A bad rep?

[bellinghman]

The following headline is on the BBC web site today, in the 'North' section: Hotel rejects 'theft hotspot' tag

I didn't even need to look to know which particular establishment they were referring to. After all, how many such places can there be?

Crime figures from May 2005 to May 2006 show four out of five room burglaries in Liverpool hotels happened at the Adelphi in Ranelagh Place.

It's a shame, a real shame, but no surprise. We'll be there next Easter, but there's no way we're actually taking a room there - we've too many friends who have been stolen from, there.

(Edit: a single comma added.)

Comments

[isihac.livejournal.com]

we've too many friends who have been stolen from there
Did you get your friends back after? ;-)

[bellinghwoman.livejournal.com]

*lol*

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

my reaction exactly. :)

[happydisciple.livejournal.com]

Time to dig up my Eileen Downey Fanclub badge, methinks.

[vatine]

If enough rooms get booked to fill the hotel, next year's EasterCon will feature security at the door, requiring either a valid pre-registration or someone happy to vouch for you. This would, ideally, mean that the only people in the hotel are Con members and hotel staff (and, incidentally, make security's job taht much easier).

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

And that would reduce the problem just how?

(Hint: when the room safes are being burgled, you know it's not the guests who are the problem.)

[vatine]

It would point the finger SQUARELY at the staff, to start with.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

True. But that finger has been pointed for a long time now. I don't think we need more evidence.

And the chances of that are ...

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

... badly reduced by the perceived crime rate *particularly* if there's "inside" crime (current or ex-staff members with keys/access, who either commit the crime themselves or tip off a friend/accomplice to do the dirty).

I believe we need to get 400 rooms booked, and I don't know if they have any restrictions on how many of those can be "singles", but let's assume 25% of rooms are singles, so that's 700 people staying in the hotel. (300 doubles, 100 singles, I'm ignoring families/triples)

At the moment, Convoy's website shows 350 members (all categories) with 60 still at pre-supporting (which reminds me, I must convert), 10 supporters, 7 committee (including the email bot), 4 guests and the rest (I think) are kids (oh, and two toys). So, at best, around 280 warm bodies booked to be onsite. I really hope that membership picks up between now and Easter, but I think the chance of selling out the hotel is *extremely* small.

So we need to encourage people to come along and to book into the Adelphi (and we have to make sure that *our* security is as good as possible).

Re: And the chances of that are ...

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

In addition, I strongly suspect that not all attending members could be persuaded to stay there.

(This strong suspicion is reinforced by the fact that we are booked into a different hotel.)

This may be the make-or-break occasion for the Adelphi, so far as general UK fandom is concerned. If no problems occur, then the sceptics may be won back. But if the usual level does occur, then I think it'll be another decade before fandom could be persuaded to return.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

That points, with Noel-Edmonds-sized hands, towards an inside job.
If it's still going on, then the hotel management don't care enough to find the person. Fuck 'em.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

A friend of bellinghwoman was there at a company do, some months ago. The hotel's cleaners were moving through the seating area picking up rubbish and putting it into bin bags. Various women's handbags disappeared during this process.

When the management were then asked to ensure that clear rubbish bags be issued, so that such 'mistaken collectiosn' would be minimised, management refused.

A couple of years ago, another person we know was there at a union conference. The report afterwards was that every credit card that went across the bar got skimmed.

You don't get to be running a hotel whose burglary count is four times that of every other hotel in the city combined unless you have a place with a criminal culture.

(Not unless you are bigger than all the other hotels combined. Yes, the Adelphi is big, but not that big. Not by a very long way.)

I have heard of thefts in other hotels I've stayed in. But I've heard of more thefts in the Adelphi that in all the other hotels I've been in, combined, by a long way. At least one person on this FList has been stolen from in there.

It's a shame, because it's an ideally situated place, and the lobby area is to die for. If not for the crime problem, I'd be recommending it. (OK, parking is not wonderful. And the late night disco is something to make sure your room isn't directly above. But solve that crime, and I'd be recommending it.)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

Wow!
Noone has pressed charges?
That it has not been investigated is not saying a great deal of good about the local Police; even if they don't give a shit about people, clearing up that sort of theft hotspot will do wonders for their Home Office statistics.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

To press charges, there has to be someone to charge. Sadly, that seems to be the problem - when you get a culture of theft, it's difficult to pick out those responsible for any particular incident.

Apparently, a similar problem happened at a branch of Woolworth some years back. In the end, every single person at that store was sacked, with a single exception (no, not the store's manager). Short of the same thing happening at the Adelphi, I can't see the problem being solved.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

I see your point. I suppose that's why 4/5 burglaries happen there, but noone has been charged - there are only reports of crimes in a location, none of them are cleared up.

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Indeed, if people were getting charged, or more to the point convicted, you can be pretty sure the rate would have dropped somewhat.

(There is a valid point that, being in a pretty central location in Liverpool, there will be more crime trying to come in off the streets. But I suspect that's merely a screen the insiders hide behind - keeping outsiders out does not stop the theft.)