Simon and I did a little travelling this winter. R&R after a really good and busy year of trading before getting stuck into the annual winter refurbishments. I’m typing this with oil based gloss on my fingers and I’ve noticed a splodge on the keyboard and Simon will not be impressed: beside the point. As much as we are trying to relax, it would be a shame to miss the opportunity of thinking things through as a consumer. So besides lazily lying in the sun reading books our guests have been telling us to read all summer, we do have a chat about how well powered the shower is, how easy it is to reach the towels and what ideas we can steal. Couple of geeks. The one thing that stuck out to me this trip was the pillows. Two hotels advertised a pillow menu. This is a nice touch we’ve seen before and nothing to complain about except that none of the pillows on our beds matched. It was a detail which I didn’t much care about myself but it didn’t make sense. It devalued the effect of the pillow menu and I should imagine makes a guest have to ask for something or put up with something. In our experience guests feel either embarrassed asking for things or annoyed. It reminded me and Simon that basics are really important and that when a guest requests a change, it’s really important to change it back before the next guest. So, just to say Highcliffe has 2 feather pillows per person of the same brand on each bed. If you’d like a firmer manmade selection instead we have those too and we’ll remember to put them away again before the next guest arrives. We advertise the option of a different pillow in our room books.