Alex Polizzi:Hoteliers Are Making The Same Mistakes

　　Ahead of the ninth series of her Channel 5 TV show The Hotel Inspector, hotelier Alex Polizzi has said hotel owners at venues she visits are continuing to make the same mistakes around cleanliness and service.

The Hotel Inspector: Hotelier Alex Polizzi has told BigHospitality hoteliers continue to make the same mistakes as the ninth series of her TV show on the industry hits our screensIn an exclusive interview with BigHospitality, Polizzi defended the representation of the hotel business the show gives the public and claimed the forthcoming London 2012 Olympics were not benefiting the industry.

　　The niece of the legendary British hotelier Sir Rocco Forte also revealed she was plotting a move back into the hospitality industry after taking a back step from running Hotel Endsleigh in Devon since becoming a mother.

　　Changed expectations

　　After taking a small break from filming the show which sets out to salvage Britain"s worst-run hotels, Polizzi returns to the small screen with The Hotel Inspector on Thursday 5 July.

　　"Our expectation of what one gets for £60 or £70 is much higher than it used to be," the 40-year-old hotelier told BigHospitality. According to Polizzi since starting the series the people she visits continue to make the same three mistakes - they run dirty hotels, they have no aptitude for looking after other people or they have been doing it too long and have lost their way.

　　"I have got an 87-year-old owner in one, an 80-year-old owner in another and a 77-year-old owner in one more and all of them are struggling to keep up with the times. I am struggling to keep up with it - I see the prevalence of things like TripAdvisor and I feel old."

　　The growth of the boutique hotels and the level of guests" expectations, Polizzi argued, have not helped the elderly hotel owner. "The older you get the fewer places you stay in yourself, the fewer places you visit and so your impressions

　　of what is acceptable and what is not get stultified completely. It is quite hard to stay up with fashion and at a certain point you just give up with your rooms."

　　Passionate about industry

　　In the latest series Polizzi returns to two past offenders with mixed results but she denies the series helps pervade a negative perception of the industry and hotels as bad places to start a career.

　　"Why would I still be passionate about the hotel industry if I thought it was all shit?," Polizzi asked. "You would have to be stupid to think the whole hotel industry is like the bit I see in The Hotel Inspector - these are hotels introuble. They are not offering training or anything useful, they are just trying to survive."