Britannia

Business is booming at the Britannia Adelphi in Liverpool. Occupancy levels are in the nineties, forward bookings from all sectors are up on this time last year and general manager Eileen Downey has had to recruit eight full-time members of staff to cope with increased business.

The surge of interest has come since the hotel was featured in the BBC series Hotel, a fly-on-the-wall documentary which has regularly attracted 8.5 million viewers on a Monday evening. Alex Langsam, co-owner of Britannia Hotels, which owns the Adelphi, is clearly delighted with the knock-on effect that seven months of constant scrutiny by the television cameras has had on his business.

But he hasn't agreed to be interviewed to discuss the benefits of being a media star. He's here to answer industry criticism about the Adelphi, some of which has been published in the Letters pages of Caterer, and in turn has been picked up by the national press.

Downey is also present. But it's Langsam who dominates the conversation in a bid to protect her from further interrogation. "This little lady runs a very busy hotel and she's good at it. She's been in the front line like Princess Di."

Clearly outraged at having to defend his operation, Langsam is keen to stress that the Adelphi is different and quirky and this is the reason why it was chosen over other operations to feature on television. It's called "doing things the Britannia way".

"The Britannia way is all theatrical, the staff are encouraged to be their own personalities, not a bunch of machine minders," says Langsam.

Pricing is a key differentiator. "Our way is to charge a reasonable price for the rooms, drinks and food, get high occupancies and get the bars busy. Others charge massively, massively. How much do you pay for a room in London?"

The issue of pricing leads to discussion of an incident from the first programme on the day the Grand National was aborted because of an IRA bomb scare. A couple wanting to check out during the evening were told they had to pay full rack rate, despitethe fact that rooms could have been let several times over.

Langsam is unrepentant about the episode, indeed he scorns the fact that he is even called to respond to it. "This comes from an industry that charges if you blink. In London people rent rooms by the afternoon, by the hour. They're still charged. Should we say no charge for a quickie?"

Langsam is similarly scornful when questioned on the incident of a receptionist charging £199 for a room on the same night, almost double the advertised rate. "I travelled last Christmas to Florida with Virgin," he retorts. "The advertised rate was £220, I ended up paying £750. They said you can either go or not. In this particular instance the guy was here last year, and he's booked for next year. He doesn't think he's being ripped off. There was nobody that night who went without food or drink and it was all out of my pocket."

There's no apology made, either, for swearing in the kitchen, a point picked up by some of the correspondents to Caterer's postbag. Langsam nearly spits out his response. "These precious people are embarrassed? Where have they been, at a seminary somewhere, where they don't swear in kitchens?"

When it comes to the skills shortage and suggestions that the Adelphi has done little to encourage young people to enter the industry, both Langsam and Downey are adamant: there is no lack of skill in the Adelphi. Downey is keen to add that out of a total of 246 full-time staff, turnover last year was 9%. "How many other people can say that?" she asks. She describes the Liverpool workforce as "loyal and dedicated" giving as an example head chef David Smith who has been at the Adelphi for 11 years.

For Langsam, criticism by competitors boils down to sour grapes.

"What happens to operations that have a bit of style and a bit of drama?" he demands. "They get bought out because others want to get rid of them. Do you know how many times people have tried to buy me out? Constantly."

Old brigade

He views much of the criticism as coming from an old brigade who are out of touch with the needs of the public. "I've been in hotels that are like morgues. Is it still really upstairs downstairs? Why are my staff who get a television camera stuck in their face not allowed to amuse the general public?"

Keen to show himself as more balanced than some of his critics, Langsam admits that things do go wrong at the Adelphi. There again, he suggests, this is maybe because Downey agrees to do things other hoteliers wouldn't. "In the North-west who do you think gets the majority of the delayed flights?" Langsam asks, alluding to an episode when a delayed plane-load destined for Barbados came for lunch at the Adelphi.

"The others won't do it on price and they don't want the hassle. Eileen was the courageous one, she could have turned them down. But she chose to do a meal for 350 people who were supposed to be in the Caribbean while the camera was on her."

Langsam clearly has no regrets about the television series, believing the adage that any publicity is good publicity, provided there is nothing to hide. "We didn't have to worry that there might be something that wasn't in order, or that they would see some impropriety. I have been asked in hindsight whether I am sorry. I am not sorry."

On whether the programme was a fair and accurate picture of the Adelphi, Langsam is pragmatic. "It is fair to a point. Everything that you see is a snippet. You don't quite know what went before and after. I have had maybe 10 letters of complaint at head office. One of them concerned a man who was asked to leave. Just before that snippet he had been insulting and abusing front of house staff. You only saw part of it. After he was escorted off the premises he was arrested and ended up in jail for the night."

Storyline

In Langsam's view this is par for the course.

"There's got to be a storyline. We accepted the game and I knew the score. They were in the place for seven months. Everyone knows that there's a before and after."

Opinions on the Adelphi may remain divided, but many will envy the marketing opportunity the series has created for Britannia. Already adverts appearing in Sunday supplements bear the strapline: "Every Britannia Hotel a Theatre, serialised weekly, BBC TV's Hotel, Mondays at 9.30pm." On how he will continue to use the publicity to his advantage, Langsam refuses to be drawn. "That's my well-kept secret and I'll do whatever I like."

So would Langsam do the television series again? "Watch this space," he says. For the time-being at least this is his final comment.