A bed of roses

The last trip to England I stayed in some shocking hotels.Some hotels that have an International name so you think you would be safe. I was meeting up with an old friend so I stayed close by in an area I knew fairly well.I was going to London afterwards for 2 days of serious shopping,before flying back to South Africa.

I chose the Gatwick Hilton for it's rail links to London and checked in. I dropped my bags in the room and left to go and do everything I needed to. I returned after dinner and lay down on the bed. The bed didn't feel right and with my bad back I am fairly particular, but not overly fussy. Just give me a bed that I can lie in that has some comfort.A bed of roses would have been ultra comfort compared to this one.

The bed just didn't feel right and things were digging into me. I had somewhat become an expert on beds as earlier that year had launched a company called "The Bed Clinic". I inspected the mattress and noticed that the springs had collapsed and there was no bed to talk about really. It got worse when I had a look at the pillows. This is so bad that this you couldn't make this up.

I emptied my pillow case out and I was expecting a pillow of sorts, but no there wasn't a pillow. The second pillow slip had identical contents as the first one and I was horrified.The contents included another 6 pillowslips and what looked like half a cushion. This half a cushion was the core of the pillow and each pillow slip was used as a cover and the extra material neatly folded over. After using the 6 pillow slips you had something that resembled a pillow,but it wasn't very comfortable.

I phoned management requesting another room, but they were fully booked. It was too late to find another hotel now so I was stuffed. With loads of apologies I was refunded the nights stay. I slept on the floor that night in a Hilton and drafted a wonderful letter to the Directors in America.

I can't recall her name,but received a letter straight back with sincere apologies. Maybe it helped that I was still booked in and the room was that bad.I sent her photographs of the substandard mattress pointing out the collapsed springs and the Hilton pillow idea which they should patent, but can't call it a pillow.

I received an invitation to join the Hilton Club and on registration there would be a gift which I could redeem at one of their hotels. I haven't used it yet as it is only around $500 or so, but still something. The other good thing was the hotel was going into immediate review so someone was in serious trouble. At least they were going to fix the problems.

I was left wandering what morons had been sleeping on this mattress for the last 6 months and had said nothing.

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