[NTarrant]

I recently stayed at a Premier Inn and the bathroom didn’t have a shaving socket. I dropped them a comment asking why there was none to which I received a reply saying that it was due to supply and demand.

The response didn’t answer the question so I reverted to them asking to clarify to be told that there wasn’t the demand for them.

I’m a bit puzzled as to how they would know what the demand for two point shaving sockets in bathrooms is. It is a lack of consistency as some of their other sites do have them.

[capetonianm]

It’s a standard corporate excuse.

One of my late mother’s classic jokes was that she went into a shop one day to ask for something and the assistant replied :
“Sorry Madam, a lot of people ask for them but there’s no demand so we don’t stock them.”

(In the days when shop assistants called people ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ and not ‘love’, ‘mate’, etc.

[Bath_VIP]

Who needs a socket when a razor does the job better?

[LuganoPirate]

I use a Philips rechargeable razor, so rarely need a bathroom socket for my razor. However the biggest use I make of them, especially in the US, is to charge my Samsung Tablet and other devices, as they use the standard 2 pin socket.

But from the days when I had a razor with a cord, I can understand your frustration.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=869210]Who needs a socket when a razor does the job better?[/quote]

People who use rechargeable electric toothbrushes, for one.

Nigel, I agree, this is a basic requirement for a hotel room and there is no excuse for it to be lacking.

It’s not as if Premier Inns price at the low end, these days.

[esselle]

Interesting. I travel with an electric razor but ensure it is fully charged before going on a trip.

In daily use a charge lasts about three weeks, so I never have a charger with me.

[FaroFlyer]

Why not carry a simple 3 pin to 2 pin adaptor?

[Chris]

Last time I stayed at a Premier Inn ( well a Hub by Premier Inn), I had no electricity in the room, so really no point in having an electric shaver socket.

[NTarrant]

[quote quote=869218]

Bath_VIP wrote:

Who needs a socket when a razor does the job better?

People who use rechargeable electric toothbrushes, for one.

Nigel, I agree, this is a basic requirement for a hotel room and there is no excuse for it to be lacking.

It’s not as if Premier Inns price at the low end, these days.[/quote]

Exactly, if we were talking a small guest house or B&B I could understand it, but not a large chain.

As for the suggestion that I get an adapter, that was also their suggestion, but I stayed in another after the one in question and that had a shaver socket. However if I had an adapter I would not have been able to look in the mirror and have the shaver plugged in.

[DiamondDad68]

I experienced this problem recently, I was staying in a Premier Inn for a week and couldn’t charge my toothbrush. I ended up charging it up at the clients office midweek.

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=869230]Interesting. I travel with an electric razor but ensure it is fully charged before going on a trip.

In daily use a charge lasts about three weeks, so I never have a charger with me.[/quote]

I agree Esselle, except my Philips is so quiet I neglected to turn it off, so my first morning on a 5 days road trip to Holland, found me with a flat battery! So no shaving for 5 days with my boys telling me I looked like a real pirate and begging me to grow a beard. I did not listen to them!!!

[LuganoPirate]

[quote quote=869331]I experienced this problem recently, I was staying in a Premier Inn for a week and couldn’t charge my toothbrush. I ended up charging it up at the clients office midweek.[/quote]

NOT TO BE RECOMMENDED AND ONLY IN AN EMERGENCY AND AT YOUR OWN RISK, but in the UK I found that by inserting a screwdriver in the top earth socket, pushing down the safety pin opens the lower live/neutral part and you can then easily put the two pin plug in. Only do this with an insulated implement in case the electrician by chance messed up the wiring!!!

Sometimes by wiggling the two pins in the lower part the socket opens and it goes in without having to fiddle with the top part!

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=869580]

DiamondDad68 wrote:

I experienced this problem recently, I was staying in a Premier Inn for a week and couldn’t charge my toothbrush. I ended up charging it up at the clients office midweek.

NOT TO BE RECOMMENDED AND ONLY IN AN EMERGENCY AND AT YOUR OWN RISK, but in the UK I found that by inserting a screwdriver in the top earth socket, pushing down the safety pin opens the lower live/neutral part and you can then easily put the two pin plug in. Only do this with an insulated implement in case the electrician by chance messed up the wiring!!!

Sometimes by wiggling the two pins in the lower part the socket opens and it goes in without having to fiddle with the top part![/quote]

DO NOT DO THIS – NOT EVEN IN AN EMERGENCY!!!!!!

UK plugs generally operate on a 32 amp ring circuit – by plugging in a device without a fuse, you could literally set the wires on fire if there is a surge or some other fault.

In Europe, where houses are wired differently – directly to the consumer unit and ampage is lower, no problem using unfused 2 pin plugs. One of the reasons shavers and plugs have 2 pin plugs is that they are intended to be connected to lower powered circuits in the UK – thus the different socket one encounters in bathrooms.

As I travel a lot, my laptop psu has a euro (2 pin) plug, connected into a 3 pin, fused, BS standard plug (via a euro socket and lead) – am perfectly happy to put the euro plug directly into a Schuko socket, but would never use anything other than a proper BS plug in the UK., as there is som much more juice in the system.

I was recently working in the UAE (same circuits as the UK) and a waiter decided it would be a good idea to force a data projector fitted with a Schuko plug (which has no fuse) into a Chinese made trailing extension block with 3 pin UK type sockets and a mains plug which was moulded and had no fuse.

I tried to tell him that this was a very bad idea, but he wouldn’t have it, until fumes stated to appear from the plug, at which stage an Indian project manager in the audience (who was also a qualified electrical engineer and who worked with the hotel group) called the hotel electrician, who pulled the CB on the plug sockets in the room and then replaced all the leads when they had cooled down – the plug had melted quite badly and the insulation on the cord had started to cook off, leaving glimpses of copper wire visible.

[LuganoPirate]

Never thought of the fuse issue FDOS, which is not an issue here as we have both an indoor fuse for various circuits, and a general fuse in the basement. I forgot UK plugs have the fuse in the actual plug. Luckily I’ve not had a problem and my warning was more about being electrocuted than anything else.

Perhaps it’s best if the BT Admin delete my post, and to avoid confusion your and my subsequent replies? Please feel free to do so from my side BT.

[FDOS_UK]

LP, very easy to forget when you have lived with a different system for a long time.

[Author]

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