http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-west-18032672

NB the closing quote:

"I like to think that we treat our customers well, with the personal touch, but it doesn't go as far as to reply to them in French."

[In best Morningside accent]: Ai should think NOT!!

not sure i get that, as they hadn't actually made a booking with the Scottish hotel, so they had had no booking to reply to.

anyway, hats off to the hotel on Jura for finding space for them.

I am pleased to say that we do [try to] reply to our foreign guests' enquiries in their language - we specifically advertise on a german website as that's the language we speak. When we have had french and italian enquiries [not many] we do those as well. if it looks as if they feel more comfortable in english, then we switch to that.

you are, after all, providing a service!

Another city where this happens is Vienna, since the French name is Vienne, and there is a French city of the same name.

I recall rading a story about someone who booked a ticket to Geneva and somehow got on a plane to Genoa instead (and actually was let on the flight and arived there).

The classic is the English couple who found a cheap airfare to Sydney, and didn't realise why it was so cheap till they landed in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Many examples of these kind of things. I had a work colleague attending a conference in Fribourg, flew over to Switzerland, caught the train, wondered why it was taking so long, discovered he was on the way to Freiburg, Germany.

I met an Australian woman in Neuchatel who did the Genoa (Genova)/Geneva thing. Thought she had bought a train ticket from Barcelona to Genoa, ended up in Geneva.

Re the Sydney one, could have been worse, they could have ended up in Sidney, Montana.

Maybe these travelers are related to Michele Bachmann.

Next thing you know, someone will try to book a Four Seasons in Paris, Texas.

Another one is trying to buy a ticket to Caen for the Normandy beaches, and being sold one for Cannes (pron. kan), because there is no n sound at all in the French pronunciation of Caen: a nasal ka (short sound).

have people forgotten how to use maps?

We were flying JFK to Seattle but our flight was cancelled due to snow. We asked if they could get us close to Seattle, like Portland, so we could rent a car and drive home. The ticket counter agent told us if we hurried to LaGuardia they could put us on a flight to Portland. Dashed to LaGuardia but it was too late as that flight was now cancelled as well. No big loss because it was actually to Portland, Maine!