Its worth complaining....

[meanioni]

Not a question, but a comment.

I recently stayed over in the Radisson Blu in Manchester Airport and was initially impressed by their gluten free menu, but then realised it was not gluten free (sausages that were not free from and chips fried in batter-y oil). The service was also very slow.

I ate something else but wrote afterwards to the manager - not seeking anything, but pointing out that they needed to take more care around gluten free menus and raising the service issues.

I got a very apologetic letter, they refunded the full price of the meal, said that they were retraining staff, revisiting the menu and they offered me a £100 voucher usable in any of their hotels world-wide.

So - worth complaining and I did say I would go back and give them feedback.

[FionaGFG Administrator]

Good point meanioni. We have a stash of these kind of emails to write including those that include praise! It's easy to forget to tell the places that embrace GF requirements that they're doing a great job. Often not catering for coeliacs is pure ignorance so if we all politely let companies know when they've fallen short it can only help improve things for the next coeliac that visits.

[Hidden]

I agree with both of you here. I think that if we are told something is what it isn't then to not complain is complacency so good for you for you Meanioni.

As for positive feedback this makes it seem worth while to provide the service.

And what we have to bear in mind is many people in catering are paid a low wage and work long hours. And praise is encouraging.

I think that the secret to complaining is to be polite and respectful of the other party.

[meanioni]

I do write and praise good handling of gluten/dairy free too. Although I'll be honest that the complaining letters out-number the praising ones about 10 to 1.

What is interesting is variability - one of the best trained, most knowledgeable staff was a server in a Welcome Break motorway services. And they had a detailed manual. The worst - well too many to mention!!! But higher class/more expensive restaurants seem to struggle more with it, bizarrely.