Staff only!

This is one of the anecdotes I promised when I posted some pictures of my trip to Manhattan (Part 1 – Part 2).

I drank a lot of fluids on the morning of brunch. I had 2 beers, a Thai iced coffee, and a bunch of water at The Spotted Pig. I had gelato at Grom. I had a 20 oz soda from Goodburger just because I wanted to see if the clerk was going to say the signature catchphrase. (they didn’t)

It’s actually painfully difficult to find a restroom just walking the streets in NYC. You have to go to a fast food place and be a customer or try to sneak by to not get into arguments with people. That’s the easiest solution (aside from drinking less, which isn’t a solution but is a prevention). I get into enough arguments with people already.

We had our bags held at the hotel we stayed with the night prior, so, on our way out of the city, we had to stop back at the hotel. Since I had patronized, I appropriately went to use the restroom at the hotel. The hotel actually didn’t have restrooms on the main floor, only on the floor below, so I walked down the stairs and found the guest bathroom which was (in)conveniently locked.

Just across the hall was a staff only bathroom. Even though there were two members of the staff standing right there, I tried entering; it was open, and I was just about to close the door and quickly do what had to be done. One of the two guys called out and said, “excuse me, sir; that’s staff only.” I responded, “are we serious?” He replied, “yes, there’s a strict policy about that.”

So I stood there and waited for the customer bathroom to open, about 4 minutes.

The door finally opens, and out comes a young lady, the same young lady, in fact, that handed me my luggage at the front desk. She was now in street clothes.

I didn’t pursue this any further that day, but I was really annoyed by that.

Is it fair that a member of the staff could use the non-staff only restroom?