Rain and Reign

Debrah was supposed to go back to London yesterday but fate intervened.

The rain has continued here unabated for three days now and was probably a factor in the car battery being flat when I was supposed to be taking Debrah to the airport for her flight. It was certainly a factor in there being no taxis available immediately, and as we had left our departure until the last minute as ever, we had no room for manouevre.

We retreated back inside resigned to it all and lost a crucial fifteen minutes before I discovered that the flight was running 30 minutes late. I rushed upstairs to Denis' apartment and grabbed the garage keys and we rushed up to the airport in Denis' car. The plane was just landing as we got there, but it was all to no avail - as far as they were concerned we were late for the flight and they had closed the gate and they weren't going to let Debrah on the flight despite the fact she had checked in online and only had hand baggage and despite there being plenty of time for her to go through security and join the back of the queue at the gate (one plane, one gate, twenty metres from security to the gate, lots of people stood about doing nothing - but no go).

I don't know if it was Ryanair policy or Carcassonne airport policy or both but it wasn't a good advert for either of them. We accept that we were late but so was the flight coming in - seems that Ryanair are allowed to be late without consequence (I'm sure there was a good reason) but passengers get no leeway despite also having a good reason and despite it all being easily feasible for Debrah to have joined the flight in good time. Maybe they are only really interested in charging the £75 fee for re-booking than in actually getting people onto the flights they have already paid for.

Actually none of all that surprised me - I've always known that the whole system is geared towards the benefit of the provider of the service and not the person paying for the service - surely it should be the other way around.

The reason that all the above is relevant, and is not just a diatribe, is that we have been discussing the service that we provide here at 42rvh to our paying customers. The debate is centred around whether we give too much for too little cost or not - i.e. should we be going out of our way to provide the best possible experience at all times, no matter the inconvenience, for our guests or should we draw the line somewhere and downgrade what we do or charge extra for certain things.

I make it sound very black and white but it's nothing of the sort and not as extreme as the picture painted, but it is still difficult to decide how we move on next year in continuing to develop the business and the services we will provide and what cost we should charge for them, especially given the economic situation.

In it's barest form the equation is easy - we want to provide as good a service as possible at a price people can afford that also generates a profit. Can we do all three? I hope so.

In the meantime, the relentless wet weather, the unexpected bonus of Debrah being here longer than expected and no guests to worry about has resulted in us getting thoroughly absorbed in the BBC mini-series of the Tudors - all long leather boots, bare chests, loose morals, double dealing and intrigue - and a history lesson too, your grace, my lord, your majesty!