Less isn't necessarily more

Last week I had to go to Ikea, the Trafford Centre, and then Manchester centre. Don't get me wrong, I do like Manchester, except when they give me parking tickets after 6pm. That night we had tickets to see the wonderful Wilco* which softened the blow but also meant I couldn't avoid the shopping bit… I don't like Ikea though. Miles and miles of aisles I'm not interested in, though to be fair you can skip some of them and cut to the chase for some things. Why do we go? Orchids are good value as are tea lights. Staples for the hotel. Then there's apparently some other stuff that could be useful One Day. What I find amazing though is if you whizz in and out like you're on a dawn raid, you still have to queue for ages in order to check the stuff out yourself. Where's the service in that? Have they decided that staff are so slow it's quicker to get the customer to do it? Soon we'll be going to shops and they'll be handing you a brush to sweep the floor and ask you to stack shelves before you buy.

Want it cheaper?

Same with hotels. We sometimes use a Travel Lodge or a cheaper option when it's convenient, i.e. a dawn flight somewhere. In the future I'm imagining that to keep the cost down we could be asked to clean the room before we go. We had that on a self catering week this year “Please make sure you leave the place as you found it”. What does that mean? Mustn't make a mess, if we do tidy it up. Do we have to leave it ready for the next person? Surely they'll get the cleaners in? If so there's no point in us doing anything. After all if we leave it too pristine the proper cleaners won't do anything. How would we have liked it if we'd checked in thinking the last occupants were responsible for cleaning the place? Mind you I had an aunt who always took her cleaning materials to any hotel she was staying in, but that's not to be encouraged.

At Linthwaite we don't want you to have self service meals. We don't want you to not meet someone when you check in. We don't want you to wash up or do the gardening. We don't want you to clean your own room, make the bed or anything. We actually don't want you to do anything except enjoy yourselves. What's special about places like Linthwaite is you come for a rest. Pay someone else to do everything, with a smile on their face of course. We as a business survive, or not, based on the quality of service we provide. All this is provided by people. More expensive than a Travel Lodge, but it's worth it. And more pleasurable than Ikea.

*It's likely you've not heard of one of the greatest American 'alt rock' bands but if you like good intelligent rock music check 'em out on Utube.