The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-02-02
LONDON'S Hotel
LIFE UPSET BY
WARS DEMANDS
Many Houses Commander
ed by Government for Use
In Critical Times.

State requirements for extensive
buildings have caused a tremendous
upneava1 in hotel life in London.
About a dozen of the biggest have
been Communicated by the govern
ment for temporary use for the dura-
ton of the war, and managers Of the
leading hotels live from day to day in
trepidation lest they may be called
upon to evacuate their houses at the
very shortest notice:
Thus it follows that the big hotels
that are left are full; many of them
are crowded; number have had to
turn away disappointed applicants
Some Americans who have wireless
ed' from steamers on the way over
have reached London to find that the
rooms they asked for in certain hotels
have been unobtainable.
The main explanation ie to be found
in the fact that there is a shortage Of
upward Of 1000 rooms consequent on
the government requisitioning build
ings one after the other. People
have had to relinquish apartments
which they have held as long as 20
years, citizens prominent in public life
sharing in the trek; visitors have had
to break a routine almost as firmly
established, and many have been driv-
en- to protracted search before secur-
ing new quarters.
Officers brought to London by duty
and on leave from the front have
shared the disagreeable experience Of
finding hotels with which they are
familiar already full
Il don't want to spend my leave
careering around in a taxi" remarked
<r,~ H. L., \ L.
of an evening to a futile quest and
that after the early despatch of tel
egram which he thought had safely
reserved room in a handy centre.
The Gordon hotels have been spe-
cially hit by the war, six out of ff-
teen being closed First three across
Channel-at Dieppe, Monte Carlo and
Cannes - were needed, and then in
London the Metropole, the Grand and
the Victoria, all in Northumberland
avenue, Communicated for the Office
of Works.
In many hotels fully one-tenth of
the residents are permanent; in others
the proportion runs as high as TWEEN
ty-five per cent. That narrows the
chances of vacancies. Inquiries at
some leading hotels showed current
business to be apportioned thus
Crowded, thirty per cent; full, twenty
eight per cent; nearly full, twenty per
cent, and houses which have had to
turn away applicants, twenty-five per
cent.
One hotel which has heavy book
ings and is continually crowded has
seventy or eighty officers leaving ev-
cry. morning; another, which made
special terms for officers. cannot take
all who apply. A West End hotel ex-
poets to be busy until the close Of the
war; another, which will be full until
the end Of January, reports some
applicants having lamented that "they
cannot find room anywhere; Others
again have bookings well ahead.
The qualifying statement is made
in some quarters that it is the disloca-
ton of hotel routine rather than
shortage which occasions embarrass-.
ment and disappointments; in a wider
radius rooms are obtainable, though
the weary traveller may be loths to
desert familiar landmarks.
I From the proprietors' standpoint
the most acute problem will arise at
the end of the war, when, for exam
pie, great American influx is expect
ed. It is feared that this will come
before the Communicated hotel can
be restored to it's tenants keeping or
it's wonted snartness; and the argu-
ment is advanced that even the houses
which are securing many visitors to-
day are handicapped by increased tax
es, restrictions, staff difficulties and
high prices-in short, that it is not
a money-making period