Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

Hotel breakfasts are a risky business

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issue 06 February 2021

A few Spectator readers may soon find themselves confined to quarantine hotels, so the magazine thought it timely to find someone familiar with hotel life to share their advice. Since Dominique Strauss-Kahn was somehow unavailable, they settled on me.

Now the first question to ask is: how fancy a hotel should you choose? This is not as simple as it sounds. Indeed, other than buying a yacht, no extravagances pall faster than a posh hotel. As Viz magazine once recommended: ‘Turn your home into a luxury hotel by installing a small fridge next to the bed and burning a £10 note every time you use it.’

I rather agree with Leo Johnson — Boris’s brother — who argues that the quality of French hotels is inversely related to the price. Certainly the worst hotel for a protracted stay would be one with a single, pretentious, Michelin-starred restaurant.

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