0:00:22 > 0:00:26Butlers and bellboys, champagne and shoeshine -
0:00:26 > 0:00:32to understand luxury, look no further than the five-star hotel.
0:00:32 > 0:00:38Hotels are probably the ultimate urban symbol of wealth and power.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42They tend to represent the finest that we can produce
0:00:42 > 0:00:44in terms of an architectural environment.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54No other place so perfectly reflects and defines
0:00:54 > 0:00:59our changing ideas of comfort, design, service...and glamour.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02There's always an energy around a hotel,
0:01:02 > 0:01:04there's always a buzz about a hotel,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07because most people are in there for an occasion.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served.
0:01:11 > 0:01:16Luxury hotels have always been about exceeding expectations.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19When people were going to them for the first time,
0:01:19 > 0:01:23they expected to enter a different world.
0:01:23 > 0:01:24Here we are.
0:01:26 > 0:01:31Once, it was only hotels that had en-suite bathrooms,
0:01:31 > 0:01:33now we ALL aspire to them.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38The need for innovation in hotels
0:01:38 > 0:01:41is the insatiable appetite of the customer for what's new
0:01:41 > 0:01:43and what's on the button.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48The precise details of luxury may change, but the definition doesn't.
0:01:48 > 0:01:55Luxury hotels are only for the few. THEIR story is a very select one.
0:02:03 > 0:02:08The luxury hotel is around 150 years old -
0:02:08 > 0:02:12a product of the age of empire, when Britain ruled the world,
0:02:12 > 0:02:14and the aristocracy ruled Britain.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18Their clients were a tiny, wealthy elite
0:02:18 > 0:02:21who had huge houses run by servants,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24so that's what they expected from a hotel.
0:02:34 > 0:02:36A luxury-hotel experience
0:02:36 > 0:02:39is all about taking out the worry,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42the hassle and the problems of life.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47For example, you could ring the bell
0:02:47 > 0:02:50and somebody would come and draw your bath.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53You would perhaps have one or two or three butlers there -
0:02:53 > 0:02:57one to unpack your bags, another to make sure that they took everything away.
0:02:57 > 0:03:02Titled travellers, Victorian business barons,
0:03:02 > 0:03:04American millionaires -
0:03:04 > 0:03:09this high society crowd could afford to pay for what the hotels offered.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13The grand hotels of the past exuded total glamour
0:03:13 > 0:03:16for a very exclusive, small group of people
0:03:16 > 0:03:19who travelled from one grand hotel to another and often did a circuit.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22So they'd be in Paris, Monte Carlo, Cannes...
0:03:22 > 0:03:24And...a wonderful lifestyle.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28Um, but it was for just a few, cos travel was just for a few.
0:03:29 > 0:03:34The grand designs of hotels mimicked the importance of their guests
0:03:34 > 0:03:38to give the nobility and millionaires a suitable setting.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42They are built to look like palaces.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46They are built to look like a new, new version of a palace.
0:03:46 > 0:03:47They were often called
0:03:47 > 0:03:50"The Royal..." this, "The Imperial..." that.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54So it's a palace for a plutocrat rather than a king.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59One could live in grand style in a large building
0:03:59 > 0:04:04with an exceptionally high standard of service -
0:04:04 > 0:04:07every whim catered to, constant amusement,
0:04:07 > 0:04:12good food available at any hour of the day or night.
0:04:12 > 0:04:14By the 20th century,
0:04:14 > 0:04:17the names of our grandest hotels were famous -
0:04:17 > 0:04:19The Savoy, The Connaught,
0:04:19 > 0:04:23The Ritz and The Dorchester, The Grosvenor, Claridge's -
0:04:23 > 0:04:28these were strung like pearls around Mayfair and the Strand.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31They'd be your home away from home.
0:04:31 > 0:04:37Somewhere respectable where good people, nice people,
0:04:37 > 0:04:39could go and could meet...
0:04:40 > 0:04:44..in the first era that was really...lacked chaperones.
0:04:44 > 0:04:49When young ladies hadn't been able to really be seen in a public place.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55They were an area of freedom.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58They were also, of course, immensely more comfortable
0:04:58 > 0:05:02than any of the aristocracy's creaking stately homes.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05I mean, you had...hot water.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11A lift! Here it was known as an ascending room.
0:05:14 > 0:05:18From their earliest days, these hotels were more innovative
0:05:18 > 0:05:21than almost any other buildings of their time.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25As much as hotels might have an aesthetic
0:05:25 > 0:05:27and be remembered for their aesthetic,
0:05:27 > 0:05:30in practice, they're highly refined machines.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33They were really ahead of their time, they were really...
0:05:33 > 0:05:36not just laboratories for life, but laboratories for technology.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42They were the places that first tested intercom to the front desk,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45telephone, even lightbulbs.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54All mod-cons were necessary for the smooth running
0:05:54 > 0:05:55of the deluxe hotel,
0:05:55 > 0:05:59which in turn, made life more comfortable for the guests.
0:05:59 > 0:06:03Technology made the incredible cleanliness of hotels
0:06:03 > 0:06:07tremendously important and much easier, much simpler.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09When there was running water, there were electric sockets
0:06:09 > 0:06:14that would support vacuum cleaners and other modern appliances.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17Boys, try and not be so noisy tonight, won't you?
0:06:16 > 0:06:17All right.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20MACHINE WHIRRS
0:06:21 > 0:06:24The grand hotels were little microcosms.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29They had their own laundries, printing presses...
0:06:29 > 0:06:31The Savoy even had its own electricity plant!
0:06:31 > 0:06:35An entire world was within their walls
0:06:35 > 0:06:39and the staff were a fundamental part of the machinery.
0:06:41 > 0:06:47Well-trained, at your service, and three to every guest.
0:06:55 > 0:06:56Sorry, Madam.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00But because those who eat the honey don't NEED to meet the bees,
0:07:00 > 0:07:03most of the staff were hidden way.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11There would be entirely separate communication corridors
0:07:11 > 0:07:15and stairways, so that staff were NEVER seen,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19unless they were actually required for a particular service.
0:07:19 > 0:07:21CLATTERING AND SHOUTING
0:07:22 > 0:07:30This notion of keeping the hotel free of any evidence of work
0:07:30 > 0:07:33was important to the notion of leisure
0:07:33 > 0:07:36that was embodied in the design of these buildings,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40and the notion that people should be entertained the whole time.
0:07:40 > 0:07:42Work was not part of that equation at all
0:07:42 > 0:07:46and so it needed to be hidden, to be concealed.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53These hotels did not allow just ANYBODY in,
0:07:53 > 0:07:58they were private clubs where rich women felt protected
0:07:58 > 0:08:01and rich men could meet in convivial surroundings.
0:08:02 > 0:08:06In the derelict remains of The Cavendish in St James's,
0:08:06 > 0:08:11a former guest recalled the hotel's role in its heyday.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16What secrets this small garden could tell.
0:08:16 > 0:08:20And all the prime ministers were here at one time or another,
0:08:20 > 0:08:23'even Sir Anthony Eden as a young man.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25It was here that The Times newspaper
0:08:25 > 0:08:29was sold by Lord Astor to the rising Lord Northcliffe.
0:08:29 > 0:08:31That was only one of the big deals that went on
0:08:31 > 0:08:35in the discreet surroundings of The Cavendish.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38Discretion was all part of excellent service.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43Staff were told to turn a blind eye to anything, or anyone
0:08:43 > 0:08:45their guests might care to do.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49The bedrooms, you can well imagine, would have some stories to tell.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52One, at any rate, can be told about this room,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55because it was here on the notorious tiger-skin rug
0:08:55 > 0:08:57that the passionate love affair
0:08:57 > 0:09:01between the lady novelist Elinor Glyn and the Marquis Curzon,
0:09:01 > 0:09:05viceroy of India no less, took place. Here...
0:09:05 > 0:09:08before this fireplace on the rug.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11Oh, no, there IS a connection between hotels and scandal.
0:09:13 > 0:09:17I think it's because hotels are this strange space
0:09:17 > 0:09:19between public and private space,
0:09:19 > 0:09:25they're somehow outside of the normal rules of society.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27If there is a "do not disturb" sign on the door,
0:09:27 > 0:09:31whatever you're taking, you must not knock or open or go in.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36At the Hotel Meurice in Paris,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Salvador Dali drew on the walls of his room
0:09:39 > 0:09:41while his pet ocelots pooed on the carpets.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45At the Savoy, Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas
0:09:45 > 0:09:48carried on their illicit affair.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51Things go on in hotels that you would never know,
0:09:51 > 0:09:53and it's the job of the staff never to let on.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59Throughout the early 20th century, the private lives of luxury hotels
0:09:59 > 0:10:01remained invisible to the public eye.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09With the growing popularity of cinema in the '30s and '40s, however,
0:10:09 > 0:10:12they began to be revealed.
0:10:12 > 0:10:16ARCHIVE: Boys, I want to see every eyelid snap.
0:10:16 > 0:10:17ALL: Yes, Sir!
0:10:17 > 0:10:20Hollywood exploited the grand hotel,
0:10:20 > 0:10:23for glamorous settings, drama and fun.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25It found character in the ranks.
0:10:25 > 0:10:28ALL: Good morning, Mr Hammerstein.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32There was the spectacle of the hotel lobby and ballroom.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34And the rubbing together of the classes
0:10:34 > 0:10:40fed the American Dream with working boy often winning rich-girl guest.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44He could name mine any time!
0:10:45 > 0:10:51Hollywood also staged lavish cabaret on a grand scale.
0:11:02 > 0:11:08Gradually, the grand hotels began to ape these films.
0:11:08 > 0:11:09They began to put on cabaret
0:11:09 > 0:11:14based on the fictional version of themselves.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17It's the witching hour of midnight. We're watching the dancers
0:11:17 > 0:11:19trip the light fantastic to Billy Gerhardy and his band.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21To pay for this,
0:11:21 > 0:11:25the wealthy public was admitted to swell the numbers.
0:11:25 > 0:11:27It made financial sense.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30And hotels began to have a more public face.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35The Great Room in the Grosvenor House
0:11:35 > 0:11:39used to be an ice-skating rink originally
0:11:39 > 0:11:40That's what I was told.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45The hotels were the places that had incredible shows.
0:11:45 > 0:11:48I guess you could argue somewhere like Vegas
0:11:48 > 0:11:51is a more tacky, but modern version of the grand hotels.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58A lot of these hotels did that when it was part of their attraction.
0:12:02 > 0:12:07A hotel is a business, and if a business doesn't generate cash
0:12:07 > 0:12:09and make profit, it can't survive.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11You have to get a return on investment
0:12:11 > 0:12:15so it's all about square footage and making sure it works for you.
0:12:15 > 0:12:19These grand hotels had huge public space.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28And these spaces were ideal venues for the partying '60s,
0:12:28 > 0:12:31when Britain had plenty to celebrate.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38ARCHIVE: 'If you have money, you don't expect to fight your way into the Dorchester,
0:12:38 > 0:12:42'unless you're so famous you can't move for your army of fans.'
0:12:42 > 0:12:45This was when luxury hotels established themselves
0:12:45 > 0:12:49as focus points for public occasions.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52It was the era of the gala dinner, the charity ball,
0:12:52 > 0:12:53the award ceremony.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56The great and the good from all walks of life
0:12:56 > 0:12:59mingled in the spotlights.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03It was like Olympic rings of social circles
0:13:03 > 0:13:06and then, as now, royalty and the aristocracy
0:13:06 > 0:13:12were fascinated to meet the theatocracy.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14It was a marriage made in heaven.
0:13:14 > 0:13:20The hotels all sparkled and everyone was a star for the night.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23There is a great quote from Michael Caine
0:13:23 > 0:13:25talking about when you first arrive
0:13:25 > 0:13:28it's like you were the first person on stage.
0:13:28 > 0:13:32It's that sense of being walked to your table, the sense of occasion,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36You probably put your best suit on or your little black dress.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39It's an exciting evening for you. The anticipation is there.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42'Good evening from the Dorchester Hotel in London
0:13:42 > 0:13:46'on television's biggest social occasion...'
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Something which runs parallel with the hotel industry is the theatre.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57I always sort of feel that when you have a lunch or dinner service,
0:13:57 > 0:14:01it is kind of like getting ready for curtain up.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11I think cinematic, actually, more than theatre.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Done well, they can be completely immersive.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16Done badly, they can be immersive as well!
0:14:16 > 0:14:18You're in someone else's world.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21You don't have control over that.
0:14:21 > 0:14:25You are part of somebody else's narrative for better or worse.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30TV cameras and press photographers were granted greater access
0:14:30 > 0:14:32to record this parade of prestige.
0:14:32 > 0:14:38The irresistible rise of the media spread the glamorous images
0:14:38 > 0:14:42far and wide, but they were missing a far more interesting story
0:14:42 > 0:14:45that was playing at the grand hotels.
0:14:45 > 0:14:51Backstage it wasn't Great Expectations, it was Bleak House!
0:14:52 > 0:14:58There was never any money spent on staff feeding or locker rooms.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04There was a lot of fighting that went on, fist-fights and so on.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06A lot of theft.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12Back of house, it was completely ghastly.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15When I worked at the Berkeley,
0:15:15 > 0:15:19we had to take all our clothes off, apart from our bra and knickers,
0:15:19 > 0:15:22lock them away, put on our whites,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25and we were searched before we left the hotel,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28in case we had stolen any food.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33I think it says a lot about what the economic situation was.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Staff could be dismissed with a day's notice.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Wages were below average.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Waiters and kitchen staff worked long, hard hours.
0:15:43 > 0:15:48The kitchen was like rowing on a galleon.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52People shouting, the heat was huge, it was enormous.
0:15:52 > 0:15:54It was thoroughly unpleasant.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59For years, this story had remained hidden.
0:15:59 > 0:16:01Staff put up with it as part of the job.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06Then, in 1963, the BBC were allowed into a luxury hotel
0:16:06 > 0:16:09to make a documentary.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12Going in behind the velvet curtain,
0:16:12 > 0:16:17they produced what must be one of the first examples of the TV expose.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19352. OK.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23- NARRATOR:- 'Service trolleys like this can travel many corridor miles per day.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26'It's as if this place was a hospital, where the staff are the doctors
0:16:26 > 0:16:29'dispensing charm and tranquillisers.'
0:16:29 > 0:16:32How are you this morning? Fine, thank you.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35Come along, my dear, breakfast is here.
0:16:35 > 0:16:36Coming!
0:16:36 > 0:16:39'Many floors below the splendour are the quarters of the staff.
0:16:39 > 0:16:44'There's something archaic, almost medieval about the contrast.'
0:16:44 > 0:16:47This was the enlightened '60s.
0:16:47 > 0:16:51A time when trade unions were demanding a fairer deal for workers.
0:16:51 > 0:16:55The documentary questioned the whole idea of the luxury hotel.
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Is this yesterday's culture?
0:16:57 > 0:17:00The diners here, the food they're eating, the music they're hearing,
0:17:00 > 0:17:02the staff that serve them,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05seem sometimes to exist only in a timeless international limbo.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07It's hardly changed for 40 years,
0:17:07 > 0:17:10despite the fact that after the war, many people were asking,
0:17:10 > 0:17:12just how long CAN all this last?
0:17:12 > 0:17:15I remember people came back from the war,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19wanting to put things right for ever.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24What are those extraordinary
0:17:24 > 0:17:29Edwardian and Victorian mock palaces doing here?
0:17:29 > 0:17:33They don't make any economic sense and they're just a great affront.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36Aesthetically, they are always interesting.
0:17:36 > 0:17:41They tend to represent the finest that we can produce
0:17:41 > 0:17:44in terms of an architectural environment.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47Morally, they are another matter.
0:17:47 > 0:17:50They're there, as William Morris said,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53to cater for the swinish luxury of the rich.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58The film was shot at the Savoy
0:17:58 > 0:18:01but it could have been any grand hotel of the time.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03The management tried to get an injunction,
0:18:03 > 0:18:07but failed, and the programme went out,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10pulling no punches in showing the gulf between the rich and the rest.
0:18:13 > 0:18:15Here, a client may pay £3,000 for a ball.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20A washer-up keeps his family on this sum for seven years.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23Could this mean that the luxury hotel will flounder?
0:18:23 > 0:18:25The hoteliers themselves seem to think
0:18:25 > 0:18:29that however society may change, there will still be people
0:18:29 > 0:18:32who are able to buy what they are selling.
0:18:33 > 0:18:38In the Herald newspaper the next day, its TV critic wrote,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41"This cool-eyed documentary would have coaxed
0:18:41 > 0:18:46"revolutionary sentiments out of the mildest of country rectors."
0:18:46 > 0:18:51But they were all underestimating the powerful pull of luxury.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55This was the beginning of the consumer age,
0:18:55 > 0:18:59and rather than wanting to destroy the palaces of pleasure,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03lots of people aspired to stay in them.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23An awful lot of people were going to hotels for the first time.
0:19:23 > 0:19:26People who weren't used to being served
0:19:26 > 0:19:32and didn't know quite how to respond to it.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35Here we are, Room 1520.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38I've put you right next to the lift. It's very convenient.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42- IN POSH VOICE:- Oh, good, that is kind of you.- Here we are.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47These were the days when many people considered any hotel to be "posh".
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Meaning not for the likes of us.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54If you think of the psychology of the doorman in his uniform,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56the epaulettes, the big hat,
0:19:56 > 0:19:58he towers over the door of the taxi or car,
0:19:58 > 0:20:02and you step out, it's intimidation. The big entrance.
0:20:02 > 0:20:05And if you're not confident or used to it, this is very threatening.
0:20:05 > 0:20:06Good night, madam.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Often, they were being served by people who, on the face of it,
0:20:09 > 0:20:11were miles smarter than they were,
0:20:11 > 0:20:16so the whole thing must have seemed rather intimidating.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21They were very bad, historically, about being snobby about the guests.
0:20:21 > 0:20:25Your luggage, madam. I believe I've got everything.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29Not good enough. They're not for us.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31Who are you to make that judgment?
0:20:32 > 0:20:34Thank you, madam.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Fred, him bringing in our luggage!
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Looked more as though he was delivering the groceries!
0:20:43 > 0:20:44I bet you tipped him!
0:20:44 > 0:20:48- Only half a crown!- Half a crown for five minutes' work?!
0:20:48 > 0:20:50That's £2.10 an hour!
0:20:50 > 0:20:53I only get 10 bob an hour, and I'm a first-class tradesman,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55with seven years' apprenticeship!
0:20:55 > 0:20:58Yes, but you have to do things right when you stay in a place like this.
0:20:58 > 0:21:00Tell him to take the ruddy lot down again!
0:21:00 > 0:21:02I'll bring it all up for a tanner!
0:21:02 > 0:21:06Oh, don't be mean, love. I mean, after all, we've got to pay,
0:21:06 > 0:21:07so we might as well enjoy it.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11I am! I'm running the hot water, and I'm not putting the plug in!
0:21:11 > 0:21:15I've a good mind to let it run all night!
0:21:15 > 0:21:19The ultimate testament to the pull of posh was to be found
0:21:19 > 0:21:21hundreds of miles away
0:21:21 > 0:21:26in the proletarian, egalitarian Soviet empire.
0:21:30 > 0:21:35The old spa town of Carlsbad, in communist Czechoslovakia,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39had grand hotels of the most palatial kind,
0:21:39 > 0:21:41left over from its Imperial past.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49In the '60s, the Communist Party saw them
0:21:49 > 0:21:53not as a places the workers could aspire to,
0:21:53 > 0:21:57but as a way of tempting foreigners to come and spend their money.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59Foreigners like Alan Whicker.
0:22:02 > 0:22:06Austrian emperors, German Kaisers, Russian Tsars,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09all stroll through these quiet colonnades.
0:22:09 > 0:22:15The local hotel registration books read like a roll-call of the famous.
0:22:15 > 0:22:19And, remarkably, the place has changed very little
0:22:19 > 0:22:23since those illustrious guests strolled this way.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25Take this hotel,
0:22:25 > 0:22:29the largest social centre in central Europe, with 800 rooms.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33Today, it's casting seductive eyes towards those banished aristocrats
0:22:33 > 0:22:35who happen to have hard currency.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37And much is being done to lure them
0:22:37 > 0:22:40back to the patrician surroundings that they once knew so well.
0:22:40 > 0:22:46But perhaps to salve its communist conscience, the Hotel Moscow Pupp
0:22:46 > 0:22:50leaves by every bedside a brochure in which it says,
0:22:50 > 0:22:54how many famous and more or less important people from all parts of the world
0:22:54 > 0:22:58this hotel has welcomed within its walls since its foundation.
0:22:58 > 0:23:02But for a long, long time, it did not consider those through whose work,
0:23:02 > 0:23:07drudgery, privation and sweat this proud enterprise was created.
0:23:07 > 0:23:09The simple working classes.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12The heroes of the commonplace, everyday life.
0:23:12 > 0:23:16Today, however, the Grand Hotel Moscow belongs to them,
0:23:16 > 0:23:19the true rulers of this country.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21"Belongs to them."
0:23:21 > 0:23:25They can't actually come in here, of course, it's far too expensive,
0:23:25 > 0:23:29and it's reserved for foreigners, but, it belongs to them.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Come the revolution, you'll all have hotels.
0:23:32 > 0:23:38In a strange way, he was right. A hotel revolution was on its way.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Back in Britain,
0:23:40 > 0:23:44the Grand hotels were about to face their first serious challenge.
0:23:46 > 0:23:48London's new landmark.
0:23:48 > 0:23:53The Hilton Hotel, 30 storeys of it high over once sedate Park Lane,
0:23:53 > 0:23:58to say nothing of four more storeys underground.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01If you have a head for heights, there is a grandstand view
0:24:01 > 0:24:05from the rooftop restaurant with that controversial view
0:24:05 > 0:24:08of Buckingham Palace and the Queen's once-private garden.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12This was the first international hotel coming over from America.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16And having an American company come in with its systems,
0:24:16 > 0:24:20with its different approaches, was a big, big occasion.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26It was a determined statement
0:24:26 > 0:24:30of American cultural imperialism.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33It was huge. It was brash. It was modern.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38At a time when there were virtually no tall buildings in London,
0:24:38 > 0:24:42that one towered over everything else.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48It gave people an image of the future.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53Obviously, the '60s was doing that in so many other areas,
0:24:53 > 0:24:57and hotels do manifest what's going on in other parts of society.
0:24:57 > 0:24:59That's the point of them.
0:24:59 > 0:25:03The Park Lane Hilton was a luxurious home away from home
0:25:03 > 0:25:06for travelling Americans.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10But what they took for granted was a revelation to the British.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12It was air-conditioned.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15There were very few hotels air-conditioned.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19You didn't have air conditioning at the Savoy or the Ritz or anywhere.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21You got lots of lifts, and the lifts were faster.
0:25:21 > 0:25:24These were things that people went, "My God!"
0:25:24 > 0:25:27It wasn't just the technology that was innovative.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31It was the Hilton style of service, too.
0:25:31 > 0:25:36Grand hotels were about paying attention and being servile,
0:25:36 > 0:25:38standing to attention and receiving orders.
0:25:40 > 0:25:45The American service ethic was far more upfront and in your face.
0:25:47 > 0:25:50This is where America scored.
0:25:50 > 0:25:54The Americans do smile and say, "Hi, how are you? Hello."
0:25:54 > 0:25:59I think that people within - the travelling public, when I say people -
0:25:59 > 0:26:04enjoyed that, enjoyed that difference.
0:26:10 > 0:26:15In 1963, 12 Hilton hotels opened around the world.
0:26:15 > 0:26:19Modern mansions built for the '60s plutocrat.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23Mr Hilton, why are all your hotels so alike, so American?
0:26:23 > 0:26:27I don't believe that they are so alike.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29I believe they're all different,
0:26:29 > 0:26:33and that is something that we thought of for a long time.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37We do not even call our hotels a chain,
0:26:37 > 0:26:42we call them a system of hotels, and they are all different.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44But the whole point was standardisation.
0:26:44 > 0:26:50From Park Lane to Addis Ababa, you always knew what you were getting.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53The campaign was, wherever you landed, you said, "Take me to the Hilton."
0:26:53 > 0:26:57And, of course, you could get a BLT and a club sandwich and a burger.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02You wanted to know that you could get international standards,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05meaning American standards, everywhere.
0:27:07 > 0:27:10And you wanted to know that it was hygienic.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12Is it safe to drink the water?
0:27:12 > 0:27:16Hilton water was different from everyone else's water.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19Not only was it safe, it was cool.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21Let's talk about that just for a second.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Do you know what that was? Iced water.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Wherever you went, you got iced water.
0:27:27 > 0:27:29Tell me when you get iced water now.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32You don't go into a hotel or a restaurant anywhere
0:27:32 > 0:27:35and get iced water, and yet in those days, that's what you got.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38Iced water.
0:27:38 > 0:27:39Brethren.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44In the beginnings, there was darkness upon the face of the Earth,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47and there was no iced water.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51And Hilton said, "Let there be iced water."
0:27:51 > 0:27:54And in every bathroom, pipes ran with plenteous iced water,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57and Hilton saw that it was good.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59Then he said, "Let there be music."
0:27:59 > 0:28:02And in every lobby, single-studio parlour, double French bedroom
0:28:02 > 0:28:05and luxury suite - nay, in every elevator -
0:28:05 > 0:28:08other pipes gushed with plenteous canned music.
0:28:08 > 0:28:09And Hilton said,
0:28:09 > 0:28:15"Let the Earth bring forth Hiltons yielding fruit after their kind."
0:28:15 > 0:28:19And the El Paso Hilton begat the Beverly Hilton,
0:28:19 > 0:28:24which begat the Puerto Rico Hilton, which begat the Istanbul Hilton,
0:28:24 > 0:28:27which begat the Panama Hilton, which begat...
0:28:27 > 0:28:31I think what Conrad Hilton wanted to do was to establish a standard
0:28:31 > 0:28:36worldwide so that people who travelled could always be confident
0:28:36 > 0:28:38of a standard of comfort.
0:28:38 > 0:28:39In a funny way,
0:28:39 > 0:28:43he was the first person trying to homogenise the world.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46..the Acapulco Hilton, and on the seventh day...
0:28:47 > 0:28:48..he rested.
0:28:51 > 0:28:54But real luxury isn't off the peg.
0:28:54 > 0:28:59If Luxury were a town, it would be twinned with Exclusivity.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03So the super-rich flew off in search of something new,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07somewhere they could mingle with members of their own elite group.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11On the Caribbean island of Jamaica, they found it.
0:29:14 > 0:29:20Frenchman's Cove, the most expensive hotel in the world,
0:29:20 > 0:29:23and Alan Whicker was on hand to sample it.
0:29:25 > 0:29:27At last, I've made it.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30This is the place where my every wish can be satisfied.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34I've been looking for this kind of place for years!
0:29:36 > 0:29:40Only a tiny number of people could afford to stay here,
0:29:40 > 0:29:42in the private, purpose-built villas
0:29:42 > 0:29:46scattered around 45 acres of tropical paradise.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Throughout the '60s, Frenchman's Cove attracted people like
0:29:50 > 0:29:52the Queen and Prince Philip, the Aga Khan,
0:29:52 > 0:29:56Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
0:29:56 > 0:29:59and, of course, a certain reporter.
0:29:59 > 0:30:02# Desires will come to you
0:30:04 > 0:30:09# When you wish upon a star
0:30:09 > 0:30:13# Makes no difference who you are... #
0:30:13 > 0:30:19Right, well, now I'm entitled to order anything I want in the world.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21And I do mean anything.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25Magnums of champagne, mountains of caviar, lashing of smoked salmon...
0:30:26 > 0:30:30I can telephone my second cousin in Australia,
0:30:30 > 0:30:34I can call for a Cadillac and chauffeur,
0:30:34 > 0:30:37for a boat to go out marlin fishing,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41for an aircraft to fly me down to Montego Bay for golf.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43All this, and it won't cost me a penny.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52That's to say, it won't cost me a penny MORE.
0:30:52 > 0:30:56Frenchman's Cove was an all-inclusive package holiday.
0:30:56 > 0:31:02In 1966, it cost £700 a fortnight to stay here -
0:31:02 > 0:31:05over a year's pay for a trained chef at the Savoy.
0:31:06 > 0:31:09The owner told Alan how REAL luxury worked.
0:31:09 > 0:31:10For instance,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14it's an established procedure of the hotel that the chef interviews
0:31:14 > 0:31:18each guest twice a day, once for his lunch and secondly for his dinner.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21This gives us time to cook everything specifically to order.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24But the interesting point is that we end up by having
0:31:24 > 0:31:28no trouble at all, because when the average human being is
0:31:28 > 0:31:31confronted with an unlimited number of choices like that,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34he immediately lays himself back in our hands and says,
0:31:34 > 0:31:36"What do you have?"
0:31:36 > 0:31:39So we end up giving everyone baked beans for dinner!
0:31:46 > 0:31:49The driving force behind the spread of luxury hotels
0:31:49 > 0:31:53throughout the '60s was the rise of a new group,
0:31:53 > 0:31:58the international business executive transported by jet travel.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08As busy businessmen thronged through Heathrow, a new crop of hotels
0:32:08 > 0:32:12sprang up to accommodate them in the modern grand style.
0:32:12 > 0:32:14What these hotels offered was
0:32:14 > 0:32:18cut-price variations on the Hilton hotel.
0:32:18 > 0:32:23Room service, one of the hallmarks of luxury, was reduced to this.
0:32:27 > 0:32:32All these hotels were built in response to a Government initiative
0:32:32 > 0:32:36that was itself responding to a crisis in Britain's hotels.
0:32:40 > 0:32:44The Labour Government decided that there weren't enough hotels,
0:32:44 > 0:32:49and that they would offer a grant - not a loan, a grant.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55And, believe it or not, it was £1,000 a room.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57So all the property companies -
0:32:57 > 0:33:01not hotel companies, property companies - said, "Whoopee."
0:33:03 > 0:33:08And so, 27 major hotels opened in 1971 in London.
0:33:08 > 0:33:10One of them was a bed factory.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14'However, there seems to have been no planning to co-ordinate
0:33:14 > 0:33:17'the rival projects, and the hotels have realised only now
0:33:17 > 0:33:20'just how many rooms are waiting to be let.'
0:33:27 > 0:33:32In 1971, David Levin flew in the face of the corporate scramble.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34Using a Government grant,
0:33:34 > 0:33:38he built a small bespoke hotel in Knightsbridge.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43'I said that I was going to build a grand hotel in miniature.
0:33:43 > 0:33:46'I had to say miniature because we only had 50 rooms.'
0:33:49 > 0:33:53The Capital offered five-star service and accommodation,
0:33:53 > 0:33:58but not, according to the rulebook, a five-star location.
0:33:58 > 0:34:02The concept was that you had to be on the Rue de Rivoli, you had to be
0:34:02 > 0:34:07on the Champs-Elysees, you had to be on Park Lane, or else you were a dud.
0:34:08 > 0:34:10There was an American man that said,
0:34:10 > 0:34:14"Position, position, position - the three most important points."
0:34:14 > 0:34:16Conrad Hilton.
0:34:16 > 0:34:20I don't believe that. And I said, "It's not a backstreet.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24"There's no such thing as a backstreet in Knightsbridge."
0:34:24 > 0:34:28Having worked in hotels all his life,
0:34:28 > 0:34:32David Levin had firm ideas about what he wanted to create.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36Where he could see the need for innovation in the '70s was
0:34:36 > 0:34:39in the hotel restaurant.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42You need to understand
0:34:42 > 0:34:48that the world did not go to a hotel to eat.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50The world came to a hotel to stay,
0:34:50 > 0:34:55and there would be what was called the dining room, not a restaurant.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58If I tell you that the Automobile Association, that was really
0:34:58 > 0:35:05the only hotel/restaurant guide, had demanded that an establishment
0:35:05 > 0:35:09to have five stars, it required one fresh vegetable on the menu.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11The rest were tinned or frozen.
0:35:11 > 0:35:13And I just felt the standards,
0:35:13 > 0:35:16particularly in this country, were so low...
0:35:16 > 0:35:19that it would be a joy to,
0:35:19 > 0:35:22um...to improve them.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25He took on a chef called Richard shepherd,
0:35:25 > 0:35:30and their fresh approach to hotel dining made headlines.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35We had a wonderful write-up in The Evening Standard.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37It was written by a man called Quentin Crewe,
0:35:37 > 0:35:39who absolutely closed restaurants.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42He was so, sort of, difficult.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45Quentin crew said,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48"I ate a scallop mousse spiced with sea urchins
0:35:48 > 0:35:51"and my friends had lobster bisque.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53"It was so fresh and pure of taste
0:35:53 > 0:35:57"that is seemed as if a wizard had just spoken sharply to some lobsters
0:35:57 > 0:36:00"and they had turned into soup."
0:36:01 > 0:36:04But we were full that night The Evening Standard came out.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08That was how desperate people were to find good food.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12In 1974, the Capital Hotel restaurant
0:36:12 > 0:36:17was awarded a Michelin red star for excellence.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19But the Guide was less impressed
0:36:19 > 0:36:23by some of our other, more famous, hotels.
0:36:23 > 0:36:28We can't see you because you don't want to be recognised in restaurants and hotels.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31- What shall I call you?- Mr Dupont.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Being French, Dupont is quite a good name.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39This criteria by which you judge, presumably you haven't changed over the years,
0:36:39 > 0:36:42but the 25 stars in this edition
0:36:42 > 0:36:46go to restaurants that you call "good in their class."
0:36:46 > 0:36:48Yes.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53There are world-famous restaurants, like The Ritz, The Savoy Grill - not good in their class?
0:36:58 > 0:37:00# Is that all there is?
0:37:02 > 0:37:05# Is that all there is?
0:37:07 > 0:37:11# If that's all there is, my friends... #
0:37:11 > 0:37:15Some of what was on offer in Britain's five-star hotels
0:37:15 > 0:37:18seemed little different from a B&B,
0:37:18 > 0:37:21apart from the theatre surrounding it.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23Room service!
0:37:23 > 0:37:27It wasn't just food, it was standards generally
0:37:27 > 0:37:29and the problem was widespread.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36Why did hotels lose their way in the seventies?
0:37:36 > 0:37:38They were mediocre.
0:37:38 > 0:37:43They just didn't seem to be driven by people with passion.
0:37:43 > 0:37:44I think they rested on their laurels
0:37:44 > 0:37:47and then one day realised that they had empty dining rooms.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51They woke up and said, "What will we do? We are dying."
0:37:52 > 0:37:55It looked as though luxury had lost its lustre.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01But each decade somebody comes along and shines it up again.
0:38:03 > 0:38:07I think the hotel world, like everything,
0:38:07 > 0:38:11is a combination of the established companies -
0:38:11 > 0:38:14who have a great deal of money
0:38:14 > 0:38:18and access to marketing and connections
0:38:18 > 0:38:20and the machine, basically - and the innovators,
0:38:20 > 0:38:23who are, invariably on the outside.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26Innovation always comes from the outside.
0:38:26 > 0:38:30It never comes from the middle. That's a fact in everything.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38I think I was running a strange little life
0:38:38 > 0:38:43between the Portobello Road and being a sort of strange actress.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47And I was talking to people coming from Italy and LA saying,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51"There's nowhere to stay between a bed-and-breakfast dump
0:38:51 > 0:38:53"and the Ritz or the Dorchester."
0:38:53 > 0:38:56There wasn't an in-betweeny.
0:38:56 > 0:38:59There wasn't that thing I started - a home away from home.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01That's how I got started.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10The '70s saw a new group join the ranks of the rich.
0:39:10 > 0:39:15Young millionaires from the music and creative industries.
0:39:15 > 0:39:19They were sophisticated, well travelled and knew what they wanted.
0:39:19 > 0:39:23And Anouska Hempel gave it to them with Blakes -
0:39:23 > 0:39:25a whole new kind of hotel.
0:39:33 > 0:39:36Hotels, up to that point, had not been fun and young.
0:39:36 > 0:39:39The young weren't really acknowledged.
0:39:39 > 0:39:44So what Anouska Hempel did was to create this very funky hotel.
0:39:44 > 0:39:49And it was really decadent
0:39:49 > 0:39:52and that suited the age
0:39:52 > 0:39:54because it was naughty.
0:39:56 > 0:39:57It was very ahead of its time.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00It was very sexy. It was very glamorous.
0:40:00 > 0:40:02It wasn't about business.
0:40:02 > 0:40:07It was affairs and fabrics and souffles with gold leaf
0:40:07 > 0:40:09and it was expensive
0:40:09 > 0:40:12and it was a jewel, and I loved it.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23It became synonymous with, sort of, sex, basically.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25And with a very, sort of,
0:40:25 > 0:40:28international jet-set/rock'n'roll crowd.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31That was its mythology.
0:40:32 > 0:40:36Anouska Hempel had created one of the first
0:40:36 > 0:40:39small, stylish, independent hotels
0:40:39 > 0:40:42that later became known as boutique.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46She recognised that there was a new, more informal,
0:40:46 > 0:40:51more design-educated kind of customer there,
0:40:51 > 0:40:55who absolutely didn't want to stay, um...
0:40:55 > 0:41:00with geriatric Americans in a city-centre hotel.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08Rock stars belonged to AN elite but they weren't THE elite.
0:41:08 > 0:41:11That accolade belonged to the sheiks of the Middle East,
0:41:11 > 0:41:16whose oil had propelled them into the Premier League of wealth.
0:41:16 > 0:41:20We think the British have invaded us some time ago!
0:41:21 > 0:41:24We are giving you back a touristic invasion.
0:41:24 > 0:41:27So England is gaining twice.
0:41:32 > 0:41:35They were very opulent times.
0:41:35 > 0:41:37They were in another league
0:41:37 > 0:41:40as far as spending's concerned and what they wanted.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52The Arabs arrived in the mid-'70s
0:41:52 > 0:41:55and embraced everything that Britain had to offer.
0:41:57 > 0:42:00My children enjoy staying here in London
0:42:00 > 0:42:03because there's a lot of things to do.
0:42:03 > 0:42:04What sort of things?
0:42:04 > 0:42:10Going to the zoos, going to museums...going to Brighton Beach.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14They love our weather.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16I know that sounds extraordinary
0:42:16 > 0:42:20but during the summer months in the Middle East,
0:42:20 > 0:42:23if you have an average of 45-50 degrees centigrade,
0:42:23 > 0:42:26wouldn't you want to come here to London
0:42:26 > 0:42:31and enjoy the beautiful weather we have? They just adore that.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40This wealthy group stayed in the best hotels and flashed the cash.
0:42:40 > 0:42:46And in hotels, that gets you a lot of service.
0:42:50 > 0:42:52They love hotels.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56I remember, when I was a young manager,
0:42:56 > 0:43:01and the first Middle-East guests arrived in abundance...
0:43:01 > 0:43:05I was the only one who didn't end up with five gold watches.
0:43:05 > 0:43:08I must never have been in the right place!
0:43:08 > 0:43:11All the staff were, "I've been given another Rolex."
0:43:11 > 0:43:17Arab guests didn't just stay in hotels, they bought them.
0:43:17 > 0:43:22Most famously, The Dorchester on Park Lane, for £9 million.
0:43:22 > 0:43:27Why are the Arabs particularly interested in a hotel which is something of a British institution?
0:43:27 > 0:43:30I think that is WHY they are interested in it.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32They want a hotel which is essentially British,
0:43:32 > 0:43:34with the tradition that goes with it.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42Tourists with money to spend knew what they wanted from the UK -
0:43:42 > 0:43:47tradition, and what was left of our aristocratic past
0:43:47 > 0:43:50and its luxurious trappings.
0:43:51 > 0:43:54The owners of grand hotels realised
0:43:54 > 0:43:59they were perfectly positioned to get in on the act.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01This is The Ritz, can I help you?
0:44:01 > 0:44:07In 1981, The new owner of The Ritz gave it an extravagant facelift.
0:44:07 > 0:44:12£4 million was spent on restoring the hotel to deluxe splendour.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21And the BBC were allowed in to make a documentary.
0:44:21 > 0:44:26They found the Ritz flogging heritage tourism at £4.50 a head for tea.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32Tea at the Ritz is now one of the things to do on the European tour.
0:44:32 > 0:44:34You can sit next to a pop singer,
0:44:34 > 0:44:37a politician or the Princess Elena Mutafia.
0:44:37 > 0:44:42What is it about The Ritz that attracts you?
0:44:42 > 0:44:45Well, its quiet dignity, really.
0:44:45 > 0:44:51Um...the surroundings are very gracious and it's quiet
0:44:51 > 0:44:54and I don't know of a place like The Ritz
0:44:54 > 0:44:57that gives that particular atmosphere.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00- Could you take that one away? - Are you sure?
0:45:00 > 0:45:03Everybody should enjoy what is beautiful in life
0:45:03 > 0:45:07and this place is truly beautiful.
0:45:07 > 0:45:09So let people enjoy it.
0:45:11 > 0:45:14There are probably not many people in England today
0:45:14 > 0:45:16who can afford to enjoy it, are there?
0:45:17 > 0:45:21Yes, I agree, but they can always come to tea.
0:45:23 > 0:45:29To stay at the Ritz in 1981 cost about £200 a night.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31That included breakfast.
0:45:31 > 0:45:33A nice breakfast in a moment, I hope.
0:45:33 > 0:45:39Lord Carnarvon, now 83, has been coming to The Ritz for 60 years.
0:45:39 > 0:45:44In the '20s, His Lordship got free board and lodging in exchange
0:45:44 > 0:45:47for encouraging his wealthy friends to stay here.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50Now he has to pay his bill with the best of them.
0:45:50 > 0:45:52- Two coddled eggs, please.- Thank you.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55Well, I'm ready whenever you are.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59Coffee, that's right. Pour it out there, would you? Pour it out there.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04- Put the coffee in there!- Right, sir. - Do what I tell you. Then bring...
0:46:04 > 0:46:08I want a saccharine, do you see? Don't have sugar. That's right.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13- That'll do.- Sir. Milk?- No! No milk. Always black.- Your toast, sir.
0:46:13 > 0:46:16And put the toast down.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19I want some butter and then hurry up the eggs.
0:46:19 > 0:46:22- I don't want to be here all night. - Right you are, sir. - Thank you very much.
0:46:22 > 0:46:24You must get on with it!
0:46:24 > 0:46:28It takes about three-quarters of an hour to bring anything!
0:46:28 > 0:46:31But, there you are, that's life. I think something's arriving.
0:46:31 > 0:46:36Good boy! That's right, pop them down. Thank you very much.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39- Bless you. - Everything you require, sir?- What?
0:46:39 > 0:46:43I want the marmalade and the butter! That's right, thank you very much.
0:46:43 > 0:46:48- That's here.- Got the marmalade. I think we're all set now.- Enjoy.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50Thank you so much.
0:46:53 > 0:46:56Don't freeze the butter!
0:46:57 > 0:46:59However...
0:47:00 > 0:47:04Never grumble about anything in life. That's a great motto.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10The new look Ritz was not all to Lord Carnarvon's taste.
0:47:10 > 0:47:15The makeover had got rid of some traditional luxury touches he'd once enjoyed.
0:47:18 > 0:47:22I miss one thing only here, and that is the baths.
0:47:22 > 0:47:27There used to be huge, great, wonderful baths here.
0:47:27 > 0:47:29But I quite understand the reason.
0:47:29 > 0:47:34Americans, for instance, they're used to taking showers
0:47:34 > 0:47:37and they don't like these big, old-fashioned baths
0:47:37 > 0:47:39like I used to like so much.
0:47:39 > 0:47:44And The staff didn't like the changes either.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47These bathrooms were really beautiful before.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50They had lovely Battersea glass tiles
0:47:50 > 0:47:53and beautiful porcelain baths.
0:47:53 > 0:47:59They sparkled, yes. Just the kind of bath men would like.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02You could swim in it!
0:48:02 > 0:48:07They had to use a sledgehammer to break them up to take them out.
0:48:10 > 0:48:12I thought the end of the world had come.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22For a certain way of life, the end of the world HAD come.
0:48:22 > 0:48:26Lord Carnarvon and his ilk were finding it financially tougher
0:48:26 > 0:48:28than in the old days.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31High taxation had seen many of the aristocracy
0:48:31 > 0:48:36struggle to keep their country houses running.
0:48:36 > 0:48:40So many of them had begun to let in the hoi polloi,
0:48:40 > 0:48:45by opening their houses as museums, or filling their gardens with lions.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49Some had even turned them into luxury hotels.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54Country house hotels were run in a very personal way.
0:48:54 > 0:48:58Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't.
0:48:58 > 0:49:02They would have six wonderful bedrooms
0:49:02 > 0:49:07and 15 dreadful bedrooms because they were originally for staff.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12They would tend to employ local people and they would tend
0:49:12 > 0:49:16to do the things that they liked - the aristocracy liked.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20Um...a fire burning in the bedroom.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24You know, because that's what they were used to.
0:49:24 > 0:49:29Well, I have to tell you that's quite dangerous.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33Breakfast would be laid out on a sideboard with hot plate
0:49:33 > 0:49:37and it would just be wrecked because they would do it at eight
0:49:37 > 0:49:39and you came down at ten o'clock.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43So there were all these foibles. They were unprofessional.
0:49:43 > 0:49:48It was quite amateurish. But they shot up in popularity.
0:49:52 > 0:49:55From the '80s on, wealthy city folk went off for the weekend
0:49:55 > 0:49:58to get a slice of country living.
0:49:58 > 0:50:02However, the landed rich weren't used to serving other people.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05So what the city guests wanted and what they got given,
0:50:05 > 0:50:08were two different things.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12There was a feeling - you're kind of lucky to be coming to stay with us.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14Don't worry too much about the odd bit of peeling paint.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17Maybe the beds aren't as comfortable as you would have hoped
0:50:17 > 0:50:20because you're in this wonderful building,
0:50:20 > 0:50:22built whenever and made of whatever.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26Someone very famous said something here.
0:50:26 > 0:50:29Isn't this a wonderful, historical stay? Actually, no.
0:50:29 > 0:50:31They often weren't fantastically well run.
0:50:31 > 0:50:36They often didn't have... I mean, the food was often very cliched
0:50:36 > 0:50:38and they talked all the time about food.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42Someone would come and tell you about the food.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44Leave it out - I don't want to know!
0:50:44 > 0:50:47I just wanted to put on my jeans and throw a bag in the car
0:50:47 > 0:50:51and race down to somewhere and I didn't want to put on a jacket
0:50:51 > 0:50:56or have a sommelier overwhelm me with a ten-page wine list.
0:51:01 > 0:51:05It took a city type to change the country house hotel.
0:51:05 > 0:51:09In the '90s, entrepreneur Nick Jones had set up Soho House,
0:51:09 > 0:51:12a private club in London,
0:51:12 > 0:51:15that catered for creative and media types.
0:51:15 > 0:51:21Now he began looking around for a country house to turn into a hotel,
0:51:21 > 0:51:24and found Babington House in Somerset.
0:51:24 > 0:51:29Nick Jones, along with friends like the actor Neil Morrissey,
0:51:29 > 0:51:32saw the potential to innovate.
0:51:32 > 0:51:37- Do you like it?- I love it! I love it! This is a perfect bar area.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39A long bar down here.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44They knew what they wanted because they knew what they didn't want.
0:51:44 > 0:51:48What we're trying to do here is create something which is totally different
0:51:48 > 0:51:51from what else is out in the country at the moment,
0:51:51 > 0:51:54which is the typical country house hotel
0:51:54 > 0:51:56full of chintz and restrictions.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00You know, as soon as you walk in, you feel you've done something wrong
0:52:00 > 0:52:02or put your foot in the wrong place etc.
0:52:02 > 0:52:07People love the country, and want to come, but they don't come
0:52:07 > 0:52:11because of the restrictions which are imposed on them.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15What we're trying to do is bring a bit of London,
0:52:15 > 0:52:18a bit of urbanised way of life to the country.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24The task of re-modelling the country house hotel
0:52:24 > 0:52:28in a more creative way was given to Ilse Crawford.
0:52:28 > 0:52:31It was a brilliant house.
0:52:31 > 0:52:33It had been in the same family for generations
0:52:33 > 0:52:36and they'd lost it in the Lloyds crash.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39Certainly, for me, the most important thing
0:52:39 > 0:52:41was to make it into a house where people felt
0:52:41 > 0:52:43they could enjoy the whole house.
0:52:43 > 0:52:47Like, say, your mythical mate's place where the parents have gone away
0:52:47 > 0:52:50and left the keys to the drinks cabinet.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55This new take on the country house hotel had the monied media set
0:52:55 > 0:52:58piling down to rural Somerset to relax.
0:52:58 > 0:53:02It was Notting Hill goes to the country.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05So everybody knew everybody, and it had a spa.
0:53:05 > 0:53:09The most important dynamic of the last few years,
0:53:09 > 0:53:14which you never had in the '60s or '70s, was the spa.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20They knew who their guests were and they provided what they wanted.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24Then the idea that you would go to a country house
0:53:24 > 0:53:27and dress up and whisper...finito.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34Babington House played in to the boutique hotel explosion
0:53:34 > 0:53:36of the '90s.
0:53:36 > 0:53:38This was all about defining a niche market
0:53:38 > 0:53:43and then designing a hotel that could serve it.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48They were responding to the idea of clubability,
0:53:48 > 0:53:52that you would meet other people like yourself there.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57Your hotel says more about you than cash ever can.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02It's all about fashion.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05Just the same - the way you wear your clothes
0:54:05 > 0:54:08and the different style of clothes that you wear.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11Hotels have to be relevant and up-to-date.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14Anouska Hempel, who had done so much
0:54:14 > 0:54:18to kick start the boutique habit with Blakes Hotel,
0:54:18 > 0:54:21rang the changes with The Hempel.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25I'm sort of giving you the maximum in a minimalistic way.
0:54:25 > 0:54:29You've got posts that go up into infinity,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32to make it very tall and peculiar to sleep in.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35All the rooms have their own uniqueness, their own strangeness.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37What's this big hole above our heads?
0:54:37 > 0:54:41Hole?! Tut! This is an atrium.
0:54:41 > 0:54:46I'll take you into it. I'll stand you here and you too can fly.
0:54:48 > 0:54:55It's not just bed and board... and a base for being in a town,
0:54:55 > 0:54:58or any of those very fundamental human needs.
0:54:58 > 0:55:03It's something to blow your mind aesthetically. It's an experience.
0:55:05 > 0:55:10Gordon Campbell Gray created One Aldwych in Piccadilly,
0:55:10 > 0:55:14with a hotel bar designed to tempt outsiders in.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18I wanted to create a snob-free zone, where everyone is treated the same,
0:55:18 > 0:55:22which was quite new for a five-star hotel. So I hired
0:55:22 > 0:55:25only Australian doormen
0:55:25 > 0:55:27because they don't understand snobbery.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30You couldn't educate them to be snobbish. They don't get it.
0:55:30 > 0:55:33So they welcomed everybody. That was our magic formula.
0:55:41 > 0:55:43The Goring Hotel, where Kate Middleton stayed
0:55:43 > 0:55:46for the Royal Wedding, has spent a lot of money
0:55:46 > 0:55:50on recreating its glamorous Edwardian origins.
0:55:50 > 0:55:56It now looks as though it hasn't changed for 100 years. But it has.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01It was the very rich and the elite that used to come into our hotel
0:56:01 > 0:56:06but nowadays it's business people, people who come in for tea, coffee.
0:56:06 > 0:56:10In the morning, our lounge is full of people having small meetings
0:56:10 > 0:56:13and that because they want somewhere to sit and be comfortable.
0:56:18 > 0:56:23It's nearly 50 years since a BBC documentary predicted
0:56:23 > 0:56:26that the writing was on the wall for the luxury hotel.
0:56:28 > 0:56:30They were wrong.
0:56:32 > 0:56:33There are nearly ten hotels opening here.
0:56:33 > 0:56:39There are over 50 hotels opening in New York. Six in Paris.
0:56:40 > 0:56:45And this is during a time of recession. Hotels are huge.
0:56:48 > 0:56:53Once there was a consensus as to what a luxury hotel was.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55It was a Savoy, a Ritz.
0:56:55 > 0:56:59It was butlers and bellboys and glamour and gilt.
0:57:00 > 0:57:04But the movers and shakers of each generation
0:57:04 > 0:57:06have demanded different things,
0:57:06 > 0:57:08so five-star hotels have offered clever variations
0:57:08 > 0:57:11on the luxury theme.
0:57:13 > 0:57:17But luxury has become a much overused word...
0:57:17 > 0:57:20because luxury always needs to outdo itself.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28The Burj Al Arab in Dubai is one of a tiny constellation
0:57:28 > 0:57:31of seven-star hotels.
0:57:31 > 0:57:37Built on its own island, the public are not encouraged to go in.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43This is today's grand hotel.
0:57:43 > 0:57:46A playground for the global super-rich,
0:57:46 > 0:57:48who can pay up to £12,000 a night
0:57:48 > 0:57:52for a suite with a revolving four-poster bed
0:57:52 > 0:57:55and a butler to run them a bath.
0:57:58 > 0:58:03Luxury, it appears, has come full circle -
0:58:03 > 0:58:04with today's super-rich
0:58:04 > 0:58:08as keen as the old aristocrats ever were
0:58:08 > 0:58:11to keep it for the very select few.
0:58:20 > 0:58:25# Living for you is easy living
0:58:25 > 0:58:30# It's easy to live when you're in love
0:58:30 > 0:58:33# And I'm so in love
0:58:33 > 0:58:36# There's nothing in life but you... #