What a British etiquette expert would never do in a hotel

From noisy corridors to thieving toiletries, William Hanson reveals the hotel habits that horrify him most.

People often behave differently in hotels than they do at home, and not always for the better. 

Prominent British etiquette expert William Hanson, who directs The English Manner institute in Central London, puts bad hotel behaviour down to the "commercial" factor. "It's a transactional proposition, so some people wrongly feel they are entitled to behave in a way that they wouldn't at home. Whether that's leaving their room an absolute bomb site or being rude to the staff."

William Hanson is the author of several books on British etiquette and co-hosts two popular podcasts, Help I Sexted My Boss and The Luxury Podcast. He created the Grand Etiquette Hotel Guide for Hotels.com, where he details his pet hotel peeves, and is currently starring as Mother Ruth in Titanìque on London's West End.

A new etiquette report by Hotels.com found Brits committing all sorts of dark hotel deeds, including breakfast buffet queue-jumping, reserving sunbeds with towels, smoking inside their rooms and washing their underthings in kettles. Yet, the same study found that Brits rank themselves among the world's most polite travellers. Hanson wasn't surprised by the self-appraisal: "We are a tiny, tiny, tiny island nation and one thing that we pride ourselves on is our good manners."

Nonetheless, Hanson says he is "relatively horrified" on a daily basis by social faux pas. Here, he explains some of his biggest hotel pet peeves – and how he thinks we should all do better.

Take a cue from the Yanks

Brits consider Americans and Germans the rudest guests, [but] in my opinion, Brits can learn something from Americans. There's that lovely sketch in [the 1970s British sitcom] Fawlty Towers where there are two diners sitting at the table complaining about the meal to each other saying, 'The beef is terrible!' and then Basil Fawlty comes over and says, 'Everything alright?' They go, 'Oh, yes, lovely! Thank you so much!' Whereas if there's a problem. an American has less resistance to talk about it sooner.

We're all human, things do go wrong. You can still deal with this in a courteous way. I think that's where Brits sometimes lack the confidence to say, 'Well, actually, this isn't quite up to par' or 'The towel's a bit dirty' or 'My room hasn't been cleaned and it's now 18:00'. Brits sometimes mistake being polite for being a pushover, and they are very different things.

Want an upgrade? Start with dignity

Treat the staff with respect; everyone in any industry deserves that. Just like we judge hotels when we walk in, the staff are forming a first impression of us. If you've used a reward........

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