UK hotels have worst customer service in Europe, says Hotel.info website

An analysis of six million customer reviews left on the site ranked UK hotel staff joint worst with their Russian counterparts for ‘friendliness and expertise’, with a score of 7.92.

The top rated destinations were Finland (8.62), Germany (8.59) and Austria (8.57).

London was also ranked the worst of all European capital cities with 7.73 points, while Budapest came top with 8.58.

The report states: “If the traveller is expecting the legendary British politeness, the actual result is less than satisfactory,” though it continued, “some cities (in the UK) are able to save the good reputation.”

Regional friendliness​

Despite the UK’s overall poor performance, some of the largest cities in the country were rated highly by guests.

Staff in Sheffield came top in the country for ‘friendliness and competence’, with 8.62 points.

Leeds (8.41), Bristol (8.36), Cardiff (8.31) and Edinburgh (8.25) all scored highly, rounding out the top five.

Despite being in tenth place, the capital managed to beat Birmingham and Coventry, which scored 7.66 and 7.38 respectively.

Online review sites​

The friendliness and competence of staff was ranked generally high throughout Europe.

Ralf Priemer, managing director at Hotel.Info, echoed the sentiments of TripAdvisor​ by arguing that online review sites raised business standards by providing greater transparency.

He said: "For many years now we have observed a considerable increase in positive evaluations in respect of the quality of service.”

The report comes in the wake of a warning that the hospitality industry could face a major crisis by 2020 if more is not done to address a lack of staff soft skills.​

The top 12 cities in the UK ranked by friendliness and competence of the hotel staff, according to Hotel.info:​

1. Sheffield - 8.62​

2. Leeds - 8.41​

3. Bristol - 8.36​

4. Cardiff - 8.31​

5. Edinburgh - 8.25​

6. Liverpool - 8.20​

7. Glasgow - 8.18​

8. Manchester - 7.95​

9. Leicester - 7.75​

10. London - 7.73​

11. Birmingham - 7.66​

12. Coventry - 7.38​