Alex Polizzi

Whenever I hear, "Born into the legendary Forte Hotel dynasty..." I know I'm in for a treat with Ms Alex Polizzi as The Hotel Inspector. I only discovered the programme last summer so I've been doing my best to catch up with all the programmes, especially all the repeats over the Christmas and New Year break.

It's a wonderfully simple format for a telly programme: failing hotel or guest house invites Alex to give them some advice, they think they know better and then we find out that Alex is (naturally) right and all's well that ends well. Of course, the road is never smooth and we see Alex exasperated, Alex frustrated, Alex swearing, Alex insulting ("Jonathan, you're polishing a turd...") and Alex being, as she always is, right.

I have learned a lot from Alex. Whenever I've walked into hotels in the past I've thought either, this is nice, this is bog-standard, this is so bog-standard I don't even notice it and so on and so forth. Now, I walk in with a trained eye, looking for the positioning and relative order of the reception desk, looking at the cleanliness, whether lighting is mis-matched, etc, etc, etc. And she is a good teacher. I'd love to have a cup of tea with her one day and ask her lots of questions, including why she favours long, dangly ear-rings.

I would strongly support a 'Hotel Inspector Goes Back' kind of programme where she re-visits hotels she's helped to see whether they've sustained her changes and how they've developed. It'll also be interesting to see whether any have actually closed by ignoring her advice.

Something I've learned since discovering the programme is that Saint Alex is always, but *always* right.