14 August 2023 , 11:54
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A seaside hotel has sparked debate amongst social media users after offering festival goers a 15-minute shower for £15.
Newquay Beach Hotel in Cornwall made its cleaning facilities available to thousands of revellers at the nearby Boardmasters over the weekend, providing showers with a towel, hairdryer, body wash, shampoo and conditioner.
It was inundated with requests after promoting the offer for £15 - the equivalent of £1 per minute - or as part of a deal at £5 if guests showed their receipt for breakfast or a burger and drink for £10.
The hotel wrote on Facebook: "Showers available for Boardmasters and non residents at £15 for 15 minutes with towel and shower gel provided. Burgers, Barista coffees. Frappes, Hard Frappes, smoothies, cocktails, mushroom blend coffees.
"We have a deal running. Burger and any drink (alcoholic with ID) for £10. With your receipt you can take a shower for £5."
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The hotel was inundated with requests after promoting the offer for £15 - the equivalent of £1 per minuteBut while many welcomed the opportunity to freshen up, some social media users criticised the shower-only offer for being too steep, with one person posting: "£15 for a shower?? That's daylight robbery surely." Another said: "Now that's what you call getting 'rinsed'."
A third pointed out: "Or if you book swimming in one of the many hotels for about a fiver, then you can use the showers instead, just take your own towels", while a fourth added: "I'm sticking a sign outside my house at this rate."
However, others praised the hotel for its original idea, saying: "Amazing business sense.. local residents and businesses and affected by Boardmasters, so why not cash in when you can." Another commented alongside a laughing emoji: "I'd have happily paid that every day in my Glastonbury days. Sure beats a wet wipe wash".
A third Facebook user similarly wrote: "It'd be 15 minutes of heaven if you'd been in a little damp tent", and a fourth simply said: "Great idea - not a great price!!"
The hotel's director, Oleg Ignatyev, defended the offer - saying it proved extremely popular with queues stretching up to four hours long on some days. He told the Mirror: "Our focus is to provide the best service we can to as many people as we can provide it to, we decided to offer shower deals with food as well as just showers as we are aware of the dire need for them from festival goers.
"The current offer is £15 per shower with towels, hairdryers, shampoos, shower gels and conditioner provided or, if they decide to have our breakfast or our Burger & drink deal for £10 then the shower is an extra £5. We also provide access to phone chargers for free and our guests can relax and recharge in our restaurant or outside on the terrace opposite the ocean before continuing onto Boardmasters.
"We were overbooked with shower requests this festival, and, on some days the queue was 3-4 hours, despite this we did our utmost to provide a relaxation area for those waiting and we kept the prices at £15 and £5 (with food orders) even though the demand exceeded the number of showers we could offer.
"I would like to encourage more local businesses to cater to Boardmasters customers next year as we do, as festival goers need a safe place to recharge and assist with basic needs in order to get the most out of their experience."