Hotels 'must shed shabby image to woo back tourists'

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Leading article: Room service

Hotels stuck in a 1950s time warp of bad food and tyrannical landladies are undermining a multimillion-pound campaign to lure tourists back to Britain, a consumers' group has claimed.

Hotels need to refurbish, redecorate and train staff to deal properly with customers rather than relying on poorly paid students with no interest in the job, the Consumers' Association said. It warned that a £40m "Only in Britain, Only in 2002" campaign will be of little use unless hotels give overseas visitors a better experience.

"It is all very well banging the drum for Britain but we need to make improvements in the product that visitors are offered so that when people come here they don't decide to go to Spain the next year," said Patricia Yates, co-editor of the new Which? Good Hotel Guide.

"Most UK hotels need to raise their game if they are going to survive in today's difficult circumstances," she said.

After the foot-and-mouth crisis, the Government allocated £14.2m to promoting British tourism, but Ms Yates said many hotels would have been better off redecorating, and training staff in service skills.

Inspectors for the guide found that hotels in the Lake District, one of the areas worst hit by foot-and-mouth, were particularly in need of updating.

Elsewhere they found hotels persisting with petty rules. In one case a hotel kept its breakfast room locked until one minute before the food was served, keeping the guests "hanging about outside like wolves before feeding time".

The British Hoteliers Association said the criticisms were unfair because the majority of hotels had improved their facilities and service. However a spokesman accepted service was suffering because it was difficult to recruit people into what was seen as a low-status, low-pay job.