LOCKDOWN TV VIEWING

As someone who loves to entertain, and as a professional hotel and restaurant inspector, eating out and staying away from home several nights per week was the norm, until 23rd March.

For the last 10 weeks however, stuck at home, Lockdown TV viewing has been torture; programmes like, ‘Bake Off’, ‘Masterchef’, and even ‘Four in a Bed’ and ‘Come Dine with Me’ just go to reinforce what I am missing.

Then of course, there are the fly on the wall productions. The latest of these, a behind the scenes look at Best Western Hotel group, an organisation that I am very familiar with, having inspected many of their hotels over the years, has been painful to watch.

In the first programme we were shown Marco Pierre White’s quirky hotel, The Rudloe Arms, Corsham, and were led to believe by Terii, Director of Business Development, that he had agreed to join the marketing group.

Further investigation proves this not to be the case, although it is not clear whether it was Best Western or Marco who got cold feet. Given their ethos, ‘we do believe in individuality, creativity, self-expression, quirkiness, difference’, I would have thought the The Rudloe Arms would fit their portfolio perfectly; Marco’s dubious taste in artwork aside.

The stated Best Western aim is for hotels to retain their ‘independence’, but I know from my own experience, and in speaking with hotel owners, that a lot of the inspection regime is down to whether or not their corporate marketing material is given sufficient prominence. Personally, I have a strong aversion to leaflets, brochures, tent cards and the like, and sweep them all into a drawer on arrival. I was also disappointed to observe their inspection approach, with a focus on ‘criticism’, having the right ‘logo’ on display, and carpets that match. Their inspector appeared to relish pointing out minor petty failings. It would be a sad type of guest where the enjoyment of their stay, and intention to return, was based on such trivial matters.

After almost 30 years in the job, despite my reputation for being tough, whilst being aware of a property’s imperfections, I always aim to seek out and highlight the good points about a place, rather than focusing on the negative.

It also seems that in this modern era senior management encouragement to ‘give a shit’ is seen as amusing. I am afraid I found their whole approach thoroughly unprofessional.

In the long run, one wonders if despite the lure of being ‘on the telly’ such programmes do more harm than good.