Shoddy service, high prices and grumpy Britons

[la vache!]

Are putting off foreign visitors and putting jobs at risk in the UK tourism industry

"Threadbare towels, a previously owned bar of soap and a grumpy person who says: 'We don't do breakfast before 8am and we don't do it after 8.12am' – you don't get a lot of happy customers.

[Christine Kenyon]

Heck, after a good morning wash in second-hand soap, you'd be lucky if you'd finished drying yourself with the threadbare towel by 8.11 am .

But, am I the only one who thinks this is an outdated view of holiday accommodation in England?? Certainly in our corner of the Lake District, we've seen dramatic improvements in the quality of hotels, B&Bs, cottages, pubs and cafes over the last few years.

[Jimbo]

am I the only one who thinks this is an outdated view of holiday accommodation in England

Over the years, staying in small hotels, guesthouses and B+Bs for work purposes in the UK, I’ve enjoyed and endured a variety of welcomes. All were fiercely united, however, on the utter impossibility of providing breakfast earlier than at stated times. Might I pop into the kitchen and make myself a cup of tea and a couple of rounds of toast? (Snort of derision). Could I beg a coffee pot and a couple of bread rolls? (owner eying me nervously as if I was an escaped lunatic). That I’d already paid for breakfast but wasn’t getting any, seemed never to cut the ice. At one guesthouse, I was so hungry that I sneaked into the bar on my way out and ate all the peanuts.

Jim