‘We arrived at 6pm to find an envelope with our name on it taped to the front door. We took the envelope and went inside. It contained our room key which also unlocked the front door. The entrance hall looked beaten up, and there was a stale smell. Everything was shabby and dirty. The box… Read more
By Adam Raphael The borderline between triumph and disaster in the hospitality business is narrow. Every year the Guide receives thousands of letters, emails and phone calls from readers telling us about their stays in hotels, inns and B&Bs. Most are enthusiastic. Some critical though balanced. A minority so dire that they qualify for Fawlty… Read more
By Adam Raphael The 2019 edition of the Guide, to be published on Monday, has a record number of 860 entries, ranging from great-value B&Bs to luxurious country house hotels. The Daily Mail will publish exclusively this Saturday the ten winners of the Guide’s 2019 César awards. They include a castle on the Wild Atlantic… Read more
By Adam Raphael Nothing causes more grief than cancellation fees. Tales of lost deposits and charges for meals never eaten, even when cancellations are made weeks in advance, are frequent. Last week, a particularly angry whinge thudded onto my desk. ‘Have you come across this level of venality before? I think it smacks of gross… Read more
By Adam Raphael The conclusion in last month’s newsletter, that Booking.com and other online travel agencies have succeeded in sucking billions of pounds out of the hospitality industry because they meet a need, was too kind. If hotels and B&Bs dealt with reservation requests more efficiently, they would not be gouged to the extent they… Read more
By Adam Raphael The Competition and Markets Authority is threatening to prosecute online hotel booking sites for scams ranging from pressure selling and misleading information to hidden charges and commission based rankings. But it is not just consumers who are being gulled. The sad truth is that online travel agents and hotel review sites have… Read more
By Adam Raphael Music may be the food of love, but muzak—ugh! Admittedly the Guide is not impartial on this issue, but this bee in our bonnet is shared by many GHG readers. ‘Whatever happened to silence?’ one asked in exasperation. Another wrote this week: ‘I could have done without the tacky music which was… Read more
By Adam Raphael What is the hottest trend of 2018? Veganism has a claim. The number of full-time vegans has grown fourfold in a decade. Advocates of a plant-based diet were once regarded as weird. But no longer. The problem for hotels is that it is not easy dealing with the demands of the fruit… Read more
As much as we are advocates of the written word when it comes to recommending hotels, we have to admit that sometimes, a picture is worth a thousand of them. Following on from our article last year, here are the most popular hotels to date in 2018 on GHG Instagram… A post shared by The… Read more