I am now boycotting the Four Seasons hotel chain

[raincitygirl]

So today at lunch I was running some last-minute errands at Pacific Centre mall when I started projectile-vomiting all over the floor. A nice security guard/first aid attendant checked me over and sat with me until I was feeling better. I was a bit wobbly still, but wanted to get back to the office so I could get the rest of my stuff and go home. Security guy suggested I go right next door to the Vancouver Four Seasons Hotel entrance and ask them to get me a cab. They have a taxi ramp, apparently. He also offered to walk over there with me and put me in a cab, but I declined. First mistake.

I arrived in the covered area outside the door to the Four Seasons main entrance, and I was starting to doubt I'd get a taxi, because it was snowing, and there were several people there ahead of me, probably hotel guests. But when the door guy got to me, I tried, starting with, "I'm not a guest, but the first aid attendant at the mall said you might be able to call me a taxi." I wasn't hugely surprised when he said that as I wasn't a guest, he couldn't help me.

What came next did surprise me, though. Apparently I wasn't allowed to call a taxi for myself on my cell phone and wait under cover, out of the snow and wind. !!!!!!!! Never mind that there was loads and loads of empty space under cover, and I wouldn't have had to contaminate any of the guests. Because I wasn't a guest, I had to go back into the snow. Fuck him, seriously. I was standing a good 8 feet away from the nearest guest when he shooed me away.

If I'd had any sense, I would've gone back into the Pacific Centre entrance next door and called for a cab from there, but feeling rather tearful, I ended up walking very slowly back to the office, taking frequent rests on bus benches. Mercifully my boss let me go home once I got back there.

In other news, would someone please muzzle Matt Damon when he talks about sexual harassment and mortally embarrasses himself?

And apparently all pet owners are yokels, according to Trump. Pet owners seem like an odd constituency to point and laugh at. I'm quite sure there are registered Republicans out there who have pets, and who love their pets. Trump's own vice-president has 2 cats, a rabbit and a snake.

Comments

[raincitygirl]

I have never heard anything bad about the Four Seasons before, so please feel free to dish on what YOU have heard.

For years I used to work across the street from the Sutton Place, which is a nice hotel, though not as glam as the Four Seasons. Their doormen never had any objection to getting taxis for non-guests. If there was a rush and there were more people wanting taxis than there were taxis available, you’d have to wait until the hotel guests had been served first, but they were always very polite about that. And they never shooed anybody out into the snow.

Matt Damon and Trump both need to stop talking where other people can hear them.

[madripoor_rose]

Mainly just that lack of true customer service/good manners being replaced with crass snobbery. There was no reason at all for you to be chased out into the snow while waiting for your ride, and nobody should be treated that way.

But of course, you weren't a guest, and therefore probably not even a person.

[raincitygirl]

Yeah, it felt very much like crass snobbery. I hope you had a GREAT Christmas.

[madripoor_rose]

A nice quiet snowy Christmas. Hope you enjoyed yours as well.