I'd like to share my experience from this weekend (29 June) at Baroque's karaoke room, and urge you…read moreto avoid it.
We had arranged a hen party for my friend which ended at the karaoke room at Baroque. The hen party was 'Harry Potter' themed - this was by no means a rowdy group.
We had hired the room from midnight onwards, as this was the only time available on their online-booking system, and they eventually apologised that it took about half an hour for the room to be ready, which we accepted.
About mid-way through the session, one of the bridesmaids suddenly realised her knee was bleeding after she knelt down to take a group photo, although not wanting to disturb the party, tried not to make a fuss. Soon after, the bride, who had been wearing tights, kicked off her high heels for a moment to dance. She felt agonising pain and as moved around the room trying to sit down and investigate, and the whole floor was lined with pools of blood. Everyone stopped in horror, as it appeared we had stepped into the set of a low budget slasher movie. In reality, there were numerous shards of broken glass on the floor, which had to have been before we hired the room - and a room we had paid £96 to hire privately. It was clear that anyone who touched the floor would have hurt themselves.
At this point, I'd like to reiterate that we were at no point warned not to take off our shoes by anyone, and if we had been, we could have asked for it to be swept - or even requested a broom do to it ourselves, in the interests of basic safety.
Members of the party then ventured around the club seeking help. Eventually, a member of staff produced a plaster, although the bleeding continued and the bride was unable to walk, or ascertain whether any glass was still in the wound. The party was highly concerned and upset by the incident. We asked to speak to the manager and for someone to clean up the room, at the very least expecting an apology and some level of assistance to ensure our friend was going to be okay.
A man with a dirty mop appeared and commenced spreading the mix of blood and dirty water around the floor. The manager, an imposing, abrasive man we later discovered was called Rod, burst into the room, clearly furious, expecting that we wanted a refund, and exclaimed that we weren't going to get one. To reiterate, we had at no point requested a refund or free drinks, this was entirely an assumption on his part. We might have expected a level of concern for the injured bride, an offer of assistance and an apology for the state of the room.
He started shouting at the group that it was entirely the brides' fault for having removed her shoes - as if you should reasonably expect a privately hired room to have broken glass on the floor. He did not actually let us speak, and refused to listen if we tried. His rudeness, complete lack of regard for his customers' safety and lack of apology caused the group to become increasingly angry and upset. He then slammed the door in the faces of two of the bridesmaids, who were attempting to speak to him.
Since then, the bride is still suffering from the wound to her foot. She has been unable to put pressure on her foot and has been forced to give up running while she recovers, one of her favourite hobbies.
We feel that anyone using this karaoke room - one of possibly two in Bath - should be made aware of both the safety concerns and the treatment of customers by the management. We are still waiting for an apology from Baroque, and we would really urge you to stay away.