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Claridges Hotel
Article Posted: Thursday January 27th
Article last updated on: Thursday January 27th
CLARIDGE'S Hotel. London.
In terminal decline. By Contributing Editor, Colin Beeblebrox. A long and carefully nurtured tradition at Claridge's has finally been broken. It was a tradition of hospitality based on courtesy, service, consideration and good humour. It was a tradition which above all valued the patronage of loyal, appreciative and discerning clients. The story I am about to tell you is not, I am sad to say, an isolated incident. I have, in my capacity as a Hotel and Restaurant reviewer for many publications world wide, heard many similar stories about this once great hotel since it was bought by a new group of investors last year. A few months ago, a very close friend of mine and his wife, who have been lifelong patrons of Claridge's checked in and were shown to their usual suite on the third floor. It was, as expected, immaculate as had been their welcome. All seemed set for them to enjoy a relaxing stay in familiar surroundings. This idyll was almost at once decisively shattered. It was immediately apparent that my friends were sharing their floor with some sort of low-caste houri (with Royal pretensions) whose deluded sense of self-importance necessitated a small platoon of armed bodyguards. My friends did not necessarily object to a guard sitting outside the houri's suite. What they did object to was the fact that the door opposite was permanently left open so that every time they passed it they were treated to the sight of a pack of bodyguards sitting on a bed in their T shirts, smoking, eating, drinking and watching television ; the lavatory was also visible. They told me that it was rather like passing the barracks or canteen of an evil smelling bunch of uncouth off-duty bashi bazouks. My friends repeated requests that these individuals at least shut off their offensive premises from public view were ignored. Indeed they were met with threats of physical violence as evidenced by the fact that the leader of this gadarene herd followed them down the hall to the elevator shouting in some incomprehensible dialect and gesticulating at them with his fist. In their attempt to resolve this situation in a civilised manner my friends then contacted their Lawyer in London but his every attempt to mediate was rebuffed. It was glaringly apparent that the patronage of a parvenu Princess of the desert counted for more than the loyalty of long time honoured guests. It is a measure of the change in management attitudes that in former times, immediate restitution for such a breach of hospitality would have been forthcoming. In this instance not a single gesture, even in the form of a letter of apology,was forthcoming. In conclusion, there is a poignant lesson for all my readers in this sorry episode. If you are a discerning world traveller who expects the best in return for customer loyalty, forget it in the context of Claridge's. I predict that this once great hotel with its new uncaring management is indeed in terminal decline.
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