1500 Hotel Nights

This is a described as a black comedy. Unfortunately every word of it is true!

In fact, it might well be subtitled "Analyse This!" as it is a factual book written by top analyst and seasoned business traveller Daniel Tabbush.

He spent four years of his life travelling for leisure and also for business as a business analyst receiving plaudits from and recognition for his work from organisations such as Bloomberg and Asia Money and he made regular appearances on CNBC and being published in the Wall Street Journal.

This is his second book.

As he spent 1500 nights in hotels all over the world he began to realise that it was a very frustrating experience. He observed that once a traveller makes a confirmation and pays for the hotel room, they are, in effect, hostages.

When a traveller finds a problem in their room, there is often no way out and also there is often a lack of honesty and truth. From the traveller! Who when asked often replies, untruthfully: "Oh, everything is fine, thank you."

Too often, David Tabbush noted that the "design characteristics" of hotels and restaurants are deeply flawed, often absurdly so. Even is some of the most luxurious establishments in the world.

There are bedframes that jut out and allow guests to bark their shins on sharp edges, light switches are haphazardly positioned in hot rooms,  air conditioning that thunders throughout the night, making restful sleep an impossibility.

Lighting is often designed for "romance" (sic) rather than to provide illumination, making reading or work almost impossible.

And why, he wonders, if a hotel provides a desk for the convenience of the guest, why is it often cluttered with booklets and folders on the hotel and its amenities, plus a variety of pamphlets and leaflets.

Wouldn't it be wonderful, he feels, if a hotel actually just provided a clean, uncluttered desk?

And another point of contention is a minibar that charges a guest for an item even if they merely took it out, read the label and put it back again.

This book is published by Matador at £9.99 and can br bought at https://goo.gl/wdCFDG.

It should be required reading by every hotelier, restaurateur and designer in the world. And also every business traveller as it contains dozens of ideas that, if implemented, would mean that travellers would beat a path to their door.