A friend and I were in Harare city centre on Sunday lunchtime and decided to have a toasted sandwich at Meikles Hotel which, I think, has  5*s. But after sampling both their toasted ham and cheese sandwich and their service, I reckon they’ve slipped a notch or 2. You’d expect something a bit delicate and classy (even if its a toastie) in a 5 * hotel but what got served up was anything but. I’m wondering if the lack of tourists to Zimbabwe have contributed to letting the standards in our hospitality industry slip. Perhaps they’ll get kicked into shape with the thought of potential revenues coming in from the World Cup 2010. If standards across the board, and that includes the rehabilitation of Zimbabwe’s infrastructure like roads, traffic lights, street lighting, water provision and refuse removal, don’t get revved up then Zimbabwe isn’t a very attractive base for tourists and teams to use. Perhaps this is a good time for Zimbabwean citizens to lobby or even, (gasp) protest, for an improvement in our living conditions because usually the men in power don’t give a twaddle about stuff like this. Going back to Meikles, they could learn a thing or two from a small unpretentious 3 * hotel in the Avenues that serves up cheaper and more tasty sandwiches. There’s also no worry about indigestion brought on at the Meikles by a prominently displayed presidential portrait.

This entry was posted on February 23rd, 2010 at 1:56 pm by Bev Clark and is filed under Reflections, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.