Alex smarts over critics
Alex Polizzi TV STAR, HOTELIER AND BUSINESSWOMAN
THE toughest thing TV’s Hotel Inspector has ever done, she says, is open a hotel of her own.
Two reasons.
Firstly because “I’d forgotten how hard it is to actually do this bloody work”.
And secondly because, after 14 years of fronting her Channel 5 series, scrutinising hotels in crisis and dishing out some often pretty blunt home truths: “I’d set myself up as a massive target. No wonder if someone takes a pop!”
Sure enough, Alex Polizzi gets letters of complaint “all the time” about The Star, a 15th century Sussex inn she took over and transformed a couple of years ago.
But how often, I’m keen to know, are their grievances fair?
“Someone recently wrote to complain that the housekeeper had put the loo roll on the wrong way,” Alex tells me.
Accuse
Ah, well, that can actually be quite annoying, I suggest. My wife’s always doing that.
“But would you write a letter about it, Mike?!”
Dunno. Might be tempted. Seriously though, the point Alex is making is that no hotel on Earth will ever be perfect.
Not even hers.
What matters is listening to your guests and fixing things where necessary.
I doubt you could accuse her of not doing that.
Some of the hoteliers she’s dealt with on her show, on the other hand, have struggled to grasp even the basics, such as keeping their places clean.
And as you’ll see tonight in the first of the new series, their cluelessness can make her quite cross.
“The advice I have to give is really bleeding obvious,” Alex insists.
“It’s nothing clever.” Tonight’s pair, whose Thai-themed guest house in Loughborough has been losing £6,500 a month, were very nice people to work with, she stresses. But with zero experience between them (they’d previously run a newsagents), was pumping their life savings into this place (for “the challenge”, as they put it) such a smart idea?
It’s people’s naivety that Alex gets most frustrated by. She finds it insulting.
“As a hospitality professional I feel slightly aggrieved that everyone assumes any old f***er can do it.”
● The Hotel Inspector returns tonight at 9pm on Channel 5
Advice I give is really bleeding obvious