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

[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.)