Hotelier criticized for not offering for tap water
LONDON (AP) - Shades of Basil Fawlty.
A hotelier who wrote to a client explaining why she couldn't have a free glass of tap water was showered with bad publicity Friday, being compared in some British newspapers to John Cleese's ill-tempered hotel keeper on TV's Fawlty Towers. Sally Burchell, a guest at the Atlantic Hotel in Newquay, southwest England, complained to managing director Anthony Cobley that she was refused a glass of tap water with her meal, worth 18 pounds or about $42 Cdn.
Staff told her she would have to pay 80 pence (almost $2) for a small bottle of mineral water or two pounds (about $5) for one litre.
Cobley wrote back: "I buy water from the South West Water company. I buy the glasses that the water is served in. I buy the ice that goes into the water and I buy the labour to serve the water.
"I provide the luxury surroundings for the water to be drunk in and again pay for the labour and washing materials to wash the glass after you have used it, and you think that I should provide all of this free of charge!
Story from CNEWS
LONDON (AP) - Shades of Basil Fawlty.
A hotelier who wrote to a client explaining why she couldn't have a free glass of tap water was showered with bad publicity Friday, being compared in some British newspapers to John Cleese's ill-tempered hotel keeper on TV's Fawlty Towers. Sally Burchell, a guest at the Atlantic Hotel in Newquay, southwest England, complained to managing director Anthony Cobley that she was refused a glass of tap water with her meal, worth 18 pounds or about $42 Cdn.
Staff told her she would have to pay 80 pence (almost $2) for a small bottle of mineral water or two pounds (about $5) for one litre.
Cobley wrote back: "I buy water from the South West Water company. I buy the glasses that the water is served in. I buy the ice that goes into the water and I buy the labour to serve the water.
"I provide the luxury surroundings for the water to be drunk in and again pay for the labour and washing materials to wash the glass after you have used it, and you think that I should provide all of this free of charge!
Story from CNEWS
