The Government should show industry support, says Good Hotel Guide

The editors of the Good Hotel Guide are the latest industry members to call for government support and not "ill-informed criticism".

The guide's editors Desmond Balmer and Adam Raphael said that after a dreadful summer the last thing hoteliers needed was to be told by the former tourism minister Margaret Hodge, who has now been replaced by Barbara Follett, that they were "too expensive and of worrying quality".

They also added that British hotels suffered a double whammy from the Government with the cuts in funding for VisitBritain.

"The Government should be looking at ways of promoting hotels rather than attacking them. British hotels pay one of the highest VAT rates in Europe, more than three times the level of those in France," they said.

The guide, published today, also attacked the practice of imposing a discretionary service charge on hotel bills, particularly by the "insidious means" of offering the choice of adding a gratuity when making an electronic payment.

"Service is the first thing we expect a hotel to provide, the imposition of a service charge suggests hotels are not paying proper wages. The payment of a gratuity should be at the discretion of the guest," the guide's authors said.

The Gurnard's Head, Zennor, Cornwall, Bealah House, Duror, The Highlands and the Hand at Llanarmon, Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceirog, Wales, are singled out as outstanding hotels in the latest addition of the guide.

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By Gemma Sharkey

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