I've been home during the day, and this has been on BBC America the whole time I've been watching. It's amazing how terribly these hotel owners have deluded themselves into thinking they have business sense or any sense of customer service.

Anybody else watching?

I'm watching! I'm pretty amazed as well that people are sinking so much money into these failing ventures and when asked by Ruth the "hotel inspector" about their experience or what kind of research they did before going into the hotel business it's like "we just thought it would be a laugh". Who can afford to take out tens of thousands of dollars for a laugh? It's freaky

Cor blimey! De-frakkin'-lusional! Just saw the ep with the Children's Hotel in Blackpool with Mrs. Sparkles. Words Fail Me! Oh, no, wait, one word: Ewww!

The hotels and B & Bs on this show make the restaurants on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares look like the epitome of hygiene and good business. They are so dirty and shabby, and they only get worse from Mrs Sparkles onwards!

Also, its so funny to hear Ruth swear, as when you look at her, she doesn't seem the type to drop the F-Bomb!

Mrs. Sparkles wasn't just delusional about her business, she was downright frightening. What kids would be happy to spend a night with this crazy-eyed woman who greets people at the door by way of a crazy puppet?

Her insistence that people could request that the scary mannequins could be removed from rooms was hilarious. I don't know if I'd spend any money in a hotel where I'd have to request to have the scary stuff removed first.

I just watched the Sparkles episode (my first). Wow. Just wow.

To me the creepiest part, even creepier than having to remove a couple dozen barbies from a bed before being able to sleep in it, was the holes in the walls and ceiling with stuffed animals crammed into them - poor little headless bear hanging from the ceiling.

I did have to look up the Sparkles hotel and see that they are now adult only and have de-themed their rooms. They also now list room rates per person. Seems Sue Sparkle sold it in 2007. I guess no one went for the 400 per night Narnia room.

xingcat, now whenever I make a hotel reservation I'm going to specifically ask all mannequins be removed from the room prior to my arrival. Sure, they'll think I'm insane, but better that than the surprise of some strange mannequin in my room.

Oh my goodness! A few days ago I got home from a 2 week vacation on the other side of the world and found this new show on BBC America. I'm in heaven: a whole new world of idiosyncratic Brits being paraded before me!

I agree with all the comments about the uber-creepy Sparkles and its utterly deluded owner. Or former owner, as the case may be. That woman was one serious head case - I think she would scare many small children - and the whole hotel just creeped me out. I thought it was so interesting to see what a professional decorator did with one of the rooms (the Barbie) - carried out the theme in a classy and enjoyable way. Versus Mrs. Dressed-up Perv's tacky amateur stylings.

(I just visited the Sparkles website, BTW, and notice that they've kept a lot of the decor in the redone Barbie room, and I think also kept the fugly dark blue faux paint job in what was the Narnia suite. But otherwise it's a vast difference from the craziness on display in the show.)

The first episode I saw was the one about the "Key West" hotel - I forget which town - run by an older couple where the man was very sweet and just running himself nuts while his fat wife snuggled her poodle and had a "don't worry, be happy" attitude. To be fair she didn't seem uncaring, and maybe she'd given up on trying to help since he seemed to be a hard person to help in some ways. They seemed to have made some good changes as a result of working with Ruth and I hope things worked out for them afterwards.

EDITED to add that I just found this story, reporting that the owners of the Key West did have a happy ending. They managed to sell the place and move away, to enjoy a less stressful life.

Oh, the Key West! Man, that was sad. The owner-manager seemed utterly lost, and his wife surely had enough of his crazy schemes to keep up a hotel.

I kept thinking that "stag and hen" was code for "guys and the prostitutes they brought to the hotel," but maybe it wasn't as sleazy as all that?

It means bachelor and bachelorette parties.

Tonight I watched the episode about the Grand [not] Hotel in Hastings. The proprietor was a piece of work; retired civil servant who cluttered the breakfast room with souvenirs - including dolls and stuffed animals - of his many foreign postings, admitted he was an awful procrastinator, was stubbornly opposed to every statement out of Ruth's mouth, argued with her and put her down as "rude," etc. In other words, a terrific example of a deluded annoying pompous twit.

But he did get it eventually, I'm not sure what sparked the turnaround, but he pulled his head out of his rear and made some changes to his place.

I thought Ruth was very clever to suggest he replace his too-personal and cluttered "memories" theme in the breakfast room, with items that created a bit of a museum featuring the history of Hastings.

My Comcast schedule says that some of the upcoming episodes will be return visits to hotels Ruth worked with in prior seasons, which I think could be interesting even if we didn't see the original shows.

This is a terrific show! I've had to cut back on my expenses with the economy in the crapper but I'm hanging on to my BBC America on cable just so I can see all their unique shows. Afternoons are "The Hotel Inspector" followed by "The F Word". I recommend them both to everyone.

Pixelady, I've been laughing about this since I read it the other day. As it happens, I recently booked a stay in a London hotel for a trip later this year (I live in the US), and all I can say is thank heavens for the Internet. After reading reviews on TripAdvisor.com and visiting the hotel's website, I am 99.2% sure there are no mannequins - strange or not - in any guest rooms.

Until I saw this series, I really had no clue how bad British hotels could be. Which I suppose isn't logical since I'm a serious skeptic about all American lodging places. OTOH, I did learn ten years ago that Americans tend to think of bed and breakfast places as inherently kind of special and upmarket, while in reality a B&B in Britain is as likely to be a grimy room in a crummy house, as to be a gracious bedroom/bath suite in a lovely home. That was an eye-opener of a trip, for sure. ;-)

Glad to see that I'm not the only one watching this show. You know, you try to deal w/the locals, you try get some local color and not use the chain hotels, but man oh Manneschevitz, I would not want to stay in any of these places. The filth in the bathrooms! Don't they look? I can understand shabby in the sitting area or dining room, but filth in the bathrooms, ewww! No wonder the guy from the Grand was losing out to Ramada.

I just watched an episode I'd DVR'd, about a brother-sister duo* who had (along with other family investors) bought a hotel which was a going concern, and 3 years later they'd about run it into the ground. They had managed to lose some lucrative regular corporate meeting business and not been able to replace it with anything else. This, in an area where the hotel biz had been thriving during the same period in which theirs was fizzling out.

The sister* was a genuine head case, an absolute selfish undisciplined beeyotch. Who preferred playing with all her menagerie of pets and somehow "taking care of" her *adult* children, to observing any kind of regular hours at the hotel which she was supposed to be co-managing with her bro. But when Ruth said, well, then how about you just get out of the business altogether, Sis got all indignant. What? Let somebody else manage "her baby"?

Truly, that woman bugged me so much I was growling at the TV set. Ruth brought in a very qualified person for them to interview for the (vacant) position of hotel receptionist. Really, people, they didn't HAVE anybody regularly staffing the front desk or even answering the bleepin telephone. Or any kind of sensible consistent reservation/booking system. The applicant was really interested in taking on the challenge of setting up a good set of systems for their bookings, etc. And what does Sis do? Says, "we just have nothing in common except perhaps the hotel business. I just don't think she's a person I could get along with." And I'm sitting there with my jaw dropping open. Because that woman could have saved their business. She wasn't applying to be Sis's best friend, for Pete's sake. AAACK!

And the brother*? Hard to say. Clueless twit, IMHO, but I was so agog at Sis's craziness I probably didn't pay enough attention to him.

My DVR quit recording before what I think were the last couple of minutes, but I don't think there was a turnaround. When Ruth came back for a follow up visit, they had hired a receptionist: an attractive blonde with nice nails who didn't know a thing about the hotel business, and whom they had not provided with any training.

It was really a train wreck, all the way through.

EDITED to add: I looked up the hotel, the Hanmer Arms, and according to its website, it is now under different ownership. See http://www.hanmerarms.co.uk/ - where they say, "The times when, under a previous ownership, the Hanmer Arms Hotel endured some notoriety - as the result of it being featured (twice) on the C5 programme, ‘The Hotel Inspector’ – are now just a distant memory. This is evidenced in our AA Four Star status... one hint as to the quality and value waiting to be enjoyed here." So it seems the clueless/crazy sister-brother act folded and sold out.

*EDITED MUCH LATER: Because my Comcast cable onscreen program guide said this hotel was "run by siblings, I assumed these two were the siblings. I was wrong, and this was pointed out in a later posting. So much for relying on Comcast and not watching the opening scene carefully enough. . .

I knew I'd find a place to talk about the crazy. I just watched the Key West, the one in Bath and the Saxony (sp?) episodes. Much like Kitchen Nightmares and Salon Takeover it seems that people enter in business more for a lark. I am continually surprised when they lack basic knowledge about the field they are sinking thousands of dollars into.

The wife in the Key West ep made me want to smack her with her giggling response that she just didn't understand computers. The poor husband is working himself into a tizzy and she just standing by watching the whole thing. The woman in Bath and those creepy teddy bears! Then refusing to even use the database. Wow! Glad she was more agreeable to making needed changes. That Saxony dude reminded me of a bad SNL skit. Especially when he put that shiny 1970's peach shirt on. Looks like I have another tv addiction.

I love this show and Ruth. The hotels remind me of the awful one my friend and I stayed at when we went to London. The room had a terrible odor and the bath was so small that when you sat on the toilet your legs were under the sink like sitting at a desk or table.

We've been looking up the different hotels from the show online too. The Grand's page has photos of Ruth on it and advertises being featured on the show.

I didn't mind the teddy bears, but that may be because I watched this show after the one with Miss Sparkles, with those creepy mannequins!

The woman from Bath just seemed in over her head. She obviously loved being in a service industry, and the local tourism people (and the guidebook authors) clearly adored her. Once she realized that nobody was going to swoop in and save her, she gained some business sense. I think the database scared her, as she seemed not to have any computer knowledge at all. Whenever I have to teach a course on, say, MS Office to people who are used to doing books by hand, I see that "deer caught in the headlights" look she had.

I was glad to see her hotel had turned around, and the website says that they're still going strong. I think she found Ruth to be the potty-mouthed good friend who'd set her right.

My new fave show! I've only seen Key West, Sparkles and Blossoms. I felt so bad for the Key West guy! He definitely needed a smaller guest house - maybe 5 rooms. Mrs. Sparkles was insane! I really enjoyed Blossoms. My hubby and I visited York and it's so lovely. The location of Blossoms can't be beat! I'm glad that they really seemed to have taken the suggestions to heart.

I love this show. I watched the marathon yesterday. My question is this - if these hotels are weeks away from going under where do they get the money for the renovations? Do the owners have to come up with it? Does the show provide any funding? I don't recall them mentioning anything about this and for some of them it looks like they spend alot.

Love the show and Ruth. I just don't understand how people would be willing to invest thousand of pounds in ventures that they know nothing about. If they are just doing for investment purposes, why not just hire a staff to run the place for you?

Ms. Sparkles was down right scary. I can't imagine that she got anyone to stay in that place. The place just looked cheap and dirty and than to charge outrageous prices on top of that.

Well to make it more (or less?) creepy, they were actually husband and wife.

I loved the "revisiting" episode where Ruth went back a year or so later and found they had quit the hotel business altogether after selling the hotel and Ruth's like "So what do you see yourself doing now?" and the lady says "I'm a rainmaker. I can make it rain anytime." And she was talking about how people could hire her to make it rain in the desert or something. O_o It was really odd.

I saw the Sparkles episode and was still shocked at what happened (despite having read this forum about the episode). I have never seen such a level of delusion (even aided and abetted by the daughter). Yeah, this is one place that wouldn't stay in business long.

I too was ensnared by the Sparkles episode ... and I couldn't look away.

I thought underneath it all there was a good idea ... I mean, when I was a kid I would have been excited to be in the Narnia room (although I probably would have been keeping everyone up all night because I'd be trotting back and forth through the "wardrobe" door.) But in the end, the Inspector is right ... you want a place to put your suitcases down and a good reading light. The tattiness of it all was depressing -- the sad inflatable sea animals in the "Atlantis" room -- so chintzy. It reminded me of the motels that used to be across the way from Disneyland, back in the 70s and 80s ... trying to be themed but really just being dollar-store crapfests. Disney is actually a great example of hotels that are themed, but lightly.

What I found infuriating of course was Mrs. Sparkles refusal to even consider lower rates ("I'd be losing money!") when she couldn't process Ruth's very clear explanation that No One Is Banging Your Door Down, Dear. This is called finding out what the market will bear -- hello! Find your competitor in terms of location and quality of room -- then undercut them by 5 to 10 percent and you're set. If you think that she expected someone to pay the equivalent of $800 for a room ... holy kamoly. Eeek. Funny to look at the site now and see that not only have they gone to per-person pricing, but that it seems to be around the price that Mrs. Sparkles dismissed out of hand (20 pounds ... although maybe she meant per room not per person. Even so...)

Watching this and Gordon Ramsay's show -- and having helped start more than one business -- it breaks my heart to see people who are so misguided. Especially with hotels -- the basic principles are not hard to understand ... a clean place, good customer service ... no dusty stuffed animals popped into strange holes in the wall, no creepy mannequins, and no odd highchairs in the stair landings.

I think the Sparkles episode got to me also because I've fantasized about opening a small "haunted" hotel ... although it would be "artificially" haunted ... like there would be secret passageways, mysterious voices in the walls, images you might see in the mirror, etc. ... nothing aggressive or startling, just like getting to spend the night in The Haunted Mansion or something. I've been to many haunted hotels and of course everyone is craving an experience ... this would be a way to spice things up. Of course it would have to be top-notch in all the normal things you expect from a hotel. And I know that while many people think running a small hotel or B&B is easy, it's really about doing laundry all day and running to get some sourpuss guest more muffins.

I think I'm hooked on this show ... I'm sorry to know that Mrs. Sparkles sold, but it clearly was for the best. She needed a place to play and to try to be creative. I hope she found it.

Yeah, this show is definitely not making me want to plan my next trip to England. (To be fair, I've stayed in many hotels in the UK and all have been pretty much on par with the American style--boring and wonderfully sterile.) Seems like the show focuses on bed & breakfasts, which appears to mean "a shitty old duplex with locks on the bedroom doors." I mean, the "lounges" are nothing more than a family rec room!

The most surprising thing to me is the rating system that is apparently so important. I just finished watching the Saxonia episode, and that was a three star hotel before Ruth got there! With mold on the shower door! And filth everywhere! I didn't catch how much the Saxonia was charging for rooms, but in the States a grimy, outdated hovel like that would rate maybe a star and a half and be charging about $30/night.

I'm all about staying in charming, quirky, small bed & breakfasts, but if I'd be wicked pissed off if I paid over $60 a night to have to wear flip-flops in the shower. *shudder*

I love the show and Ruth, especially her talent for being intelligently brutal in her criticisms. I do often wonder why the hoteliers come over all surly when she suggests changes, given that they must know what the show is about, have asked for help, and must know that the producers and Ruth think there is something dire about their places that would make for interesting TV. Given the way that a lot of them , e.g. John at the Saxonia, seem to adamantly reject Ruth's suggestions at the outset, but then seem to mysteriously decide to follow her advice, I wonder if they have contractually agreed to make changes, possibly paid for by the show, but have been told or allowed to create controversy by being as difficult as they would like to be at the outset.

That said, I positively hated John! He was piggish in every sense. He seemed to have a sense of entitlement and superiority that could not possibly be based on talent, or intelligence, or worthy personal qualities. The only thing he has going for him in this world is that he's a white male, who probably controls the purse strings in his marriage.

He can't even speak the English language. His wife is obviously more articulate and thoughtful than he is, and he consistently belittled her and her opinions. For instance, look at the tissue box incident. He walked into the four star guest house, which any idiot could see represented quality and luxury light years beyond his dump, and he immediately determined that the tissue boxes marked the difference between that place and his. When his wife seemed to be ready to say that other changes in their guest rooms might be more important than tissue boxes, he didn't hesitate to bully her into agreeing with his opinion that the tissue boxes must be bought immediately! And look at his dismissive, sexist, and rude treatment of Ruth at the canopy store!

I didn't catch the beginning of the show, but apparently he fancies himself a chef also, but delivers "not the best cuisine."
Loved Ruth's "I wouldn't wear that shirt as my shroud, let alone to dinner." I think he must have made a fool of himself in front of the tolerant locals, who all seemed to be there as part of an effort to boost tourism in the area anyway, and not because they thought the Saxonia was or would be anything special, and certainly not because they thought anything of John.

Finally, I just could not imagine any rating agency giving four stars to an establishment fun by this toad, especially when he speaks in such a boorish manner (which I barely could understand but which must be more understandable by the English) and presents such a slovenly appearance.

Re the Tasworth House:



I think the Tasworth House innkeeper was just lost after her divorce. He was likely the business person and she kept saying that the business had declined after 9/11, which was just around the time he left the business. Hence she had something to blame instead of engaging in the actual problem. And Ruth was good for her because a lot of the innkeeper's problems were just that she needed to have updated bookkeeping programs, a marketing plan, reduced rates, and some updating of the facilities. She had delusions, but sure the heck dropped the delusions when she did her own research. So the elements for success were there.

The bears did not bother me either, but I had recently seen the Sparkles episode. So the feeling that the bears could be so much worse was there.

Via the BBC America discussion boards, I found this Wikipedia article all about the Hotel Inspector show. It includes a lot of links to the websites of the hotels/guesthouses/B&Bs featured in the episodes. A great resource for following up if you wonder what's happened after the episode was taped.

I haven't looked at all the linked hotel sites, but found that of the few I clicked on, more than one of the smaller places' sites included background music. Which I can't stand, and IMO is a sign of really bad website design. Cheesy. Thank goodness for the handy "mute" feature.

Edited to add "Wikipedia" to the first sentence.

Another addict here! Yes, that's what sets us off, too. These people are so utterly clueless. So you start a business without doing any research into it and without knowing what your own skills are. Having done that, when it all starts to go wrong, why do they not take a course or consult someone who knows what they're doing? Why don't they at least check out the competition?

I really think this could only happen in England. I lived there for several years and I have visited the private hotels and B&Bs, and I have to say never again! I am so not interested in getting to know the proprietors, and I absolutely hate the very bad beds, the grime and general squalor. In America, anyone whose home looked like most of these establishments would be called poor white trash.

I did like the one about Beech House. That old guy was so sweet and yet so pathetic. I don't feel Ruth is a very good communicator in general, being much too shrill and abrasive - to the point of rudeness and abuse - and seeming to think the closer she gets to the model of Gordon Ramsey, the better. In this case I was so upset with her, because the old guy had such a beautiful place (the first one I've seen that I'd like to stay in) and he certainly looked the part. The only thing he was missing was marketing acumen, and I feel if Ruth had only told him how very close he was to perfection at the start those fights wouldn't have happened. I really would like to know how that sweet old guy got on. Anyone know?

Some of the shows have been positively horrific. The Sparkles Children's Hotel one was gruesome. That woman is clearly mentally disturbed, and if we want to know what a deranged street person would do with money we can check in at her place anytime. We did wonder why Ruth never pointed out that people who come to a beach resort are not looking for entertainment in their hotel. They get enough of that during the day. That basement room should have been turned into something else, perhaps a meeting room for an "I Collect Trash and Call it Decoration" 12-step program.

We're also continually surprised that Ruth doesn't ever suggest that the mattresses be thrown out, even when they are clearly sagging in the middle. And the "after" shots of most of the rooms look like nothing much at all, bland vanilla wastelands. Ruth's own hotel is very nice - at least on her website - but she can't seem to help people to end up with a room anyone would want to walk into, let alone stay the night.

Ruth fixates on things that really don't matter, which if I were one of the hoteliers would call all of her other judgments into question. What does it matter if there are 15 Barbies or 50 in a room? (One would send me screaming.) In one show she focused on a bulletin board which should have just been an aside ("Take that down.") and in the Beech House one she zeroed in on the sausages with the zeal of a rat terrier on acid.

All in all it's a very watchable show, though. I'm sure I'll get tired of the pathetic hotels and Ruth's Hotella the Hun attacks sooner rather than later, but for now it's a decent watch.

Count me in on loving this show!! It is especially dear to my heart since I run the housekeeping department in a NC resort. I think I've seen every episode thus far and could not believe the filth and grime in some of these places. My whole department would be fired if I let a room go like that. Besides, that was months and/or years of neglect to have that kind of grime going on. Some of these proprietors are just delusional, i.e. the Sparkles lady, the older couple (peach shirt guy), and the owner's of the Hanmor Arms or whatever it was called. The Beech House was beautiful, but boy was Michael stubborn!! Every hotel that I know of changes it's prices per season. Ruth was totally making sense but he couldn't agree with her for anything.

. . .

Oh God, peach shirt guy! Did that dude have even one redeeming quality? He was utterly goofy looking, with his crossed eyes, flyaway hair, general dirtyness, obnoxious ignorant personality, and then the speech impediment. He kept talking about people wanting to have "intellectual discussions" with him, as if that would be possible. His wife looked like a man in drag, and what the hell was that marriage about? Creepy in the extreme.

He actually fought with Ruth about the mold behind the silicone caulk being "clean dirt," which means that in his mind such a thing exists. Then the wife saw the box of tissues at the other establishment, and they got into a conversation about whether to have tissues in their rooms. He was all for it, but she had to "think about it." THINK ABOUT IT!!! TISSUES!!!! Yes, that would be the reason they had no guests, woudln't it? Buy some tissues and people will flock to your door.

That couple was truly and utterly demented. I wouldn't let them host a funeral for roadkill.

Word, Sprockets. I didn't see this when it was aired, but set the DVR for it. I'm finding it hard to watch more than a few minutes of this recorded episode at a time. Because the Mister is so obnoxious, and the Missus kind of scares me and I'm not sure why.

And ya know what's also a bit scary? According to its website, their place has a three star rating from "Visit Britain," whatever that may be. it's at http://www.saxoniaguesthouse.co.uk/. They are pretty big on the "personal touch" - featuring themselves by name and picture right up front. I'm sure some people will like that. Whatever.

Suz at Large, THAT LINK!!!!! AAAAKKKK, my eyes are melting!!!!

Oh God, I took that virtual tour before breakfast. They should market this website as a dietary aide, because I honestly don't know if I'll be able to eat in the near future. While I'm gasping for air, let me note that their new blue awnings don't seem to have been UV stabilized. Soon they will have white awnings. And who in the name of God did they blow to get three stars?

That wife scares me because she is clearly a swirling mass of emotions just beneath the surface. The tendency is to think she is embarrassed by her husband or angry with him, but I'm nearly certain the truth is that she is hot for him and thinks he's God. I wouldn't be surprised to find out something really creepy about her, such as she raises baby squirrels in her underwear drawer, or even in her bra while she's wearing it. She is a simmering volcano of dysfunction. Never forget the Episode of the Tissues.

I'm gritting my teeth as I type this, but didyou catch the interchange where he kissed her and then joked about getting a shot of him slipping her the tongue? (I just threw up in the back of my throat a little.)

We record all these, too. We have to, or we'd miss half the episode from screaming at the various participants. I probably stop the playback ten times in a show in order to fume. That's what makes it so enjoyable. I swear, one of the first things Mr. Sprockets asked when he got home from work yesterday was "Do we have a Hotel Inspector to watch?"

(Upon further perusal of the website). They feature a phone in every room and an iron, too! They sure know how to party.

Check out their "Environmental policy." They have adopted a dolphin. I am not joking. I'm tempted to e-mail them and ask what they've named it.

How do two people expect to run a B & B and think they'll be able to keep it clean?

tonkacat, I have yet to see an episode where there was no staff. Which one are your referring to?

The Safari from yesterday.

Well, maybe they believe in "clean dirt" aka mildew, like repulsive John

The husband did the cooking, repairs, decorating and painting, the wife did all the cleaning. Ruth had them open an all day Breakfast Cafe. They had a yard sale to raise money to redecorate the rooms. They didn't raise enough money so they decorated their best room. In the meantime the orginal cafe was in the basement and the couple only had one bedroom to live in so Ruth had them move into the basement giving them more room. She moved the resturant upstairs. She also decorated the lounge. They didn't say where that money came from. I did notice many items that didn't sell were placed in the redecorated lounge.

Darn it, I missed that one. Direct TV is listing some of the episodes without any description or title whasoever. Just one more reason to loathe Direct TV. Did see Butley Priory from yesterday. Could the owner have been more childishly self-indulgent? And what would I give to live there?

I have no idea how the Butley Priory woman possibly lives. At the end of the show, when it was clear that she wanted to live in the Priory but have someone else figure out how she was going to make money living there and manage that end of it, I wondered how much longer she had in the place.

I watched the Butley Priory epi yesterday. It was my first episode, and after reading this forum, I was hoping to see a good trainwreck of a place. The home ended up being beautiful, the problem was the B&Bs hostess, who admits she hates being a host. I think that she got good advice on turning the place into an event hall...the place is gorgeous! You can tell that the wedding planner was frustrated with the whole situation. She is nearly running the whole business by herself, yet has no decision making privileges when it comes to room rates, etc. Hopefully the next epi will be chok full of roaches and mildew to overcome.

Wow, the Safari was such a mess! It seemed like everything in it was either tacky, dirty, broken, threadbare, cluttered, or all of the above. After having a chance to look at the condition of her assigned room and bath - the best one in the place - Ruth refused to spend the night there, instead just returning for breakfast.

The owners, husband and wife whose names I never really caught, put me off at first. I warmed up to them by the end of the show, feeling some sympathy for them. He obviously suffered from stress and I think depression, but when at the first of the episode they gave a backstory to the effect that he'd had a restaurant (he was a cook) but the stress of running it had become too much, so they bought the hotel - I thought "WTF?" Talk about jumping out of the frying pan into the fire.

Also, the biz whiz whom Ruth sent in to analyze the books, found that their lease had some onerous financial terms. I really started feeling like those two were babes in the wood when it came to business. And clearly the years of having that hotel around their necks had driven hubby into a depression; just look at all the half-*ssed attempts at painting, decoration and even DIY repairs. IIRC he actually said he'd just gotten to where there were so many things wrong with the place he had no idea where to start in dealing with them.

Actually, at first Ruth didn't either. I thought she did a good thing by playing to his strong point, the cooking, clearing out the crap on the main level and turning it into an attractive all day breakfast cafe.

And my snarky old heart was touched when I saw how Hubby teared up when he looked at the one redone guest room.

I didn't pay attention at the end of the episode, had to answer a phone call, so am not clear on how things went after Ruth's redo. I give that couple props for trying to make a go of things in business, and I hope they either got that place on its feet or were able to sell out and get out from under it. Most photos on the hotel's website are familiar if you saw the show (the one newly done guest room and the new cafe), and the site doesn't indicate whether the ownership/management has changed lately. It looks like the place has been awarded one star, which I would hope means it's had a top to bottom cleanup, fixup and redecoration. Because just salvaging that one guest room from the wreckage was only the start of a huge job that needed to be done on all the rooms/baths.

I think that maybe Ruth invested in that breakfast cafe makeover of the lounge/main level, but may have mis-heard that part.

The Butley Priory is a gorgeous place but the owner seemed well out of touch with reality. Did I hear them say she was only 47? I would have guessed more like 60 at least. Makes me wonder if there is/was a problem with alcohol - that would also explain her attitude.

Yes, they said 47. Her face was very aged. Smoking can cause that, too.

Butley Priory is dead gorgeous but the landlady? No, thank you. Either give Natalie and the staff carte blanche and stay the hell out or sell out and take the jazz combo on the road. She could be booked full stop at 100 pounds per room but not at 175. Greedy, shortsighted, selfish. And a stop at a proper hairdressers wouldn't kill her either. That hair on a Boho musician is one thing but not a posh wedding venue owner, imho.

Ah, but that's where the trouble is -- she sees herself as the Boho musician.

Thinking back on the episode, the whole thing is rather sad -- the landlady needs a staff to run the B&B, but she doesn't really want people to stay at the hotel because it's her private home. I am surprised to hear that she's 47 -- but then again I suspect some people don't exactly represent their true ages sometimes on these shows. She likely doesn't have the money to fix the bathroom issues with the rooms (although not having a normal toilet in the Moroccan room says a lot more about the decoration choices -- I sure the heck don't want to have to remove pillows to use the john) and that's a big part of why she can't charge what she wants. It sounds like there are people who come for the weekend on occasion and she's more comfortable with that arrangement

As for the Safari, all I could think is that they were spiffing up the place in order to sell the business. Because based on the couple's likely financial status and what they have on their hands, it will be a long time coming for them to be able to do all the renovations needed to get the hotel where it needs to be. They were in serious trouble.

The Key West, the owner looked like he was going to cry when the inspecter was talking to him. He was so relieved to get the 2 stars. I now know if I'm ever in the UK to stay in a 5 star hotel!

?
What I found astounding was that aside from the bathrooms, which could have been easily updated, the rooms were beautiful and yet overpriced at 175.
That made me think of the Sparkles lady charging 400 for a room! The crazy boho lady looks like Ruth next to her!

Well, I smoked (past tense) for 30 years and I'm 54, and yet I could be her daughter. Add 15 years to her stated age and we might be on track. She is just not very bright. She desperately does not want to leave Butley, but she doesn't want to do what it takes to stay. She said at one point she wished she had a regular job, but if that were true she'd have one (and she should). She fancies herself a musician, but from what we were shown she has absolutely no talent. I thought a few times that she was channeling Keith Richards.

Her husband left her and she hasn't gotten over it. That "dreamy artist" thing she's doing only works on very lovely, very young women who have someone to support them. It does not travel well through time, and neither does she. She should certainly have given over the control and decision-making to the wedding planner person, at least for six months to see what happened.

What they did to the garden was nothing short of hideous. What was that grotesque metal contraption? It looked like a giantess had dropped the frame for her hoop skirt in the middle of the lawn. It was utterly out of keeping with the house itself. The Priory apparently was known for its gardens in previous centuries, and any renovation should have started by researching the past and recreating those gardens, even on a very modest scale.

I also wonder what the owner of the property was thinking to let her run it as a guest house. That is very hard on any property, and he must be in very bad circumstances to allow such a thing. I cannot imagine owning a place like that and then renting it out. If I owned it, I'd be there!

I'm sure he was relieved. It was much easier to sell it with the rating. If you're ever in the UK, don't hold out for a 5-star rating. A 4-star is very nice and there will be many more to choose from. These days, though, you can find a great room in a chain hotel whose name you recognize in almost any large city.

Today I watched the follow up episode where Ruth visited the couple a year or so after the first episode. They had sold the hotel and were living in another town. He's got a job as an administrator for the Dorset police, and they want to get back into being foster parents, which they had done in the past. I thought he looked a lot happier, and so did his wife.

I second that. It's good to see a show where people un-make a decision and are happier for it. I still wonder how they ever thought they were cut out to be hoteliers, and why they didn't get out of it before it ran them down so much. It's great if they want to be foster parents, but he also talked about giving advice to people getting into the hotel business, which sounds like he's trying to take on too much all at once again. And, like Ruth, I wonder how much good advice he would have to give on that subject.