Was This Lady Rude Or Is This Normal Behaviour?

[evilly]

My husband and I recently went for a meal in a little village which is notorious for being difficult to park in. There is barely any parking and its dog eat dog to get any. We were very lucky to manage to get the one space that was free at the restaurant we were eating at. We got our or our car with our newborn baby but as we were assembling the pram a woman came along and in an unfriendly manner said 'are you staying at the hotel or just eating as we are staying at the hotel and have nowhere to park'. She obviously hoped we would feel pressurised to give her the space but my husband was quite firm and just said 'we are here to eat'. At that she became quite irate and summoned over a member if staff asking 'is this car park for hotel visitors as these people are only eating and we have no space'. Again she hoped that the member if staff would ask us to move in fear if upsetting a hotel guest but the staff member simply said the car park was for all customers. We apologise and walked on saying we hoped she found a space. It upsets me that she was willing to see us have to move our car and not have anywhere else to park even though we got there first and had a young baby. But part of me wonders if it is common etiquette to have let her stay since she was a hotel guest and would have had luggage etc. maybe if she had asked nicely we would have considered giving her the space but she was so selfish and rude we weren't going to. What are your opinions on this situation?

[evilly]

The restaurant is in the hotel just to clear that up.

[jomifl]

She is probably used to getting her own way..don't worry about it.

[jno]

I agree with both of you... if I'd been staying at the hotel I'd have wanted the space, if I'd just been eating there I'd have wanted the space too... Perhaps the hotel needs to arrange more parking for guests, of both the hotel and the restaurant.

[ummmm]

I agree with jno.

[ludwig]

It's not normal. The car park is for all hotel customers equally, irrespective of whether they're staying overnight or not.

She should have addressed any complaints about lack of available space to the hotel management and not involved you at all.

[China Doll]

The way she went about it is rude but I don't think it was an unreasonable question to you or the staff; she's paying money to stay there and it's a reasonable expectation to have a parking space to me.

[cazzz1975]

She was rude in my opinion, you were within your rights to be parked there, I can understand her frustration, maybe she needs to take up parking issues with the hotel rather than harassing people using the hotel/restaurant car park

[douglas9401]

Professional battleaxe by the sound of her. I hope you had all three courses and coffee then went for a long walk to aid digestion.

[evilly]

Completely agree that she should have had a space. There is a large car park but everyone parks there even none customers as the area is very popular with tourists and there is no parking anywhere else. There's no doubt customers should expect parking but to expect us to move so she could have the space seems selfish and rude to me.

[evilly]

Douglas we actually did take a while lol. When I said the one space available I didn't mean there is only one space in total. Just that there was one space left as we drove into the car park

[tamborine]

Staff acted correctly. Blog hotel to commend staff member; he's worth a bonus ;)

[aelmpvw]

she'd booked a room, she hadn't bought the car park

[China Doll]

Well you've just answered your own question really, if it's generally known that people park there without being anything to do with the hotel then I would ask too. I wouldn't bother thinking on it anymore really, it's not like any damage was done.

[society]

You both were patrons to the hotel. I believe both of you were within your rights to have a parking space there. Blame the hotel :)

[jno]

I imagine she didn't "expect" you to move, just kind of hoped... The staff member backed you up on this, but if the hotel can't arrange some sort of parking for guests they may lose trade as this sort of incident just annoys customers.

[Cannedgranny]

I am sure that if she had come to dine in the restaurant only and taken the last available parking space, she would have felt no guilt whatsoever.

[gingejbee]

At the outset, I may have told a little lie....."yes, we are staying at the hotel"....

[evilly]

I know it's not a major issue but just wondered if there was some sort of unwritten rule of etiquette that says because she was staying overnight and therefore had spent more money she would be priority for the solace. I did write a review actually lol

[evilly]

Parking not solace. iPad autocorrect lol

[Elina]

The car park is open to diners & those who are boarding in the hotel. You were there first . The other lady was in the wrong.