- EXCLUSIVE: Blake Kerr, 31, told to put his shoes for ‘health and safety’ reasons
Staff at a major hotel chain are being accused of booting out a man from their restaurant for being barefoot despite advertising for customers to ‘make themselves at home’.
Blake Kerr, from Irvine, North Ayrshire, was furious after being asked to put footwear on whilst tucking into breakfast at the Premier Inn in Manchester city centre.
The 31-year-old claims he entered the eating area of the Portland Street hotel shoeless on Friday, October 21, and was initially welcomed and sat by a member of staff.
However, as he went to grab food and drink from the buffet, another staff member stopped him and ordered him to put shoes on.
The content creator begrudgingly returned to his room and came back wearing his trainers, but was not happy with the request and labelled the hotel ‘the worst Premier Inn in the UK’ on social media.
Mr Kerr said: ‘I normally don’t wear shoes, for me it’s a comfort thing and I’ve never had any issues [at a Premier Inn before].
‘When I’m barefoot sometimes I get looks from the cleaning staff.
‘The staff sometimes make comments [saying] ‘just be careful’ but for the most part they don’t really care.
‘The member of staff in Manchester who seated me had zero issues, it was the second member of staff who took issue with it.
‘He came over and [said] that I would need to put some footwear on to be in the breakfast area because of health and safety.
‘A lot of companies do harp on about health and safety but in actual fact in the UK there is no health and safety law that prevents someone from going barefoot.’
Mr Kerr says he regularly ditches footwear while out and about, claiming his size 10 feet and ‘hammer’ toe rub against shoes, leaving his ‘pinky toes’ sore and blistered.
The barefoot advocate says there’s no health and safety policy in the UK stopping him from freeing his feet in public.
The Scot now wants clarity on why he’s allowed to go without shoes in some branches of the Premier Inn – such as in Beckton, Canning Town – but not others.
He explained: ‘The way my foot is shaped my two pinky toes rub the side of the shoe and I usually get blisters.
‘I’ve also got a bit of a hammer toe so a lot of shoes don’t fit correctly. ‘I normally don’t wear shoes, for me it’s a comfort thing and I’ve never had any issues [at Premier Inn before].’
Mr Kerr, who was wearing a hoodie and tracksuit trousers, was visiting Manchester with pals and the trio went down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast at 9am.
He said: ‘I was in Manchester for the weekend. My friends and I had gone down to breakfast at 9am, they both had trainers on, it wasn’t too busy – just a few older people in the corner.
‘The first male member of staff took me to a table, that was absolutely fine.
‘I got up and as I went to get myself an orange juice, that’s when a second member of staff saw I was barefoot and said ‘you need to put some footwear on.
‘I asked him if footwear was a requirement to be in the breakfast area and he said ‘it’s health and safety policy”.
‘It’s a generic thing people say when they have no response so at that point I just went back to the room, put some shoes on and came back down and they never said anything after that.
‘I don’t think the older people complained, I think it was just the staff member did it on his own.
‘The other days thereafter I just went down with shoes to save the interaction and causing a big argument. ‘
Mr Kerr was further perplexed by this hotel’s decision after reading on the menu of the Thyme Bar & Grill, its in-house restaurant – ‘we don’t believe in rules… anything goes. Relax and make yourself at home’.
The Scot said he was ‘annoyed’ about the whole situation and admitted he would probably never return to a Premier Inn establishment again.
He called on the chain to allow people to go barefoot into the restaurant if they wanted to.
Blake said: ‘I thought it was unnecessary to have to explain it. To me it’s not inappropriate so I’m not really sure what his issues were.
‘I’m just a little bit annoyed about it.
‘[I’d tell Premier Inn to] allow people to go barefoot to breakfast if they want to, it’s not doing any harm.
‘There’s a whole barefoot society for health reasons and lifestyle choice, it’s not too different from a diet lifestyle.
‘If anything, just be consistent. Even if they came up with a new policy and said footwear must be worn, fine at least that’s policy.
‘So far it’s very hit and miss. It really depends on the staff members on at the time. Just be more consistent.
‘I don’t think I’ll stay in that Premier Inn again, I’d probably try a different one next time.
‘It’s disappointing when there’s that lack of consistency across the board.’
Premier Inn defended their decision and said that all actions were always made ‘with its guest’s best interests at heart’.
The company said the ‘anything goes’ slogan was ‘not current’ – despite it still being live on their website early this week.
A Premier Inn spokesman said: ‘The health, safety and comfort of all our guests must always come first.
‘Any actions taken are always with our guest’s best interests at heart, recognising that restaurants are busy areas which may risk sharp objects or hot items falling to the floor.’
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
