these people pay for a breakfast that they may
never have wanted in the first place, I can't entirely blame them for
wanting to get their full money's worth. I expect quite a lot of that
bread/cheese/ham would go to waste anyway.
I don't make my own pack-ups this way, you understand, though I do
blag the odd portion of butter to spread in my rolls.
Ken
Hunt <ch...@leicesteryha.org.uk> writes
perhaps. Even that usually carefully wrapped.
--
Ken
Arthur Figgis
It must be ages since I've stayed at an English or Welsh Youth Hostel,
but this year I've stayed in Belfast, Glasgow, Luebeck (x2 occasions),
Hamburg, Copenhagen and Lund (southern Sweden), and no-one offered me a
cup of tea on arrival at any of them.
FWIW, I've also done an independent hostel in Zagreb - not having
recovered from the mistake of using the "official" hostel there in the
past - and there were no drinks on offer there either.
Some German hostels go a bit overboard with signs promising hideous
consequences for anyone who smuggles a bread roll out of the breakfast room.
I was hoping to go to an English hostel next weekend, but an awful lot
of the rail-accessible ones in the southeast seem to have disappeared
since I last looked!
--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK
John Mann
underco...@hotmail.co.uk writes
>Has peoples greed lead to the removal of a great service? It would be
>interesting to see if this type of greed is extending into the new
>style buffet breakfast. Again, I've seen people filling up plates full
>of stuff and making sarnies with the bread, cheese and ham etc etc.
>
To be fair, why should they not? With the old cooked breakfast you got
what you were given on your plate and that was that. In my admittedly
limited experience of the buffet, there is no guidance as to which / how
many items you can have. Is it supposed to be x OR y, or only so many of
z? The ordinary person's experience of buffets elsewhere is "take what
you like".
Arthur Figgis
> underco...@hotmail.co.uk wrote:
>> Wow,
>>
>> Nice to see a bit of online conversation taking place.
>> Personally, I'm not a hot drink person, but the 'welcome' at any place
>> (hotels etc included) is very important. A smile, eye contact,
>> efficiency, answering questions and a cup of tea is all part of the
>> 'welcome'. Lose one or two of the list and you lose a little bit of
>> that welcomed feel.
>>
>> I don't believe it can cost that much to provide, but I reckon its
>> abused at times. I've seen people filling up flasks in the morning -
>> these are not 'welcome drinks' and probably lead to an overspend on
>> budget.
>>
>> Has peoples greed lead to the removal of a great service? It would be
>> interesting to see if this type of greed is extending into the new
>> style buffet breakfast. Again, I've seen people filling up plates full
>> of stuff and making sarnies with the bread, cheese and ham etc etc.
>
> It must be ages since I've stayed at an English or Welsh Youth Hostel,
Come to think of it, there was Dover over summer. No tea, the roof was
leaking, and the place was being run down for closure.
Chris Hunt
for what's happening at Alfriston YH
Nigel
standard conditions for all the new premises licences
Arthur Figgis
> Sod tea, how about all night drinking? - see http://www.tiny.cc/Dk9f8
> for what's happening at Alfriston YH
Looks like a standard technical thing to avoid any complications in the
future.
Just because you can doesn't mean you have to, something often forgotten
by the Daily Mail-esque types still worried about making shells to fight
the Kaiser...
Ken
<jo...@evenlode.demon.co.uk> writes
>In article <1192985313.2...@y27g2000pre.googlegroups.com>,
>underco...@hotmail.co.uk writes
>
>>Has peoples greed lead to the removal of a great service? It would be
>>interesting to see if this type of greed is extending into the new
>>style buffet breakfast. Again, I've seen people filling up plates full
>>of stuff and making sarnies with the bread, cheese and ham etc etc.
>>
>
>To be fair, why should they not? With the old cooked breakfast you got
>what you were given on your plate and that was that. In my admittedly
>limited experience of the buffet, there is no guidance as to which / how
>many items you can have. Is it supposed to be x OR y, or only so many of
>z? The ordinary person's experience of buffets elsewhere is "take what
>you like".
helpings, particularly if they went for the porridge option.
The buffet style option, choice of orange juice or cereals but not both,
always seemed incredibly mean compared with what one would get at
hotel/B&B. Especially, as hostels are supposed to cater for high energy
use, outdoor pursuits.
Nevertheless, in my opinion, anyone taking away significant amounts of
food from the breakfast table is taking the piss. I don't think any
establishment would willingly allow that. In Norway, they had a system
of charging people extra, and giving plastic bags for the purpose, of
DIY pack lunches.
--
Ken
John Mann
<K...@dasha.demon.co.uk> writes
I quite agree - I didn't realise that the original post was referring to
people making sandwiches *and taking them away* , rather than eating
them for breakfast.
Nevertheless (and I've only encountered the new style buffet once so
far), how is someone, possibly new to hostelling, supposed to know it is
orange juice or cereal, not both, unless there is a big sign to that
effect!
Graham B
one or the other.
When it was introduced there was no mention of limitations in what the
customer could have - probably it was thought it would work on the 'swings
and roundabouts' principle of some taking a lot whilst others took a little.
I have since come across at least 2 hostels which have imposed limits - one
of which actually allows you to take less then you were entitled to when the
'traditional' breakfast was the offering.
Management does appear to listen to customers (occasionally) and specified
an increase in the number of cooked items on offer from 2 to 4. Some wardens
/ managers though don't seem to have seen the instruction as they don't
produce this impoved choice.
"John Mann" <jo...@evenlode.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:7xVosXAA...@evenlode.demon.co.uk...
> In article <T3TiZTBmBgHHFw$o...@dasha.demon.co.uk>, Ken
> <K...@dasha.demon.co.uk> writes
> >In article <jLeOS1AS...@evenlode.demon.co.uk>, John Mann
> ><jo...@evenlode.demon.co.uk> writes
> >>In article <1192985313.2...@y27g2000pre.googlegroups.com>,
> >>underco...@hotmail.co.uk writes
> >>
> >>>Has peoples greed lead to the removal of a great service? It would be
> >>>interesting to see if this type of greed is extending into the new
> >>>style buffet breakfast. Again, I've seen people filling up plates full
> >>>of stuff and making sarnies with the bread, cheese and ham etc etc.
> >>>
> >>
> >>To be fair, why should they not? With the old cooked breakfast you got
> >>what you were given on your plate and that was that. In my admittedly
> >>limited experience of the buffet, there is no guidance as to which / how
> >>many items you can have. Is it supposed to be x OR y, or only so many of
> >>z? The ordinary person's experience of buffets elsewhere is "take what
> >>you like".
> >With the old style 1960s/70s breakfast, one could normally get second
> >helpings, particularly if they went for the porridge option.
> >
> >The buffet style option, choice of orange juice or cereals but not both,
> >always seemed incredibly mean compared with what one would get at
> >hotel/B&B. Especially, as hostels are supposed to cater for high energy
> >use, outdoor pursuits.
> >
>
John Mann
<gra...@ninety9.co.uk> writes
>The 'new' buffet breakfast should include BOTH fruit juice and cereal, not
>one or the other.
>
>When it was introduced there was no mention of limitations in what the
>customer could have - probably it was thought it would work on the 'swings
>and roundabouts' principle of some taking a lot whilst others took a little.
>I have since come across at least 2 hostels which have imposed limits - one
>of which actually allows you to take less then you were entitled to when the
>'traditional' breakfast was the offering.
>
>Management does appear to listen to customers (occasionally) and specified
>an increase in the number of cooked items on offer from 2 to 4. Some wardens
>/ managers though don't seem to have seen the instruction as they don't
>produce this impoved choice.
>
>
Just returned from Sherwood Forest, the buffet breakfast consisted of
cereal, fruit juice, croissants, sausages, bacon, baked beans and toast.
I did see some people take two sausages which wouldn't have been allowed
under the old scheme!
Graham B
"John Mann" <jo...@evenlode.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:YThc2KCT...@evenlode.demon.co.uk...
John Mann
<gra...@ninety9.co.uk> writes
>No cold meat or cheese on offer?
>
>