The following interview was conducted by business journalist Roger Collis with Andrew Pike, General Manager of The Milestone Hotel - a boutique 5 star hotel in Kensington.

How do you see the opportunities and challenges of a five star hotel in these difficult times?

I think we're probably experiencing some of our most challenging times today. Various factors - one certainly is the recent security alerts that have been in place for a while now that have come very much to the forefront of people's minds. And perhaps the second thing is the continuing issue with the dollar exchange rate and that's obviously eating into people's pockets. A lot of our guests are overseas visitors.

How many guests are American?

Around 50% of our guests at the Milestone, so it's quite a big number for us.
So you're trying to keep that clientele obviously and I would think, trying to diversify. Are you having success in that?
Yes we are. We've got a fairly strong base of European guests as well but traditionally the Milestone has been a fairly strong US hotel.

With a mixture of guests and the mixture of nationalities, how do you reconcile different nationalities in their needs, requirements and demands, and also the business and leisure traveller?

"We recognise that different nationalities may have specific requirements... but we like to personalise our service and we very much do regard people as individuals and maybe not get too hooked up on customising in relation to specific nationalities."

People often get confused on how to define a five star property versus a four star property, and stars vary all over the world and are not a consistent classification in my view. What do you see as the characteristics of a five star hotel?

I think that the basics in terms of quality, comfort, fixtures and fittings (there's the comfortable bathrooms that work), are all a prerequisite at the five star level. What marks a five star property out above any others is really the service. It's down to individuals, it's down to the staff and the interaction they have with guests.

How do you maintain good service?

We've got to recruit the right people to start with, you've got to recruit people who genuinely love looking after other people, that has to be in place; then its really a question of being fair, appreciating the people that are working with you; great training programme - we have one of the most comprehensive training programmes for our staff that I think any hotel company has and that's really key.

Do you check on them (the staff) from time to time with mystery shoppers?

Yes, mystery shoppers are very much on our agenda.

Discerning travellers are now keen to get back to basics. In the old days of course you had a comfortable bed and clean towels in the bathroom, etc. Now hotel bedrooms are a bit like luxury apartments, with gizmos, wi-fi, televisions, multi-channels and that sort of thing, but people are getting back to basics in that the main thing is to get a good night's sleep.
Definitely. I think that's still the primary requirement and so we've adopted a view that, yes we want to keep up to date with technology in particular and you can't afford to fall behind in those areas, but we recognise first and foremost that the fundamentals - the quality mattress and bed, the air conditioning that works; the fact that it's not noisy; that's really the priority for us.

People are really getting into feeling the linen and plumping the pillows and jumping on the bed and mattress and so on. Can you tell me something about that?

Sure.  We have a standard with the companies that supply our linen that they provide us with a minimum thread count of 200 per square inch - this indicates how soft the linen feels.  If it's 200 or more it's going to feel very soft and so that's a standard we've had in place for a little while.

I have a list of things I love to hate about hotels. One of the things I love to hate is air conditioning which is noisy and I can't regulate it, and windows that don't open - I'm either hot or cold. How do you handle these idiosyncrasies?

I think the air conditioning requirement is a fairly fundamental one for everybody and we're lucky we employ some very skilled people that look after that - the whole maintenance of that system is paramount. When we need to replace air conditioning in any part of the hotel then that's top of the list - everything's got a life expectancy and we plan for that accordingly.

What are the things that travellers really need, and what are the things they think they need or would like to have as options?

I think the must-haves are very much the basic comforts we've talked about - the comfortable bed, a feeling of security, a decent bar where they can get a drink and relax in the evening, anything they need in terms of newspapers and information -  I think those are the basics they expect. The "would-like-to-haves", I think are more down to the personal level and certainly one of the key people in our hotel is the head concierge. If someone is coming to London for a number of days it's pretty important to have that point of contact. I think that access to information as they need it, when they need it is important too.

How important is internet access and all the high tech gadgetry that travellers need to keep in touch?

Very important I think Roger. Whether it be the corporate guest or the leisure guest, everybody wants to keep in touch with the internet these days. One of the things we decided to do was to offer this as a facility without charge, just because people are using it all the time now, so I'd sat that's very important.

What is the Milestone's cutting edge?  What is its competitive advantage over other five star properties?
If I answered that in one, I'd say it's our staff - the great interaction and the personalised service that we offer our guests.

Do you have any special facilities or services for women travellers?

We do. We have a number of women travellers and there are a number of things we do, that I think are appreciated…if a single female traveller is dining in the restaurant, then our team are trained to not be sitting them in the centre (where they may feel a little bit surrounded) but to find a nice cosy corner. When we're delivering a room service tray to our guests, we will always allocate a female member of staff to deliver that. And also, being a bit smart about which floor we use- the female traveller will not necessarily want to be on the ground floor. It's little things like that that I think are appreciated.

How important are loyalty programmes?

I think there's certainly a place for them, we recognise that they are important, they are of value to people, but I think with our company, and I speak obviously from the Milestone Hotel's perspective, I think that what people are looking for more than anything else is recognition. And I think if Mr Smith or Mrs Smith check into the hotel , it's about us knowing what their newspaper is and offering that newspaper up front, having a drink ready for them in the bar that we know they like - I think it's that feeling of being wanted and made special that's more important than the points they collect which they may or may not trade in.

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