WHY SHOULD GOING SOLO MEAN SECOND CLASS TREATMENT?
The news that Air India is to introduce reserved sections for female passengers flying alone got me thinking about solo travelling. As it happens, I don’t agree with ‘female only’ travel options, be it sectioned-off seats on flights or specifically designated hotel floors. We live in a society of men and women. Let’s just get on with it.
So while I don’t have any truck with female travellers getting ‘preferential’ treatment, it would be nice if a bit more common courtesy was extended to those travelling by themselves – be they male or female.
Like being treated exactly the same way as if they were a couple, for example, or two friends. My experience is that that rarely happens.
I am new to the single traveller routine. Since the death of my husband 18 months ago, I have been trying to find my feet in the world of ‘double rooms for single use’ and the like.
Other solo problems that I never considered in my other life include pulling a case, carrying newspapers, and attempting to balance a breakfast tray at Dublin airport before departure.
And then there’s the beach thing. While I never go and lie on a beach for hours, I do like to nip for a swim and a read of my book when the weather allows. So how safe, then, are my belongings (cash, phone etc) if I go for a long swim? Do I ask someone to keep an eye on them for me and subject myself to the pity in their eyes? Or do I just hope for the best?
Being a trustful and optimistic type, I generally just hope for the best. But not all single travellers would feel comfortable with that.
I know that the ‘single supplement’ on package holidays has long been a bugbear – and rightly so. I tend not to book packages so I haven’t encountered that, but there are certainly things that are at best irritating and at worst infuriating about the hospitality industry when it comes to holidaying alone. Booking directly with hotels, I am generally charged the full double room rate. That’s fair enough – that’s the amount of money they can get for that room for two people so why would they charge me less? Especially since it’s my choice not to consign myself to a small room with a single bed. They are saving on one breakfast, of course, but that is never taken into account.
The restaurant experience is another issue. In the months after my husband’s death I found dining abroad on my own very difficult. But I did it.
What I came to realise, however, is that when you turn up looking for a table for one you usually end up with the table beside the toilets, or the one in the draught by the door. In other words, you are way down the priority list when it comes to customer service.
The front-of-house people also imagine you will be in and out in half an hour (sure, why would you be loitering when you’ve just a solo saddo with no-one to talk to?) so they bank on having the table back pretty quickly.
I now take delight in ordering, and then producing my book. Still, I shouldn’t have to make a point. And I certainly shouldn’t be given the worst table in the restaurant.
Some people travel alone out of choice. Others have that situation thrust upon them. It’s time the travel industry treated all of its customers with the respect that they deserve.
‘Ask for a table for one and you’ll get a spot next to the toilets or, worse still, in a draught’