Hutson slams hotels run by accountants
Hotel du Vin managing director and Caterer Hotelier of the Year Robin Hutson has delivered a broadside at substandard, mid-priced hotels where company executives never experience their own facilities.
Speaking today at the 11th Annual Master Innholders General Managers Conference at London's Savoy hotel, Hutson said that such "shameful" hotel operations around the UK were giving the industry a bad name.
He said that a breed of hotels, located in every town centre in the country, with room rates of about £100 a night, was reducing the craft of hotelkeeping "to the lowest common denominator".
He said: "For £100 a night one could reasonably expect a certain level of hospitality and ambiance, a decent night's sleep, a bathroom that works and some edible breakfast.
"Unfortunately, at this price point you are more likely to have a poor hotel experience than a good one."
According to Hutson, matted blankets, hard, unforgiving pillows and pillow cases that resembled sandpaper prevented a good night's sleep.
A certain smell, swirly carpets, weak showers and poor breakfasts with coffee like a nasty grey liquid of dubious origin all added to the guest's miserable experience, he said.
He added that the "justification for such horrible places lay in some sort of cost-cutting excercise by people who have never slept in or used the facilities of their own hotels.
"Poor results are often blamed on adverse trading conditions, whereas the reality is quite simply that too many companies run terrible hotels.
"I believe that if you get the product and the pricing right, the profit will flow. Maybe that's the difference between hotels being run by hoteliers rather than accountants."
By Forbes Mutch
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