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American mistakes Yorkshire hotel for China on internet
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AN American woman on a business trip to China was taken aback when she tried to book into her hotel after a long, tiring flight from New York.
The White Swan in Guangzhou was fully booked and had no record of Claudia Niera's internet reservation. When she checked, she found that she had booked a room at the White Swan at Pickering, thousands of miles away in North Yorkshire. She had confused the hotels' websites.
The multi-storey White Swan, Guangzhou, on the old Silk Road trading route, boasts of its “beautiful banyan gardens on the edge of the Shamian island”.
It is "minutes from the airport and city centre by limousine" and can be reached only by private causeway. A room costs ￡55.
The other White Swan website describes Pickering as “a bustling market town in stunning countryside”.
Victor Buchanan, owner of the English hotel, said yesterday: “Miss Niera contacted us by email saying that she was stranded in China and had nowhere to stay and could we help. There wasn't a lot we could do, as she was on the other side of the world. She was really worried that we were going to charge her for not checking in.”
Miss Niera had given her credit card details when she booked for eight nights' bed and breakfast at ￡65 a night. Mr Buchanan said it made a change from Americans who have been cancelling their bookings in Britain fearing that the entire country was plagued by foot and mouth. “We'll let her off this time,” he said. “It gave us all a laugh. I suppose it's an easy mistake to make, confusing Britain and China.”
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