Hotel that Doesn't Have...Tea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly I have worked with many hotels in the Caribbean for conferences and they can be super weird. I have given up having expectations. It isn’t like the many domestic conferences I have done. “Island time” is real.

Exactly
Maybe that’s why many people think PR isn’t part of the U.S.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work for an org that is planning a multi-day event at a hotel in Puerto Rico. It is a large, major chain hotel in San Juan. Our meeting planner reviewed our food and beverage orders with the hotel today today, and since she and I are both tea drinkers, she confirmed what type of black/breakfast tea they serve. And the hotel told her that they don't have black tea. Not that they are out-- they just don't stock it at all. I told her that is unacceptable and they have to either get some, or discount our beverage service rate if I have to purchase tea for all of the tea drinkers at the event.

Am I being unreasonable to expect that a major hotel that hosts large events should have breakfast tea available? I am accustomed to being given limited/bad tea options at restaurants so I always carry some in my bag, but I've never been told by a hotel that they simply don't carry it.

I realize that in the grand scheme of life this is not a big deal, but I have been attending/managing conferences for 20+ years and this is not an issue I've ever dealt with.

What hotel? I am the other poster who is booking an event there! (but small)

[Anonymous]

PR has some of the best coffee in the world, not surprising that no one has tea there. You can actually get OK pizza there, there are enough New Yorkers around to get it right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for an org that is planning a multi-day event at a hotel in Puerto Rico. It is a large, major chain hotel in San Juan. Our meeting planner reviewed our food and beverage orders with the hotel today today, and since she and I are both tea drinkers, she confirmed what type of black/breakfast tea they serve. And the hotel told her that they don't have black tea. Not that they are out-- they just don't stock it at all. I told her that is unacceptable and they have to either get some, or discount our beverage service rate if I have to purchase tea for all of the tea drinkers at the event.

Am I being unreasonable to expect that a major hotel that hosts large events should have breakfast tea available? I am accustomed to being given limited/bad tea options at restaurants so I always carry some in my bag, but I've never been told by a hotel that they simply don't carry it.

I realize that in the grand scheme of life this is not a big deal, but I have been attending/managing conferences for 20+ years and this is not an issue I've ever dealt with.

Buy a big ol' box of Lipton from Giant and bring it with you and call it a day.

Would you say the same if a hotel said they didn't serve black coffee? Just bring a big ol' box of Nescafe?

Nescafé will be different in quality from brewed from beans coffee. Hotels in the Caribbean rarely have loose leaf tear so bagged tea you provide yourself is comparable quality.

I’ve traveled a lot and always pack a couple tea bags for each day. The weight and space is nothing.

[Anonymous]

Did you specify if iced or hot?
I know servers hate the prep time for hot tea service so it may have been one guy trying to skip out on doing the extra work.
If you're in PR, I recommend Cafe con Leche, it's amazing

[Anonymous]

Next time stay at a Ritz.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mother in law carries a bag of decaf tea bags in her purse. At every restaurant, she asks if they have decaf tea. Many do not. When the waiter tells her no, she lets out a big disappointed sigh and says “well just bring me some hot water”. Like it is the greatest sadness in the world. And makes her own tea.

I suggest this approach.

Why do I love this so much?

[Anonymous]

As someone who used to play a lot of these, the fact that that was a response would be be me a huge red flag and prevent me from proceeding with them.

It would be one thing if they said “we don’t typically stop it, but not an issue get it”. The correct answer should have been. yes, we have it or no issue.

This just means that they’re gonna be a pain to deal with nickel and dime you on literally everything. In my experience can gain to you the staff will be miserable no enthusiasm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously I'm not going to cancel the event. But I feel like it is not difficult for them to just buy tea as a basic level of service for their customers.

To be clear-- I am not talking about only my own needs. I am certainly not the only person in a conference of 300 people who drinks tea.

Is the conference going to be attended only by UMC females over the age of 60 who live in urban areas of blue states?

If so, tea is a must-have.

Sorry for being so snarky, but you’re in a bubble.

Tea (esp hot tea) is consumed by a very small subset of the population. Not at all surprising that a resort wouldn’t stock it.

Asia would like a word.

How many Asian-based companies plan conferences in PR? Drinking hot tea isn’t rare in the US, but most people don’t have it routinely at breakfast, and probably even fewer people do in PR than here on the mainland. If tea was consistently requested for conferences, this hotel would have it, don’t you think?

[Anonymous]

This seems like a made up problem. Buy the tea. Have your work pay you back. Make sure there's a big carafe of water. Move on with your day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously I'm not going to cancel the event. But I feel like it is not difficult for them to just buy tea as a basic level of service for their customers.

To be clear-- I am not talking about only my own needs. I am certainly not the only person in a conference of 300 people who drinks tea.

This is about your needs though…? Are you making a stink about some tiny detail on behalf of any attendees?

Hats off to the GS-13 who offered a full solution. When I’m queen, I’ll give you OP’s job!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously I'm not going to cancel the event. But I feel like it is not difficult for them to just buy tea as a basic level of service for their customers.

To be clear-- I am not talking about only my own needs. I am certainly not the only person in a conference of 300 people who drinks tea.

Is the conference going to be attended only by UMC females over the age of 60 who live in urban areas of blue states?

If so, tea is a must-have.

Sorry for being so snarky, but you’re in a bubble.

Tea (esp hot tea) is consumed by a very small subset of the population. Not at all surprising that a resort wouldn’t stock it.

You are extremely wrong about that. First, coffee dominance is a purely American thing. Around the world, tea drinkers vastly outnumber coffee drinkers. You might think this is irrelevant in the US, but we have a large annual legal migration into the US and many of them bring their hot drink choices with them.

And here are some actual numbers (note, only relevant bullets have been cut & pasted):
https://gitnux.org/tea-drinkers-vs-coffee-drinkers-statistics/

Highlights: The Most Important Coffee Drinkers Statistics

79% of Americans drink coffee while 75% drink tea.

27% of Americans prefer coffee, and 27% prefer tea.

64% of American adults drink at least one cup of coffee per day.

37% of American tea drinkers consume four or more cups per day.

Tea consumption has grown 20% in the United States since 2000.

Millennials consume more tea (42%) compared to coffee (38%).

80% of US households have tea in their kitchens and 158 million Americans drink tea daily.

50% of Americans prefer to drink coffee in the morning, while 26% prefer tea.

87% of millennials drink tea, while 63% prefer coffee.

There are many tea drinkers out there. I would guess that out of 300 attendees that somewhere between 75-100 will be tea drinkers, that drink tea exclusively over coffee.
Additionally, your assumption that tea is only drunk by older suburban women is wrong, too. Millennials attendees will predominantly drink tea even over coffee.

[Anonymous]

I drink black tea. Not coffee.

I would complain to the hotel director. It is unacceptable to not offer black tea to clients. Black tea is consumed on all continents, by all ethnicities.

Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously I'm not going to cancel the event. But I feel like it is not difficult for them to just buy tea as a basic level of service for their customers.

To be clear-- I am not talking about only my own needs. I am certainly not the only person in a conference of 300 people who drinks tea.

Is the conference going to be attended only by UMC females over the age of 60 who live in urban areas of blue states?

If so, tea is a must-have.

Sorry for being so snarky, but you’re in a bubble.

Tea (esp hot tea) is consumed by a very small subset of the population. Not at all surprising that a resort wouldn’t stock it.

Asia would like a word.

How many Asian-based companies plan conferences in PR? Drinking hot tea isn’t rare in the US, but most people don’t have it routinely at breakfast, and probably even fewer people do in PR than here on the mainland. If tea was consistently requested for conferences, this hotel would have it, don’t you think?

Just because you don't pay attention doesn't make this a fact.

In the US, there are approxmiately 338 million people, of which about 260M are adults. Of the adult population, about 50% (130M) drink coffee in the morning. About 26% (68M) drink tea in the morning. So you think that just because there are fewer than coffee drinkers, you can ignore approximately 1/4 of the conference attendees, or more?

One other problem with places that don't serve coffee is that even when you ask for hot water, routinely they make that hot water in the same machines as they make coffee. And the carafes, pots, urns, and other containers all taste like old dishwater because you can't wash the coffee taste out of those things. So, if they don't have dedicated pots and such for water or tea, then it's often not drinkable to make tea with the hot water that came from a coffee machine.

[Anonymous]

I feel strongly that this is just a misunderstanding between the lady who called and the particular person she spoke with. That hotel employee is not a tea drinker, so they did not understand what you meant when specifying black or breakfast tea.