Bad Time for Hotels.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7400, 16 September 1902, Page 3

Bad Time for Hotels.

NALT<- EMPTY IN LONDON MOST OK THK YKAU. Arc there too many hotels in London, .and .are they ovcr-rcacliiiiß themselves in the matter of luxury ? These are questions which are being discussed in hotel circles in the light of two recent incidents, and some good authorities answer " Yes." Mr Paul Creinicu-J.ival, vicechairman 01 Messrs Spiers and Pond, Limited, said at Use meeting of the company the oilier day that, lie could remember the lime when nol:odyMiought of putting a carpet down in a London restaurant which cost more than 2s Cd to 3s Gd a yard, while nowadays 18s to £1 a yard was frequently paid. It was the same with cups, saucers, plates, and everything else. In the second place the report of the Gordon Hotels, Limited, for the year just closed shows a decline of profits to the extent of nearly £30,000, and a reduction in the dividend of 2 per cent. As to the latter a representative of the Gordon Hotels attributed the deficiency to the period of mourning for the late Sovereign ; the smallpox scare, which made country visitors write and say that they would not come up while small-pox was " raging so badly," the war, and the slump in hotel business for twu months preceding the Coronation, everybody deferring visits to London till June. Said 51 r A. Judah, the manager of the Hotel Cecil : " There can he no doubt but that with an increased number of hotels, increased expenditure, and increased luxury, the hotel business is not by any means what it used to be. London has certainly a very large floating population, but from August to iUay the hotels are no more than half full. " There are really only two months of the year when they are full. Yet such is the stale of affairs that it is necessary to keep practically a full sti.ll all the ycr.r round, and lo incur nearly full expenditure in the way of lights, fuel, etc. " Again in the old days a man .who stayed in a hotel was satisfied with an ordinary bedroom, an ordinary dining-room, and a little smok-ing-room. But competition between hotels has educated him up to a nice point. Now he must have magnifi-cently-furnished apartments, majestic dining-rooms, a grand library, a lordly smoking-room, drawing-room, and so on. " The hotels which cannot offer these luxuries must stand aside. But the, patron will not pay more, especially as the war has cut his incomo down, and those who used to have their ri.'teen-shilling bottle of champagne at dinner now take whisky-and-soda. 11 There is one satisfactory item in the situation. The American habit of living in hotels instead of keeping up a home in London is i>n the increase. Householders find if, very much more convenient, and often quite as cheap. The habit is becoming very popular here, and naturally it is welcomed by the hotel proprietor, who has in this his only solid all-the-year-round trade.