DOMINION HOTELS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 84, 10 April 1937, Page 8

DOMINION HOTELS.

A FRIENDLY CRITIC.

(By W. G. T. SAVARY.)

As an overseas visitor I am often asked how I like New Zealand and what I think of the hotels in this Dominion. To the first I answer that New Zealand is extraordinarily beautiful, and its people, especially Southerners, are kindliness and hospitality personified. To the second —that, judging from some twenty hotels in which I have staved at prices ranging from 14/6 to '27/6 per day, they are, on the whole, good. They do lack, however, comfort in some small details, which aoeounts for the phrase, "Don't you think it very dear?" which I have so often heard from fellow visitors.

Let me explain in detail. Arriving tired, one wanders off to bed early and gets nicely warm and settled. Stretching up one's hand to put out the light, there is neither a switch nor anything to pull, and one realises the switch is by the door. This means getting out of bed, turning oft' the light and finding the way back in the dark, which, to a nervous person in a strange room, is most trying and creates a discontented feeling.

The 40-hour week makes many difficulties, but in hotels charging £1 a day, which had no hot and cold water in the bedrooms, there was not even in m y bedroom a wash stand. Of course, there werj bathroom*, but it meant queuing up to wait one's turn unless one were lucky enough to {jet in first, and then, ten to one,. one probably forgot one's toothbrush! Perhaps one is too conservative, but a washstand of some sort does seem to be essential in a hotel bedroom. It is a little like the need of a looking glass. One can only suppose that New Zealanders must be the least vain of any peoples, for there is certainly a strange dearth of long glasses. Dear fellow women, don't you want to see how your skirt hangs? I do.

Are Feathers Scarce? One is made pleasantly welcome in most hotels, and that poes a long way toward the happiness of one's stay; (this is especially so in the South Island). Out of the twenty hotels at which I stayed, all had comfortable beds except one, and all had hard, knobbly pillows! Are feathers scare in this country, I wonder, for not yet have I met a pillow stuffed with feathers. Hotel menus are apt to appal one both by their length and by 'their sameness. I have been amused when, having stayed several days in a hotel, I move on to another 120 miles distant to be presented with exactly the same menu. I came to dread hotel meals, longing for a little variety. The food offered is good, though often spoilt by inferior cooking, but why so many kinds of sheep all at once on the same menu? Roast lamb, roast hogget, boiled mutton, roast mutton, and then either corned beef, pork, beef or veal and five or six sweets, etc.. is what I have read day after day. Surely, since variety is the spice of life, the same is true of meals. Another thing that would add much to tourist contentment is a more elastic tariff. Frequently I have asked for l>ed and breakfast or bed. breadfast and dinner when staying several days only, to be told that terms are inclusive, even in towns. Now I ask you. who wants to be dragged back to a heavy lunch in the midst of sight-seeing? Why should one be expected to pay for what one does not want?

The Forty-hour Week. An outsider cannot imagine, and, if honest, is hardly interested, in the enormous difficulties with which any hotel management, large or small, has to contend as the result of the 40-hour week policy. But—and this applies to the smaller establishments, which seem harder hit—what is a visitor to think *hen, on asking for a cup of tea rather late in the afternoon, she is refused, as there is no one to boil the kettle? Again, in several hotels it has been impossible to obtain even hot water after 7.30 p.m., while dinner ia usually served at the early hour of 6.15 p.m. If one hot water later one has to be prepared to drink from the bathroom tap water, not a very delectable procedure! What effect will such lack of comfort have on the tourist traffic in the near future?

A little thought for the guest, a little care iii making bedrooms pleasing to the eve not only with dainty plain coverings, but al-o with suitable furniture, comfortable pillows, etc.. is a real psychological factor for ensurinsr greater contentment and would do awav with the fooling I have met with, that one is a«ked to pay highly for a good deal of discomfort.

I would go on ad lib. but will siwxre you, ami if 1 have criticised it is not because I myself am disgruntled. Of coarse, there are places I never wish to see again: that is natural when travelling, but it has been my happy lot to meet with unlooked-for friendliness on all sides. There are so many more nice people than nasty in the world. " Thank you, New Zealand.