Rochdale reacts to poor service jibe

The full set of Rochdale's nominees at the Manchester Tourism Awards with staff from the Moss Lodge, Nutters Restaurant, Three Gates B & B and Healey Dell Nature Reserve

Rochdale’s tourism industry has hit out at the claims of a Manchester chief executive who declared that the service provided by city centre hotels, bars and restaurants was ‘more Rochdale than London’.

The off the cuff comment has angered people within the industry, especially considering Rochdale won two of the top prizes at the Manchester Tourism Awards earlier this year.

Howard Raynor, chief executive of World Class Service in Manchester, said in an interview for Crain’s Manchester Business: “Service in Manchester is warm and friendly, but not very professional. It’s as if the prices are set in London, but the service is set in Rochdale.”

It seems Mr Raynor failed to consider that Nutters won the best tourism restaurant award and the Moss Lodge won the best small hotel / B&B award at the Manchester Tourism Awards in April.

Chairman of the Visit Rochdale Borough Group, Councillor Keith Swift told Rochdale Online: "Rochdale has made massive strides forward in its tourism offer. We have the best tourism restaurant and the best B & B in Greater Manchester so it's a shame the gentleman is so out of touch with what's happening in the city region. He really must get out more!"

Rochdale Tourism Officer Tim Nuttall said: “We’ve shown consistently that the service in our hotels and restaurants can match and even better those in Manchester and London and we do not charge the prices that they do in those city centres.”

Since the Crain’s article was made public last week, comments have flooded into Rochdale Online belittling Mr Raynor’s poorly judged remark.

Debbie O’Brien, Chief Executive of Rochdale Town Centre Management, said: “Rochdale Town Centre is in the second year of their Town Centre Business Awards and are celebrating a fantastic level of local service delivery with town centre traders making a fabulous impression on mystery shoppers from outside the region. Each business is in the process of their second year of mystery shopping and score highly in their service delivery and town centre pride.

“As a life long service provider I think it’s important to remember that everybody is human and actually that cold impersonal 'professional' service which you receive from world class hotel chains isn’t always what makes you want to return. Many of our local stores in Rochdale have destination visitors who seek them out because of the warm friendly service they provide, I know I do!”

Hotel Rooms Manager at The Royal Toby Hotel, Dee Leech said: “I have worked in the Rochdale hotel industry for over 11 years and continually receive comments on how fabulous our service is at the hotel. I urge people not to take Mr Raynor’s comments as fact but to go onto independent online review sites to see for themselves the comments we receive.

“I appreciate Mr Raynor has a view of what he deems to be good service, but its derogatory to Rochdale just because it doesn't conform to his business model on what constitutes good customer service.”

Doreen Huck of Old Hucky’s Restaurant said: “People always come back to our restaurant because of the service and because of how we look after people, and they do feel like royalty when they come to us.”

Other bar and restaurant owners said that the statement in no way reflected the service that their own staff provided and went on to say that even Mr Raynor’s comments about Manchester itself were off the mark.

Simon Crompton from town centre pub The Baum said: “I was in Manchester last night and the service was excellent in every place I went to.”

And Caroline Fullivan[sic]  from The Crimble restaurant said: “To say that all the service in Manchester is poor and the service in London is good is a derogatory statement, there are some establishments everywhere that may not provide the service you expect, but they are more of a minority than a majority.”

Howard Raynor stood by what he said in the interview for Crain's. He said: “It wasn’t aimed at just Rochdale, there are many places that are similar. I stated Rochdale as it was my most recent experience.

“It’s not me having a pop at Rochdale, it’s about complacency. Have a look at other places such as Bury, Bolton, Oldham and see what the services are like, maybe I’m right, maybe I’m wrong.”