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the meantime returned to their homeland but some friendships survive from that time.
We certainly had no over-tourism. What was absolutely wonderful then - and I always loved itineraries with very little or nothing in it - was to adapt to the interests of the group. One could always turn up at a distillery, or a castle or visitor attraction unannounced and just visit. And if group was half an hour late for a lunch, not a problem. Today restaurants are unhappy if group is 5 minutes late - “why did you not phone?!”
What was really, really bad then were the hotels. Simply awful. The rooms, the service (ah remember drinks getting served just as dessert arrived!) the food, everything was awful.
I know one my colleagues gave up guiding because she could not handle these hotel check-ins and complaints any longer. She really had enough. Not of guiding per se, but this particular aspect: check-ins in these awful hotels!
Not just in the Highlands but in the cities too. Some hotels you just waited at reception for customers to turn up and complain. To sort it all out could take half an hour or more. We all remember, the shower curtains that wrapped themselves around you, if there was a shower! Not many then, most hotels had these “shower attachments” that you could attach to the hot and cold tap in the bathtub and have something like a shower. A particular hotel started charging £5 deposit for these!! I did not know about this until the teenage daughter of a family came laughing and giggling to dinner and told everyone about the £5 deposit. “What do they think? That we take these home as souvenirs of Scotland?”. There was great hilarity and the girl could not stop giggling. The next day she confessed that she actually had put the shower attachment in her suitcase as a souvenir.
One of the worst experiences was what I later called the “musical chair” event. Complainant 1, got another room, complainant 2, got another room, complainant 3, got another room. At some point I literally gave up, there were no rooms left. At dinner a client told me he was now in room no 3 and was happy and I thought to myself but complainant 1 was there originally...then another customer arrives red in the face with anger and said he is in room no 10 which was given to him as an upgrade and he can pull up the whole toilet seat from its base!. The bathrooms were always a particular problems for and the separate hot and cold taps of course were for ever a source of laughter.
And another really, really bad experience: the room I was allocated to was really smelly, musky, damp and I was not prepared to stay. I hardly ever asked for another room, I never complained however bad they were. Well of course I complained but never asked for another room for
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