Edinburgh's Travelodge staff bombarded with bizarre requests

A GUEST staying at a budget city hotel chain asked what time Edinburgh Castle's iconic one o'clock gun was fired every day, according to a new list of bizarre requests made to hotel staff.
Pic by Michael Scott/Caters News - (PICTURED: Assistant Manager, Erica Mousah helps a customer at Travelodge in Dudley town centre.)Pic by Michael Scott/Caters News - (PICTURED: Assistant Manager, Erica Mousah helps a customer at Travelodge in Dudley town centre.)
Pic by Michael Scott/Caters News - (PICTURED: Assistant Manager, Erica Mousah helps a customer at Travelodge in Dudley town centre.)

Another visitor to the capital asked Travelodge employees to “make sure all the traffic lights are all programmed to green” so he didn’t miss an ‘important’ business meeting.

The company, which operates eleven hotels in the city, published a list of odd demands posed to workers at locations across the UK.

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Hotel staff at Edinburgh Airport were stunned when one jet-setting guest asked “Can I have a room next to the runaway as I don’t want to miss my flight?”

Another hungry guest wanted to know exactly “how many baked beans are included in the breakfast?”

And a stargazing tourist was asking the world of workers at Travelodge Rose Street when he wanted to know “How many stars are in the sky tonight?”

Edinburgh Central staff had to field questions over the historic one o’clock gun - which has been fired at 1pm every day except Sunday since 1861.

It was originally shot as a time signal for ships in the Firth of Forth, though the current gun only came into use in 2001.

But workers on Princes Street were nearly roped into finding ‘something borrowed’ for one embarrassed groom, who asked a staff member for a loan of his wedding ring as his best man had apparently “lost” his the night before the ceremony.

However, it wasn’t just jewellery that was misplaced in the capital as staff at Haymarket discovered when a guest asked “I have lost my friend in the city centre - can you please go and find him for me?”

And workers on Waterloo Place were almost forced to brush up on their language skills for a nervous businessman who requested to practice a presentation in front of staff - only to then reveal the entire meeting would be conducted in Mandarin.

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The odd requests included in the report were all made over the last 12 months in more than 40 Travelodge hotels located throughout Scotland.

And clearly there were some concerns about the presence of ghosts in the company’s Princes Street premises.

One guest asked if staff wouldn’t mind “dressing up as the Ghostbusters for Halloween”.

The guest added: “My child loves them”.

Travelodge Spokeswoman Shakila Ahmed said: “Where possible, the teams will go above and beyond to help customers. They do like a good challenge.”

She added: “However there are some requests that they cannot help with, such as: arranging dancing dolphins at Lands End, for it to snow and to ensure all traffic lights are green for a business executive so that he gets to his meeting on time.”

Elsewhere in Scotland, Inverness staff were asked “What time are the cage dives to see the Loch Ness Monster?”.

In Aberdeen, it was requested workers “arrange for a guest to have afternoon tea with the Queen and Prince Philip at Balmoral Castle” and if it would be possible for one guest to “reserve a whole train carriage” as he had “an important presentation he needed to rehearse on the journey from Aberdeen to London”.

In Glasgow, staff were asked: “Can you call me out of a meeting and say it’s an emergency so that I can catch my train?”

And in Dundee, one homesick guest said: “Can you put a framed picture of my basset hound Bernie in my room prior to my arrival?”