The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-02-08
AMERICANS WILL
 SWARM ID HOTELS No Definite Move Yet to Provide Accommodation
 for Expected Invasion
By MAYNARD nExANs

Londen, January 25.-(SpeciaI 1-
 Eng and is manifestirg great interest
 IF the American tourist. It has been estimated that 200 000 American tour
 Isls year would bring $25O,000, 900 to
 Enslahd or nearly enough to pay a
 years interest on her debt to the Ohlted States. Accordingly. she is Eroddlng her hotel men, who thus far nave muddled along with far more
 business than they could care for to give some sort of guarantee that ac
 oohihouatlon Will be available for the
 expected avalanche of Americans. frances energy in preparing for the postwar rush hassbeen a urincina1 fac- tor In Englands sudden awakening to
 Her situation as regards hotel acc9m- noaation The close of the war left
 Farls hotels m as chaotic a condition
 as that in which it left London
 hoteis. some of the large hotels Whlch had been commandeered by the French government for war nur. roses had to be repaired. redecoratad ana refurnished; others had to be largely rebuilt But the Frenchman tackled the job with such energy that even those hotels which were not eyac- uated until last August will be ready Tor the reception of the American tour ist and his dollars.
 Here in London, however, it has been
 ONAOi " ASC. neTc nave been radio outbursts of indignation about it. but the Hotel Cecil, which the British air ministry evacuated almost a year ago. and other -favorite tourist centers are not yet open. The hotels which nave been permitted to remain open are still reaping a golden harvest. It looks as If the Great American Tour lst, when he arrives. will have to sleep on billiard tables or in bathtubs. This. England fharS will ;x ing the flow of his dollars to France
 Already American consular officials, in England have been instructed to re- port on the amount of hotel space likely to be available for Americans in England, On these reports, it is expected. will be based the number of American passports issued for England. Already. American consular officials say, 10000 applications for passports to visit England have been made in the United States, and the number is expected to be doubled before March
 London Is endeayoring to find room for 10000 Americans at a time over ten-day periods. Paris. even in it's pres ent state. is boasting that 1t can &C., commodate 5o0o0 Americans. London estimates that 10000 Americans stay ing ten days in England would spend s1,25o apiece, or about s12.5oo.o0e alto gether Enough ten-day periods could be crowded into the season to accom- modate 100000 Americans and their full expenditure would be s250, 900, 900, London calculates.
 The better class hotels in London have capacity for 50,000 people Un- der present conditions, they are all ways filled to capacity; in fact, many of them now accommodate only regu- lar clients or the clients of associated hotels on the continent
 The idea now is to persuade the In- corporated Association of Hotels and Restaurants and the Residential Hotels and Caterers Association, which con trols the middle class hotels of about 3e,o00 beds, to arrange a reservation scheme by which the United States con- sulate in London would be kept ad- vised of the number of rooms At the ] disposal of Americahs
 ''The chief difficulty in dealing with | a great influx of Americans is that of 1 said President Pickard of the Caterers Association recently. | ''We expect that 30 per cent of our f guests this summer will be Americans, lNt they all want to stay within two | or three minutes of the West End. The | result is that West End hotels are over whelmed. while others mile or so away have spare rooms"
 "The battlefield of Europe will be | he big attraction for rich Americans" m American consular official said will get the tourist overflow. | out that will be amply sufficient to | ,alance the exchange. now so unfa- vorable to England if lack of pre- ,aredness does not cut it off"
 fCopyright, 1920)