Page 56 of Too Busy for Love

‘Where did you get these?’ she asks as she leafs through them.

‘I met a guy who used to be the doorman there. It was hotel policy to provide a wedding reception free of charge to any members of staff who got married.’

‘What a lovely idea. It looks so different, doesn’t it. So…’ She tails off.

‘Glamorous?’ I offer.

‘That’s it. It’s almost impossible to believe it’s the same building.’

‘But it is. Apart from whatever they’ve done to the staircase, it’s structurally identical. It just needs its mojo back.’

‘You have no idea how much I wish that were true, but it’s more complicated than that.’ Abby’s face is no longer wreathed in nostalgia. Business Abby is back in the room and I can sense she’s losing interest. ‘You can’t just recreate, when was this?’

‘1953.’

‘Exactly. You can’t just recreate 1953 and expect it to work now because it did then.’

‘I’m not suggesting that. We need a thoroughly modern USP, but I think I have it.’

‘Go on.’

‘Point one. Don’t relaunch as a budget hotel. Go for the top end of the market.’

‘I’m not sure Margate is a “top end of the market” kind of town.’

‘I disagree. There’s currently one four-star hotel here and I checked; it’s fully booked months in advance.’

‘Which shows that the market is already catered for. Surely that would be the same mistake as launching a budget brand. We’d just be outclassed by the competition.’

‘I don’t think we would, but that’s not the point. The point is that the advance bookings for the other hotel show us that there’s untapped demand for a quality product. Demand we could take advantage of.’

‘How?’

‘That comes back to the USP,’ I tell her, relieved that I’ve managed to get her back on the hook. I collect up the photos and spread out the come for/stay for list that I’ve typed out.

‘Come for the food?’ She sounds doubtful.

‘Yes. Food is a big theme here in Margate, along with art and some of the other things I’ve listed in the “stay for” column. What we need is an exceptional offering from a talented chef to tempt the foodie market.’

‘Do you have someone specific in mind?’

‘As a matter of fact, I do.’

‘It’s not Rosa from the show, is it? I mean, her food is good but I don’t imagine she’d react well to the British climate.’

‘It’s not her. It’s a guy I worked with at my previous job.’

‘Where’s he working now?’

‘He’s at a restaurant in Glasgow at the moment.’

‘Hmm. When someone says “foodie destination”, Glasgow is hardly the first place to trip off the tongue.’

‘He’s good, I promise.’

‘I see. And he’s on board with this plan, is he?’

‘I haven’t mentioned it to him, actually.’

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