Footy kids take on top hotel chain.. and win
Premier Inn back down after team’ s story goes viral
A hotel giant scored an own goal when they refused to amend a booking for a kids football team when blizzards hit – only to perform a U-turn one week later.
Premier Inn were slammed online when a furious Facebook post from visiting team The Farmers Colts, based in Liverpool, Merseyside, went viral.
Under-10s team coach Paul McKendrick, a high school depute head teacher, told how he had booked rooms for his 10 players and their parents at the Glasgow East Kilbride Central branch for a weekend trip from the north-west of England.
However, when the worst snow to hit Scotland in 20 years hampered their plans and Paul asked to change the dates of their stay, the hotel showed him the red card – causing a storm on social media.
Now the team have hit the back of the net after hotel owners Whitbread reversed their decision following intense scrutiny.
Paul, 39, told the News: “I was absolutely disgusted that this massive hotel chain was prepared to take £770 from an under-10s football team from Liverpool who couldn’t get to Scotland because of extreme weather.
“My team are from Croxteth in Liverpool – an area which has one of the highest rates of deprivation in England and where there is a lot of gang culture.
“The children are educationally disadvantaged, some from low-income families, and have been fundraising for the past year to come up to Scotland to play.
“I asked to move the date back a few weeks when the red weather warning was forecast and was told no, point blank, by the hotel, customer services and a head of their complaints department.
“There was nothing else I could do but post about it on social media – the support we got was phenomenal.”
Over the last week Paul’s post was shared more than 3000 times with scores of people coming forward offering to donate money to the team. An East Kilbride businessman and a company from Glasgow even offered to gift Paul the full cost of the trip. And the KANO Foundation – a charity who offer free unique matchday experiences at Celtic Park for kids – also lent their backing. But Paul has picked out the assistance of Hamilton Accies, the team they were set to play, and advocacy group Grassroots Football UK, who blew the whistle on the whole debacle by contacting the hotel themselves.
Grassroots Football UK spokesman Paul Kirton said: “It was unfair and unjust for Premier Inn to take that stance so I rang and asked them to reconsider their decision in light of the circumstances and they made a swift decision to amend the booking. I think Premier Inn will now agree it was the right decision.”
However, dad-of-three Paul, who is originally from Carluke, South Lanarkshire, says the hotel’s response was “too little, too late”.
He added: “I totally understand booking terms and conditions but there needs to be common sense.
“I am under no illusion that without the social and mainstream media interest in this, I would not have been offered a positive resolution.
“It is for this reason that I cannot accept this too little, too late response from Premier Inn. I will be instead using the Bothwell Bridge Hotel who have generously offered us rooms for a weekend in April.
“If the Premier Inn really wants to make amends they should offer a generous donation to a grassroots football team in East Kilbride.”
Paul now plans to turn his negative experience into a teaching tool by giving his pupils a lesson on the power of social media.
A spokeswoman for Whitbread said: “We are sorry we’ve been unable to resolve this matter to Mr McKendrick’s satisfaction.”