If it’s Friday, it’s Dalrymple at Takimag. The skeptical doctor once again lambastes the British hospitality industry after staying at another subpar hotel with the standard mediocre native English staff.
It was clear that the only way that the hotel could improve was to be taken over by foreigners, staffed by foreigners, and possibly patronized by foreigners. And this is painful to say, because the staff of the hotel were (a) very pleasant and (b) doing their best. But this points to a profound cultural problem, at least for a service economy.
Excellent hatchet job, Doctor. One way of improving the situation might be the almost total elimination of staff by such innovations as the contactless hotel. I have stayed at two in Cheltenham and one in Florence where I hardly ever saw staff – everything was arranged by emails. The entry codes and access to keys arrived by WattsApp. But there were unseen people who cleaned the place and changed sheets, etc.