HOTEL MANAGEMENT

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 252, 19 July 1920, Page 5

HOTEL MANAGEMENT

(To the Editor.) 1 , Sir,—Are wa to have no improvement in the running of hotels for tlio convenience of the travelling public, or are tho proprietors just allowing them to become extinot? As a man on the roads, who is practically living in hotels all the year round, I know what I am writing about, and have no hesitation in saying the accommodation is certainly going from bad to worse. The proprietors' whole concern is in tho bar If it is a cold or. wet day you will find a fire in tho bar parlour, but none in tho private parts of the houso; unless you are prepared to buy a drink you can do a "'freeze." You are simply not wanted unless you are a consumer of liquor. I am a moderate man and have taken a glass all my life, and hope I shall always be able to do so. I have always voted in the interests of hotels, but am seriously thinking of casting* my vote to the other side at next election as a protest. The tariff is out of proportion to what they give you in return. Sometimes I have to stay in private hotels, and I have no hesitation in saying that the accommodation, is just as good and fully 50 per cent, cheaper—except in a very few of the leading houses. Hotelkeepers say there is nothing in keeping boarders, and yet private hotels can mjke a "do of it," at, as I say, 50 per cent, less, With hotels it seems to be nowadays a question of get rich quick. They are not satisfied with a fair profit liko the private hotels. Why are kotelkeepers always changing from house to house! 1 This is no good, as they don't take any interest in tho place. It seems to mo they are just grabbing what they can in the bpr, and waiting for tho "other man" to come along and buy them out at a few hundred or thousands on what they gavo themselves, It is something like the land dealing at tho present time. Hotelkeepers aro not now the same class of people who were running hotels 20 years ago. As long as a man can raise the coin, and the police liavo no objection, ho can become a publican, and at tlio samo time neither ho nor his wifo aro at all tho right class of peoplo to manage a hotel for the convenience of the public— quito unsuitable Mind, I am not condemning all tho hotels. I admit there are a very few, probably ono in 12, who do study the interests of tho travelling public, and they liavo my highest rospect. I would be sorry to see the hotels cut out, as a proporly-run hotel is a "homely houses" and is much required by those who havo no honio of their own. ' Personally I should like to see Stato control tried; it must surely bo' an improvement on tlrfe present system of running hotels. There would bo no individual advantage, and tho profits could bo used for tho betterment of accommodation.—l anu etc., MODERATE.