Cell Phones at the Breakfast Table

[Don Draper]

Have a gentleman this morning, very nice, sitting at the table and his cell phone is ringing SO loudly every 5 minutes. It rings 10 times. He seems completely oblivious to it. Everyone else at the table is clearly annoyed. I didn't know if I should ask him to turn the ringer off or what...strange.

 

[Morticia]

I think a situation like this requires intervention from the innkeeper. (Given no one at the table said anything.) The way I think about it is this...if I were out somewhere enjoying a nice meal and someone at the next table was being highly intrusive into my enjoyment, I would appreciate the staff handling it so I didn't have to. (Mostly because I'm not gracious and I would be likely to wait too long and then just blow up.)
What to say? Hmmmm.

• Is there a call you need to take away from the table? I can hold your breakfast for a few minutes. (Gracious)
• I'm surprised those newer phones don't come with a 'vibrate' mode. (Sarcastic)

 

[JBloggs]

We had someone with a phone ringing and not answering it, it was a ring tone to sound like an old telephone, super loud. He would act like he was doing everyone a favor by not answering it. Answer the dang thing and walk out of the dining room already!
I am not going to intervene on stuff like that, I am not his mother.

 

[Don Draper]

We had someone with a phone ringing and not answering it, it was a ring tone to sound like an old telephone, super loud. He would act like he was doing everyone a favor by not answering it. Answer the dang thing and walk out of the dining room already!
I am not going to intervene on stuff like that, I am not his mother..

This sounds like the same guy!
One of the guests made the comment "Someone's really trying to get ahold of you!" and I couldn't tell if the guy thought he was doing everyone a favor by not answering, or if he didn't even know it was his phone. Hubs tried to intervene and asked if he needed to get that and the guy just looked blank.
The phone rang every 5-10 minutes until they left an hour after breakfast.
Bizarre.

 

[Morticia]

We had someone with a phone ringing and not answering it, it was a ring tone to sound like an old telephone, super loud. He would act like he was doing everyone a favor by not answering it. Answer the dang thing and walk out of the dining room already!
I am not going to intervene on stuff like that, I am not his mother..

This sounds like the same guy!
One of the guests made the comment "Someone's really trying to get ahold of you!" and I couldn't tell if the guy thought he was doing everyone a favor by not answering, or if he didn't even know it was his phone. Hubs tried to intervene and asked if he needed to get that and the guy just looked blank.
The phone rang every 5-10 minutes until they left an hour after breakfast.
Bizarre.
.

A couple of things come to mind, some good, some bad. Like Joey said maybe he thought it was polite to NOT answer the ringing phone. However, POLITE would have been to set it to vibrate if he had no intentions of answering it.
The other thought is arrogance. Look how important I am, that I cannot even have my breakfast in peace without my phone ringing every 5 minutes.
Either way, he disrupted everyone's enjoyment of their meal. Is he around tomorrow morning? Can you pull him aside before he sits down and ask him to please set the phone to vibrate?

 

[DaisyMae]

if he didn't want to answer it he could have just hit the ignore button

 

[Don Draper]

Luckily they checked out this morning.

 

[user 26]

He seems completely oblivious to it.

there's your clue. if he's having breakfast with you tomorrow, ask him if he'd please turn the ringer off, set to vibrate or whatever. he might have been waiting for a different call from someone else that he would have answered. i never had a sign asking that cell phones be turned off, but we didn't get cell service in my little corner of the world. guests did not believe me until they experienced it. i imagine i might have had a few guests who thought they HAD TO be reachable all the time. i told them, remember the days when you went on vacation and people could not call you because you were on vacation??? you're there.

 

[Proud Texan]

We don't have that problem. No cell reception to speak of.

 

[YellowSocks]

More than once I've had guests checking in and their phone is vibrating and I ask, "Who's is that? Is that me?" They can barely feel it and I'm hearing it two feet away.
I guess it makes up for my hindered sense of smell...
=)
Kk.

 

[Copperhead]

We had someone with a phone ringing and not answering it, it was a ring tone to sound like an old telephone, super loud. He would act like he was doing everyone a favor by not answering it. Answer the dang thing and walk out of the dining room already!
I am not going to intervene on stuff like that, I am not his mother..

This sounds like the same guy!
One of the guests made the comment "Someone's really trying to get ahold of you!" and I couldn't tell if the guy thought he was doing everyone a favor by not answering, or if he didn't even know it was his phone. Hubs tried to intervene and asked if he needed to get that and the guy just looked blank.
The phone rang every 5-10 minutes until they left an hour after breakfast.
Bizarre.
.

A couple of things come to mind, some good, some bad. Like Joey said maybe he thought it was polite to NOT answer the ringing phone. However, POLITE would have been to set it to vibrate if he had no intentions of answering it.
The other thought is arrogance. Look how important I am, that I cannot even have my breakfast in peace without my phone ringing every 5 minutes.
Either way, he disrupted everyone's enjoyment of their meal. Is he around tomorrow morning? Can you pull him aside before he sits down and ask him to please set the phone to vibrate?
.

The other thought is arrogance. Look how important I am, that I cannot even have my breakfast in peace without my phone ringing every 5 minutes.
Either way, he disrupted everyone's enjoyment of their meal.

This was my first thought. And because I have all my guests to think about, I would have requested that he either put the phone on vibrate or turn it off especially if he had just ignored a polite hint. Glad you won't have to deal with him tomorrow.

 

[Country Girl]

I find that so annoying! Why don't they just get up and move to another room where they can have a conversation in private??? Better yet, shut it off while you are having breakfast! This is my newest guest pet peeve.

 

[JBloggs]

I find that so annoying! Why don't they just get up and move to another room where they can have a conversation in private??? Better yet, shut it off while you are having breakfast! This is my newest guest pet peeve..

I find that so annoying! Why don't they just get up and move to another room where they can have a conversation in private??? Better yet, shut it off while you are having breakfast! This is my newest guest pet peeve.

Because this is how they live. Doesn't everyone?