London hotels are so much better when they stop refurbishing
As a travel writer, my heart sinks when I check into a new London hotel and hear that it’s about to be refurbished. In fact, this goes for hotels all over the world.
Sometimes a spruce up is necessary, of course, but most of the time it feels like hotels think the only way to stay popular and relevant is to renovate.
It’s simply not true: Claridge’s, one of the finest hotels in London, has scratched old wooden doors and beaten-down carpets on the bedroom corridors. Its fixtures downstairs mainly date back to the 1920s, but they aren’t all elegant pieces of history, some parts plainly look old.
Guests love to feel that they are staying somewhere real. ‘Authenticity’ has become such a buzzword, but research tells us that more than ever, customers are looking for real experiences, not polished-up touristic ones, when they travel.
I’m lucky that I get to stay in a lot of London hotels, and hotels internationally, for my job, writing about the latest places to visit around the world. And I have noticed many hotels seem anxious to update their look almost constantly, I presume to keep up with the newer hotels and show they have something fresh for visitors.
This year there have been four or five hotel tours where my heart sank when a general manager has told me they’re about to rip out some perfectly fine feature as part of a refurbishment that doesn’t feel necessary.
Like with clothes, you just have to wait out the period when something goes out of fashion and then it will come back in again
In a way, I understand why hotels in our capital and beyond act this way. Of course a hotel wants to feel exciting. But more often than not, the hotels that constantly renovate lack identity and soul, and end up feeling cold.
I visited the La Reserve hotel in Geneva earlier this year, a hotel with one of the most ostentatious, fabulous foyers I’ve seen. It looks stunning and timeless – and yet the hotel managers told me they are refurbishing.
If hotels were to be brave enough to wait through the stage where they feel they should renovate and leave the property as it is, the likelihood is the style will come back into fashion again, just like clothes do. Hotels now that were built in the middle of last century that have retained their vintage look are seen as incredibly cool all over again. But not many remain because most hoteliers ripped out those interiors to replace them with something new.
Read more: Notting Hill Carnival and Reading Festival-goers brace for rail strike disruption
Then there’s the sustainability argument. So many hotels are touting sustainability policies, but what’s the use in cutting out single use plastic if you’re importing tonnes of marble from Italy for your refurbishment 8 or 10 years after you last refitted the whole place? A hotel I recently visited in Las Vegas shocked me when they said their heavy stone fixtures and fittings would be ripped out and replaced after just 12 years. (All the while, heritage hotels like the El Cortez in Vegas show how amazing a building can look if it is left alone.)
Gen Z in particular are showing they are nostalgic, another reason to save money and the planet by keeping your hotel gloriously of its period. Trust me, character speaks volumes and before you know it, your hotel fixtures and fittings will be seen as vintage, not just old.
Read more about the best places to escape the capital in our travel section