A hotel has found itself at the centre of both a crisis PR storm and customer relations disaster yesterday when it emerged that some snobbish correspondence had been inadvertently forwarded to a couple whose stature was deemed inappropriate to the opulent surrounds of the £10k a night venue.
In customer relations which were more Fawlty Towers than five star Stoke Park Hotel’s wedding co-ordinator inadvertently copied in a love-struck couple to an email intended for her boss enquiring how best to give the unwanted clients the heave-ho.
Upon receipt of the request for a booking Michele Connelly wrote to her superior to inform them that the pair were not the ‘type of people that we would want to have at Stoke Park’ and enquired how best to ‘put the wedding off’.
Unwittingly cc’d into the conversation the couple were ‘mortified’ upon reading the missive, with Miss Bailey, 27, blaming the snub on the age of her 51 year old fiancé Mr Carter – and his pierced eyebrow.
Bailey said: “We’re a respectable, middle-class, hard-working, well-educated couple, who both speak well and were certainly not dragged-up, so to speak. It’s clear to me that this hotel operates a policy of discrimination which is terribly wrong, unfair and deeply, deeply hurtful. Paul and I can hold our own anywhere and in anyone’s company. We are thoroughly decent people and didn’t deserve this humiliation."
The original message, headlined ‘Help!!!’ read: “I need your advice on this wedding. I know this probably doesn’t sound very nice, but I am trying to put this wedding off as I don’t think they are the type of people that we would want to have at Stoke Park."
The hotel subsequently issued a grovelling apology and stresses that the member of staff involved faces disciplinary action.
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Wow. As someone who has spend the last month visiting a long list of venues for my own wedding this is my worst nightmare. When visiting upmarket venues there is always the niggling thought that you are being judged as you walk around. Mostly that is unfounded as I have been welcomed with open arms by almost every venue I have visited.
I have to say I too have visited Stoke Park Club and was treated very well but for the price they charge (Starting at just under £200 a head I believe), they should be more grateful of anyone who wishes to spend their special day there. Weddings are a cash-cow for most venues and there is certainly no shortage of stunning venues at that price point in the local area. Glad to hear the planner is being brought back down to earth with a bump.
I have to admit I would have been more likely to keep this sort of thing private in return for a substantial discount on the wedding but that's just me!
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