From home-baked cookies to snake-shaped hot water bottles, Guy Woodward assesses an essential feature of the hotel stay - the turndown
The best hotel turndown services
Guy Woodward
Guy Woodward started his journalistic career at AB Europe, a now defunct magazine for the casino industry. He then progressed to the sports section of The Guardian, from where he went on to a 10-year stint at consumer wine title Decanter, latterly as its editor. After editing the independently-published Food and Travel magazine, he moved to his current position as deputy editor of Harrods Publishing. A former chair of the British Society of Magazine Editors, he has made regular appearances on TV, radio and in the national press commentating on wine, travel and media. That all got a bit much though, so these days he likes to spend as much spare time (and, where appropriate, work time) travelling to nice hotels and chronicling their showers, among other things.
How to check into a hotel
It can take 30 seconds, or it can be an ordeal of form-filling and unnecessary explaining. Guy Woodward checks out checking in
How to eat a hotel breakfast
It might be informal, but a hotel breakfast is possibly the most important meal of the day, as Guy Woodward explains
The world’s best hotel bathrooms
Bypass the bed, ignore the TV and forget the minibar: it’s the shelving in the shower that really matters. Guy Woodward unpacks his washbag The first thing I like to do, at that magical moment when the bellboy (do they still call them that?) finally completes the lighting demonstration and vacates my new hotel room, is to spend some time in …
The world’s best hotel spas
Whether you’re in the Douro Valley or the Mexican Riviera, there’s one thing any hotel spa needs: space. Guy Woodward dons a fluffy towel and lies on the couch What’s the first thing you look for in a spa? The variety (and cost) of the treatments? The quality (and brand) of the products? The holistic nature of the zen? These …
