According to one of several competing systems in the USA, where a fifth star can mean an additional 40% charge per night; in order to qualify, arriving guests must be met kerbside within sixty seconds and an empty coffee cup refilled in thirty! While all this sounds wonderful in theory, I for one believe there’s more to great service than the frequency in which someone peers into my cup. Boutique properties like Eichardt’s in New Zealand or The Henrietta in London – a hotel which packs more personality into its thirteen rooms than three Tyrion Lannister’s put together – offers a level of intimacy beyond anything available in a larger establishment, yet would fail to reach the required standard for a telephone near the toilet. Added to which the current system does not take into account, or ever has for that matter, the innovative or the unique. A hotel could tick all the boxes with a robe, daily newspaper and shoe polishing kit, but it does nothing to help attain that coveted fifth star.
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