Ruth Watson

Alex Polizzi

Having presented three series of The Hotel Inspector for Five, in 2007 Watson quit the channel and signed a two-year deal with C4. The first fruit of this new partnership was 2008′s Hotel Inspector-alike, Country House Rescue.

Now the channel has announced Watson is to front Hotel SOS in which she uses “her expertise to transform the efforts of new hoteliers as they embark on setting up on their own” according to a press release from the channel.

It continues…

Famed for her sharp eye and attention to detail when it comes to perfecting hotel experiences, Ruth is determined to open the eyes of the six couples who all feel that running a hotel or B&B will be a piece of cake. Determined to shape the novices into professional hoteliers, Ruth visits and assesses each project, and in an effort to improve their plans sends the proprietors to Hotel Bootcamp at some of the UK’s top hotels to learn how the best in the business have earned their reputation.

For Ruth, the principles of a good hotel stay are the same regardless how big or small the business: a warm welcome, absolute cleanliness and a comfortable bed…

But upon meeting the six projects and their owners she soon realises she has her work cut out. From a run down 32-bedroom hotel in Blackpool taken on by two brothers, to a couple wishing to create a boutique B&B in Margate with a property they purchased at the height of the property boom, the problems and battles Ruth faces seem insurmountable.

Can she convince the owners round to her way of thinking? And will their new business ventures be the success they hope for?

Meanwhile, The Hotel Inspector continues in fine form on Monday nights on Five, now fronted by Alex Polizzi.

Alex Polizzi

The series returns this Thursday at 8pm – but with a significant change. Original inspector Ruth Watson has checked out – she’s off to C4 for a series about failing country homes. Thus we usher in Alex Polizzi, daughter of hotelier Olga Polizzi, and granddaughter of Lord Forte, of the legendary Trust House hotel chain.

And all of that is good, but is Alex fit to take over from Ruth? Having watched a preview disc of this week’s opener – in which she visits what’s purportedly the oldest hotel in Wales – I’m happy to say she is. Less shrill than Ruth, and at times more empathetic (rolling up her sleeves and helping an over-worked hotelier clear down after breakfast), she’s perhaps even more sure of herself than her predecessor. And – here comes that cliche – she doesn’t mince her words. “I like you as people,” she informs this week’s struggling owners, “but I have to tell you, you offend every hoteling instinct that I have. I’m horrified at your arrogance in thinking that you can do this with so little knowledge. Because if this was my hotel, I promise you, I would have a fucking nervous breakdown.”

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to have a chat with Alex.

“I’m very straightforward,’ she said, “And a bit more hands on than Ruth. I like rolling up my sleeves and mucking in.”

She continued: “I try and bear in mind that however crap I think some of the hoteliers in the show are, this is their livelihood they’ve got on the line. So I do try to be sympathetic – but I have had to deal with some complete loons! I tell them that openly to their faces, so it’s not like I’m saying anything behind their backs.”

And she sums up her role in the programme quite succinctly. “Sometimes I do feel like I’m quite a big hammer, brought in to straighten a pathetic nail.” Nail it, she does.

Tonight on five sees the start of the second series of The Hotel Inspector. Cruelly under-promoted last time out, it really is a cracking show. Shamelessly following in the footsteps of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares the format sees award-winning hotelier and dispenser of plain-good-old-fashioned-common-sense Ruth Watson visit the armpit of the UK’s hospitality industry.

In this first episode she descend upon the disturbingly twee Saxonia, a three Diamond, eight-bed guesthouse in Weston Super Mare run by Jon and Sandie Harrap. There she locks horns with the former, in what he describes as a series of intellectual discussions – and it’s great.

Tellingly, there’s one moment where Ruth totally drops the TV presenter veneer and barks at the couple to just get on and buy a new canopy, instead of dithering about paint colours. It’s a total loss of composure situation, and Jon even has to tell her to calm down. Better yet is the sudden slew of “fucks” she unleashes when things go tits up in the kitchen towards the end of the episode. And she seemed so prim.

Yeah, okay, the commentary is a little too arch, but it makes up for it with a fantastic joke at the expence of Jon’s party attire. So, that’s The Hotel Inspector tonight on five at 9pm.