THE classic British sitcom Fawlty Towers first hit our screens more than 30 years ago but the re-runs still leave fans in hysterics. Few can claim not to have seen at some point an episode of the series featuring the manic and inept manger Basil Fawlty, his dominant wife Sybil and the incompetent Spanish waiter Manuel.
Business rarely ran smoothly at Fawlty Towers: meals were served cold, guests faced maintenance to their rooms while they slept and luggage went missing. But anyone that complained faced a torrent of verbal abuse and insult from Basil. Rather than trying to sort the problem out, guests would be kicked out the front door. Now that’s customer service.
Fawlty Towers may have only been a fictional seaside hotel yet its legacy has become enshrined in British culture. No matter how much is spent improving and marketing facilities, many still expect poor service when they choose to spend the night away from home.
Putting the plush five star properties aside as they are out of reach of ordinary leisure travellers, the traditional hotels have for some time had a challenger in the form of budget hotel chains.
Travelodge, the first budget brand to launch in the UK, started with seven roadside lodges in 1985 (it all began on the A38 north of Lichfield). The chain now has about 380 locations in Britain, and claims to currently open one hotel every six working days. Travelodge says on its website it targets adding more than 3,000 rooms every year.
But the number one operator in Britain is Premier Inn with more than 500 hotels. Like Travelodge, they are now as likely to be found on A-roads on the outskirts of towns as they are in city centres.
Premier Inn, Travelodge and the like started out as roadside stop-offs for weary travellers wanting to break long journeys. Today, they are more often destinations in their own right. Families enjoy breaks in them while they visit seaside resorts like Blackpool and Eastbourne or explore Britain’s heritage in major cities like London and Manchester.
In the early days of holidaying the catering options for guests were not good – they ate the food given or nothing at all. Today, budget hotels normally have a restaurant and bar like a Beefeater or Harvester’s metres from where they will sleep. Choice is the flavour of the day on the large menus.
Premier Inn recently revealed sales had fallen by 7.7% in the previous six months but was keen to emphasise that this was not as drastic as the hotel sector as a whole because business travellers were “trading down from three and four-star hotels to find better value”. Adjoining eateries defied the credit crunch with 2.1% a growth in like-for-like sales.
Once the economy recovers you can imagine that budget hotel performance will pick up again. In the next few years there are going to be many more Travelodges, Premier Inns, Day’s Inn and the like cropping up around Britain.
As a child of budget hotel age (I was born in 1983 when Travelodge was in the planning stages) I’d say the opening up of new sites is a good thing. These chains are raising the game of all in the market and encouraging all hotels to offer better customer service. That can’t be a bad thing.
Just as the hotel typified by Fawlty Towers has a lasting legacy in British culture, is Travelodge be part of our national heritage? Perhaps one day the original Travelodge building will get protected status. Only time will tell.
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