We desperately need more negative hotel reviews
When you read a restaurant review, you expect it to be critical. The same is true of theatre reviews, which often reward shows with one star. The same can not be said for the travel industry. In that sphere, journalists are far less likely to say that something is bad. Barring those trashy TV shows about holidays from hell, you’re almost guaranteed to be confronted with a glowing review of a hotel or resort.
In some ways, this makes sense. Theatre and restaurant reviews are newsworthy to a particular geographical audience; they’re useful to the reader, telling them whether or not to book a seat. Not so with travel: with thousands of destinations around the world, if a luxury hotel on Sumba, an island in Eastern Indonesia, isn’t any good, there’s a strong argument simply not to write about it. You probably aren’t waiting with baited breath to find out whether that particular hotel is awarded one, two, three, four or five stars – you discover it after a journalist stays there and says ‘Hey, this place is great, you should go.’
Glass in food, broken apps
But this doesn’t mean negative reviews of luxury hotels shouldn’t exist. As this newspaper’s travel editor, I have had my share of bad experiences. At one seismic London opening, a giant piece of brass fell off the shower, narrowly avoiding breaking my toes. That same hotel brought me all the wrong food in the restaurant and promised my room would be ready for me to take an important call; it wasn’t. I didn’t write about it: no point, I thought.
But I decided that enough was enough. When doing a hotel review of the new Six Senses London this summer, my guest found a piece of glass in his dinner. I think people deserve to know about this. It wasn’t even the only thing that was wrong with my stay: another guests’ safe lock code was incorrectly sent to us on an in-room app. My friend who nearly ate the glass was offered a complimentary stay by the manager, his email went unanswered for over a fortnight when he followed up about making the reservation.
The case for negative hotel reviews
Later, when I said we would be publishing the story, I was told that the jobs of some staff members could be on the line. They went over my head, emailing my editor to ask him if he could kill the story.
Ironically, the highest echelons of the travel PR world acknowledge the lack of criticism is a problem. “Journalists can get across messages PR teams can’t,” one owner of a publicity company told me. “When publicists say something needs fixing, they don’t listen. When you say it, they do.”
And so, I will proceed to “say it”. If you’re considering paying a grand per night for a room – heck, any amount of money – you deserve to know if the experience is worth it or not. In this case, I just can’t recommend Six Senses London.
Holding power to account
I hope that no jobs are lost over this story. It’s not the fault of the staff on the ground: this sort of mistake should never be allowed to happen – should not even be possible – especially at somewhere of this supposed caliber.
Most travel journalism should be inspirational and aspirational. But it should also be a means of holding power to account. So perhaps we should be less afraid to tell it like it is. I did not have a relaxing time at the Six Senses, London’s newest wellness hotel.