If you ever visit 'The Cuan' in Strangford...

DON'T GIVE THEM YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS!

I'd called in for a meal at the Cuan with my wife and daughter on the way home from Newcastle. We filled in a card which had been left on the table. We'd made a big mistake! By signing this and by giving them our name and address we had joined their mailing list . This was the Cuan Licensed Guest Inn in Strangford village, who claim...

In January we were the first small hotel in the UK to receive the BS8555 Environmental Award acknowledging our exemplary approach to environmental awareness.

This morning my wife received a card from Royal Mail requesting that she collect a parcel from the Newtownards sorting office as it had unpaid deficient postage. My wife's name was on the Cuan's mailing list. Thinking it was important I called into the Newtownards sorting office to collect the parcel and pay the extra postage that the sender hadn't paid. That's a 14 mile round trip of car exhaust fumes polluting the Ards Peninsula. A further payment to park in a Newtownards car park and a ticket given when entering the car park by the parking attendant which was disposed off in a bin. This adds to further wastage. I collected the parcel as pictured below.


My wife, giving a look of disbelief said 'Is that the parcel? (The size of this letter is termed as a parcel by, Royal Mail) It was Seasons Greetings from the Cuan which included their Christmas menu and other junk. So the advertising used by the Cuan cost an extra £1.16 + petrol + parking + time, just to read it.

Exemplary approach to environmental awareness?

What if this happened to every person on the Cuan's mailing list and the total was tallied up. What if every person on the mailing list, because of this advertising campaign by the Cuan, reacted by never wanting to visit the Cuan again. I think we'd see a Licensed Guest Inn up for sale.

The Cuan Licensed Guest Inn in Strangford village also claim...

At the Northern Ireland Tourist Board Awards in May, The Cuan was highly commended in the top three Guest Inns in the whole of Northern Ireland

I ask, what for?

The menu itself was fascinating, on the back of the leaflet just what is a...



UPDATE
My wife received a letter from the Cuan signed by Caroline McErlean, which read...

Dear ...........,
You were part of our Christmas Mail correspondence and unfortunately it has come to our attention that some of you had the gross inconvenience of having to go to your local sorting office to pick it up and incur a charge of £1.16. I would like to offer our sincere apologies for the irritation cause by this error.
Being aware of how strict postage has become I personally went to our post office with one of the said envelopes to have it weighed and to check which stamp would be required but I was wrongly advised.
Your details were gathered from The Cuan's Customer Care Cards which you very kindly took the time to complete for us. This process is very important to us as it guides many of the changes that we make in the Cuan. This knowledge increases our embarrassment as you have, inadvertently, been inconvenienced for this much appreciated feedback.
We hope this Gift Voucher makes some amends for the annoyance caused.

Yours Sincerely
Caroline McErelean

A £5 Gift Voucher, compliments of the Cuan, was enclosed with the letter.

If mileage =

Cars (privately owned)

• 40p per mile for the first 10,000 business miles in the tax year
• 25p per mile thereafter

The National Minimum Wage = £5.52 per hour

14 miles + 1Hour 30 mins = ?