A woman was denied hotel access in Manchester due to an unpaid £1.20 tourist tax, leaving her stranded in the cold
Manchester: So, there’s this woman named Margaret Jones, right? She was left out in the freezing cold by a hotel because she couldn’t pay a £1.20 tourist tax. Can you believe that?
She arrived at the Britannia Hotel after a long trip from Lincolnshire, all set for a cozy night. But when she got to the check-in desk, they hit her with this extra charge. She didn’t have a card to pay it, and that’s where things went south.
Margaret, who’s 63 and has some mobility issues, usually pays in cash. She gets really anxious about her card PINs, which is totally understandable. But when she tried to pay with cash, the staff said no way.
She didn’t even know about this city tax, which started in April 2023. She was okay with paying it, but the hotel staff just wouldn’t help her out. It’s like they didn’t care at all.
She offered them £1.50 in cash, but they refused. She explained her situation, but they just turned her away. Can you imagine standing outside a hotel, shaking and crying, because you can’t pay a tiny fee?
Margaret stood there for about 15 minutes until a friend tried to help her pay online, but the hotel staff wouldn’t accept that either. Finally, she found a card that worked without needing a PIN, and she could finally get into her room.
She was pretty upset about the whole thing. She thought cash was supposed to be accepted everywhere. She mentioned that she had no issues at another Britannia hotel before, but they just shrugged it off. It’s wild how some places can be so rigid.
Honestly, it makes you think—there should be a way to pay these fees in cash. Not everyone has a card, and it’s just not fair to leave someone out in the cold like that.
Express.co.uk has reached out to Britannia Hotels for their side of the story.
