A woman found herself £500 out of pocket after getting stuck in a lift and missing her flight.
Chrissy Hart, from Boston, was due to fly back to the US from Edinburgh on Thursday only to find herself in a sticky situation. The 40-year-old was heading down to the hotel lobby to check out, but claims that the lift became stuck.
For the next 70 minutes the American visitor claims she was left waiting to be freed at the Moxy Hotel in Fountainbridge, frantically calling for assistance. In the stuff that travel anxiety dreams are made of, Chrissy was also counting down the time until her flight was due to leave, Edinburgh Live reported.
Due to being stuck for so long, the tourist missed her flight to Dublin - delaying her journey to Boston even further. She had been in Edinburgh for six days as part of her work with Together for Girls, a non-profit organisation that seeks to end violence against young women and girls.
Chrissy says it was the organisation that had to pay the £500 for new flights, meaning a hit to their much-needed funds. She is now asking that Marriot, who run Moxy hotel, foot the bill so that the money can go towards their campaigning and projects.
Sicily and Sardinia tipped to be 2023 hotspots and you can already snap up deals"I had been in Edinburgh for a little bit less than a week. We were here for an anti-child abuse convention working with people all over the world. I had an 8am flight to Boston this morning so I grabbed my things and headed to the lift," Chrissy explained. "It was weird, I started to go down and up and down and just got stuck on my floor again. It clanked to a halt. It was obviously disconcerting.
"I pressed the call button but it wouldn’t do anything until I realised that I had to hold it down. I eventually got through to a local technician who said he’d come out to help. It was warm and uncomfortable – far from the ideal experience. I actually managed to stay relatively calm in the end. I surprised myself."
She added that the technician who came to the rescue "was very busy and that's why he took so long", adding that she felt the "communication wasn't great" with the front desk. Chrissy alleges the technician said the lift had broken before, so she believes that the lift "should still have been out of service".
The only way for Chrissy to head to Dublin that day was via a later flight that ended up costing £500.
Moxy Hotel Edinburgh Fountainbridge have confirmed that they are investigating the incident. The Mirror has contacted the hotel chain for additional comment.
Recently one man opened up about how his wife had missed a flight they were due to flight, but for a reason that is more in her control. She had wandered off to get a coffee ahead of a connecting journey, leaving her husband to wait anxiously by the departure gate. Ultimately, in a move that has divided people, he decided to board the flight.