Small, family-run hotels in UK don't measure up, says guide
Family-run hotels on the Continent are much better value than their British equivalents, says a new guidebook.
In their introduction to The Good Hotel Guide 1998: Continental Europe, editors Hilary Rubinstein and Caroline Raphael commend the small, family-run hotels of France, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia.
They highlight a reader's letter praising a French hotel. "At the Papillon family's Hotel du Midi," it says, "I get: a five-course dinner, nothing fancy, but a perfect example of its type; a reasonably comfortable room with a private bathroom; breakfast with freshly baked cakes, good jam and coffee, all for £25. Can a British hotelier tell me why I cannot get a similar deal in the UK?"
Rubinstein and Raphael agree: "The UK simply does not have this long tradition of service… in very few British cities are there small family-owned hotels of quality, of the sort you will find in these pages for Brussels, Hamburg and Paris."
They say this is because small hoteliers in the UK do not receive the high esteem enjoyed by their European counterparts. Also, British hotels do not receive Government support, and VAT on accommodation is the second highest in Europe. They also criticise the absence of a uniform grading system, and say there are too many charges for "extras".
