Alex Polizzi returns in the Hotel Inspector on 5, gifting flailing establishments in the hospitality sector with her considerable knowledge and experience gained from the hotel trade.
Season 21’s proprietors are a warmer bunch than in previous seasons — eager, responsive and grateful. A far cry from previous series where the businesses and (some of) the owners are resistant to change. Polizzi maintains her trademark style, delivering tough feedback and practical advice with warm playful smile, advocating for business people you want to go out of your way to support and see succeed.
The first three episodes – Navigator Hotel in Bognor Regis, The Swan in Monks Eleigh, and Gatwick Turret in Horley – all see proprietors struggling to make a profit. The changes – reducing the bottom line and upping the decor – aren’t radical but they are well-deployed. Sound research makes each transformation an easier story to tell. What’s lost in jeopardy, is gained in the humanity that drives independent UK hospitality, something positioned front and centrein every episode.
If you’re paying £100+ to stay in a chain budget hotel close to Gatwick airport, why not pay less than that to stay in a comparable room with a twenty minute bus ride to the airport? In this way, Hotel Inspector complies with 5’s other safe bets ‘documenting’ the UK’s well-loved brands. Hour-long behind-the-scenes specials about Waitrose and M&S and various high-end hotels are more promo than actual documentary, story elements tightly controlled, the end product making you more not less inclined to frequent your nearest outlet.
The series’s success is rooted in the trust it consistently maintains. It’s not going to deal any great surprises. That’s what likely makes it reassuring. Ultimately, Hotel Inspector thrives because of Polizzi. As personalities go, she’s warm, no-nonsense and unpretentious. A tonic.
