British hotels offer the worst service in the world

Updated
Service bell at hotel reception
Service bell at hotel reception

British hotels offer some of the worst service in the world, says a new report. You don't get service with a smile at British hotels: in fact, if the survey is anything to go by, you'd be lucky to get any kind of service at all. %VIRTUAL-ArticleSidebar-Hotels%The European survey of friendliness and expertise found that Britain lagged way behind the vast majority of its counterparts - including Romania, Greece, Germany and Russia.

The survey, by Hotel.info, found that you can expect your warmest welcome in Finland, where staff were given 8.38 out of 10. This was followed by Germany and Austria with 8.37, Hungary with 8.33, and Poland with 8.28.

Top 20
1. Finland 8.38
2. Germany 8.37
3. Austria 8.37
4. Hungary 8.33
5. Poland 8.28
6. Switzerland 8.27
7. Slovakia 8.27
8. Portugal 8.23
9. Sweden 8.20
10. Croatia 8.19
11. Ireland 8.18
12. Bulgaria 8.17
13. Italy 8.11
14. Romania 8.11
15. Greece 8.10
16 Czech Republic 8.10
17. France 7.93
18. Spain 7.92
19. Turkey 7.87
20. Netherlands 7.86

Britain, meanwhile, failed to make the top 20 - and even languished behind Denmark at 7.7 and Russia at 7.66: we managed a paltry 7.62.

FAWLTY TOWERS (TV) JOHN CLEESE, ANDREW SACHS BBC FTWS 011
FAWLTY TOWERS (TV) JOHN CLEESE, ANDREW SACHS BBC FTWS 011



There are a host of possible contributory factors. Culturally we're not known for our service with a smile. The most famous hotelier in the country is Basil Fawlty; we sneer at the idea of people employed in shops to greet us and we hate the idea of someone whose job it is to tell us to have a nice day.

At the same time staff in the hospitality industry are not on generous wages. It's actually the industry where staff are most likely of all to be on less than the living wage (the rate that the Resolution Foundation calculates you need to secure even a basic standard of living). In fact two out of three people in the business are not paid enough to live. It must be harder to go the extra mile for guests when you're holding down two jobs and working all hours just to make ends meet.

There is some good news, however, the survey showed that some British cities shone through. For the second year running, the friendliest and most expert staff were in Leeds (with a score of 8.22), followed by Liverpool at 7.89 and Glasgow at 7.88. These cities were also named in the top three last year. By contrast. London and Birmingham failed to come up to the dismal standards set by the rest of the country.

Britain's top 5
1 Leeds 8.22
2. Liverpool 7.89
3. Glasgow 7.88
4. London 7.42
5. Birmingham 7.39



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