Monday 27th July 9.00pm
Continuing on Five this week is the fifth series of the hotel-renovation show. In this instalment, Alex visits the market town of Wisbech, where the 300-year-old Rose and Crown is in crisis. Can the hotel inspector convince owners Jacquie and Jonathan to eliminate the mountains of paperwork strangling their business?
Ex-antiques dealer Jonathan Davies and former nurse Jacquie Noot purchased the 300-year-old Rose and Crown four years ago. As one of the few hotels in the pretty market town of Wisbech, they hoped the 30 en-suite bedrooms, two local restaurants and priceless town-centre parking would attract a host of visitors. Sadly, the Rose and Crown has no guests, and its future is looking bleak.
Upstairs, the initial assessment of the Rose and Crown is not too bad. A surprised Alex deems the bedrooms more than adequate. But her impression changes when she sees the ground floor – the exterior is shabby, the public areas are unloved and the car park looks like a scrapyard. As the investigation continues, Alex becomes more and more irritated. It is clear that Jonathan is unable to get rid of anything. His mountains of paperwork and ‘antiques’ are ruining what could be a beautiful building and killing off any potential business.
A furious Alex calls a meeting with Jacquie and Jonathan. Rather than revealing her plan to get the Rose and Crown blooming again, Alex delivers an ultimatum: unless she sees significant changes to the chaos devouring the hotel, she will walk away from the project. Jonathan and Jacquie are given just one month to get their hotel in order.
When Alex returns, she is pleased to see signs of progress in the car park, hotel frontage and even the office. However, she also discovers that Jonathan is not responsible for any of the changes. Alex calls another meeting and tells the couple that if the improvements continue and the office is cleared, she is willing to help them. Her plan is to revitalise the ground floor area by making it a more appealing and attractive place for guests to relax. Alex asks Jonathan to organise a relaunch as soon as the work is complete. She hopes freeing up the public spaces will allow guests to see the Rose and Crown as a hotel rather than Jonathan’s dump.
On her next visit, Alex decides to give Jonathan and Jacquie a master class in how a well-run hotel is managed. She takes them to the George, a successful hotel nearby, to show Jonathan that he needs to change his ways and clear the clutter out of his life. Jonathan seems impressed by his tour, and there is hope that Alex is getting through to him. But is Jonathan really listening?
When Alex returns for the final time she discovers that yet again Jonathan has done nothing. Despite his lack of effort, however, the office has been cleared. The whole of the downstairs reception area is now a bright, beautiful set of rooms open for public use at last. But Alex is horrified to discover that all the rubbish from the old office has taken over a room normally used for meetings. Jonathan is also an hour late for his own launch party. Has the hotel inspector finally met her match?
Anonymous
No he is definitely not an antiques dealer though he just collects antiques and never sells them, leaving them to clutter up the place. He is obviously using the hotel as a dumping ground for all his valuable antiques and worthless old tat as well as his clapped out cars. I was also a near neighbour of his when he lived in West Wickham and the programme shows exactly what he is like.He is totally incompetent at running a hotel, as he can never concentrate on any task without getting distracted.He is very arrogant and always thinks he is above the law, and had no end of court actions against the London Borough of Bromley while he lived here most of which he lost.The local council in Wisbech should beware and not let him get away with anything.Anonymous
I was a neighbour of davies for some years before he was compulsorily purchased by Bromley Council for letting his 2 local properties fall into an appalling state of neglect. He was no more an antique dealer than my aunt sally. He is an arrogant and beligerant individual who has absolutey no 'people' skills. It's plain to see what the problem is at the Rose and Crown, it's davies. When davies was forced to move from West Wickham, all the local people threw a party. He has now largely been forgotten.Anonymous
I am not suprised by mr davies attitude and his lazyness, as a neigbour of his before he was forced to move from bromley. He was well known for his magpie collecting of rubbish and total disregard for the appearance of his properties, this resulted in the compulsory purchase of at least 2 properties by bromley council. I am quite confident that this business will ultimately fail because of mr davies own pompous stupidity and am looking forward to seeing him make a complete fool of himself on national television. The residents around his multiple previous homes were glad to see the last of him so its beyond me why anyone would pay to stay in his hotel.Post new comment