You can always rely on Michael O’Leary to play the pantomime villain.

True to form as Britain’s skies opened for business, Ryanair’s Chief Executive told passengers his airline would not meet hotel and subsistence expenses incurred while stuck abroad. Ryanair would reimburse travellers the original price of their air fare and no more, he said.

Ryanair’s deal is pretty clear – and the brand has been very appealing. A cheap, no frills service that gets you to your destination and if you want a bit more in the way of service, you will have to pay a bit more.

But is Michael’s declared refusal to abide by European legislation on looking after stranded passengers a step too far? Giving a no-frills service: fine. But, if you run an airline in Europe, you probably have to put up with European aviation laws.

Ryanair is already reaping some pretty venomous criticism from the stalls.

‘You can’t say, as O’Leary has, “the laws weren’t designed for these circumstances”.  Everyone understands that you’re just saying “the law is there to ensure that money goes into Michael O’Leary’s pockets, not out of them” – Telegraph April 22nd 2010.

“This is shocking behaviour and rubs salt into the wounds of those who have been stranded overseas” - Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat transport spokesman.

When does cheap become mean? Michael may be one brand owner who should get closer to his customers but might find the experience a bit uncomfortable in the near future.

There are always winners and losers. 

 
As with every event there is an opportunity for a brand to turn a problem into an opportunity – or a crisis into a disaster.
 
Winners

• Eurotunnel, Eurostar and the ferry companies – clearly the financial winners
• KLM – for being the first with test flights and a proactive drive to prove safety
• French railway company SNCF – for offering additional trains at reduced prices – a great gesture of goodwill
   

Losers

• Labour Government – blamed for a lack of coherence and action
• Iceland – yet again being blamed for all the problems with the British economy
• The airlines – moaning about their losses – but unhelpful, unfriendly staff and signs of opportunistic pricing are leading to swelling tide of bad will… ($6,000 one way from London to New York anyone?)
   

Missed opportunities?

• Communications companies – opportunity to push telephone conferencing, Webex solutions – with no need to travel
• Estate Agents – a brief spike in sales of houses under the Heathrow flight path?

I’ve always been intrigued by the Japanese concept of the capsule hotel: the idea of squeezing yourself into a slightly over-sized coffin in a city where space is at such a premium as it is in Tokyo makes such great sense at one level, but feels so deeply alien at another. Our over-populated culture has glorified space to such an extent that more space has come to mean more luxury, even if we have no possible use for all that space. I for one, still get a thrill being upgraded to a junior suite in the old European hotels where the term usually means something resembling a football field-sized room. Even if I’m only staying for a few hours sleep between a workshop and a flight home, it still gives that sense of enviable luxury and the illogical belief that I will enjoy this night’s sleep more because I’m in a huge room!

One night last week as I was finishing groups late at the office, then flying out to Amsterdam at un-godly o’clock, I decided to trade a night at home in the luxury of my own bed for an extra hour’s sleep staying near Heathrow Airport. The Hilton was going to cost an arm and a leg for a few hours sleep, so I leapt at the chance to try out the Yotel in T4 instead.

It’s dead easy. You arrive, check in at an ATM-style screen and get a receipt with your ‘cabin’ details on, including a code to access the free in-room wi-fi. The cabin is tiny, but with just about adequate room to change, but the bathroom is en-suite (better than Formule 1 in France, then) and the bed is plenty long enough (although the duvet is a bit light for a freezing January night – take your jim-jams). The cabin is pretty well sound-proofed and there is multi-channel TV and radio.

There was, however, a problem. Reserving a room was easy – a few clicks of the mouse and a credit card and I reached a screen with my reservation code and a message reassuring me that this code would also be sent to my email and my phone as a text. I rashly decided not to make a note of the code, trusting the system to deliver it to my Blackberry. A couple of hours later, as no confirmation email had arrived, I phoned Yotel and asked for it to be sent again (this time taking the precaution of writing it down, just in case). Once again, nothing arrived.

Unlike lots of modern boutique hotels, where style definitely reigns over substance (what is the point of paying through the nose for a designer bath-tub if the room is so badly sound-proofed you can hear every single word of the late night phone conversation of the person in the room next to you?!?) Yotel is a fabulous concept – it delivers against a genuine need, providing a clean, comfortable place to get your head down when you don’t need the facilities of a hotel. If they could get the customer service detail right, it would be a great concept that actually works and have the right elements for a strong brand.