In the grand style

01 January 2000
In the grand style

Grand Hotelier, Behind The Scenes In Britain's Best Hotels

Ronald F Jones and Eve Jones, The Book Guild, £15.95

A Journey through some of Britain's grandest hotels, from the Adelphi in Liverpool to Claridge's in London, is at the heart of this autobiography of one of the country's most respected and successful hoteliers of recent years, Ronald Jones.

A fascinating life story it is, too, and one that should be read avidly by contemporaries of Jones as well as trainees entering the world of hospitality.

From the outset of his career - in 1941 in his home city of Liverpool as a junior control clerk at what was then one of the country's swankiest hotels, the Adelphi - it was clear that Jones had ambitions to reach the top. He was just 14 years old and earning 16 shillings a week.

The success that came his way was based on a philosophy of putting as much effort into looking after and caring for the staff as he did for the hotel guest. "A genuine interest in the welfare of both guests and staff is a prerequisite of good management," he says.

Welcoming figure

Jones's enduring curiosity in people ensured his main priority as a hotelier - however grand the establishment - was to be "mine host". Jones would always prefer to be welcoming guests at the front of house rather than be stuck in a back office counting the figures. But he was never afraid of doing what he had to do to balance the books - and that included removing the jewellery from one female guest who had outstayed her welcome at the Athenaeum without settling her bill.

Increased turnover and improvements in occupancy rates swiftly followed Jones at the 15 railway hotels - which became British Transport Hotels - he worked in before moving south to London, to the Royal Garden, the Athenaeum (his happiest appointment) and finally Claridge's, as its general manager and managing director. He was named Hotelier of the Year in 1989, and the following year was awarded the OBE for services to the hotel industry.

The book illustrates what a scandal it was that, following the break-up of British Transport Hotels, many of the country's most eminent hotels were allowed to decline so quickly. Of the early hotels worked in by Jones, only Turnberry and Gleneagles, both in Scotland, have retained their grandeur. The likes of the Adelphi, Liverpool; the Royal Station Hotel, Hull; the Queen's Hotel, Leeds; and the Central, Glasgow, are among many that today are only shadows of their former selves.

Behind-the-scenes power struggles within the Savoy Hotel Group and its ongoing battle with the Forte family also make interesting reading. While Jones's tenure at Claridge's marked the pinnacle of his career and brought him into frequent contact with world leaders and royalty, it is clear that the internal politics of the company he worked for often made for a frustrating working life.

The real fascination of this book, though, lies in the many anecdotes that Jones relates from his 53 years' experience in the industry. From listening to Noel Coward's private telephone conversations in the 1940s and dealing with homosexual guests and women clients in trouser-suits during the 1960s to the knowledge of Sir Hugh Wontner's peccadillos in the early 1990s, there is something to amuse anyone with or without links to the industry.

Co-written by Jones's second wife Eve, the book provides a wonderful insight into the working life of a true grand hotelier.

Janet Harmer

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