The Adelphi Hotel, an Edwardian pile(宏伟建筑) in Liverpool, has hosted everyone from Winston Churchill to Roy Rogers and his horse Trigger. Among Britain’s most luxurious hotels when it opened in 1914, it boasted Turkish baths, a heated indoor pool and shooting galleries. Charles Dickens described his dinner at an earlier incarnation(（事物的）前身、版本) as “undeniably perfect”. Today the pool and spa are closed, the shooting gallery is inoperative(失效的、不能使用的) and your correspondent’s £14.95 ($19.80) supper was scraped from(从……刮下来的) a tepid(温吞的、不冷不热的) buffet shortly before it closed at 8pm. The Adelphi ranks 105th of 112 Liverpool hotels on TripAdvisor.
阿德尔菲酒店是利物浦一栋爱德华时代的老建筑，接待过从温斯顿·丘吉尔到罗伊·罗杰斯及其坐骑“扳机”在内的各路来客。1914年开业时，它跻身英国最豪华酒店之列，拥有土耳其浴、恒温室内泳池和射击场。查尔斯·狄更斯曾这样描述自己在一家更早的同名酒店里吃的那顿晚餐：“无可否认，完美至极。”如今，泳池和水疗中心已经关闭，射击场也停用了；本刊记者那顿14.95英镑（19.80美元）的晚餐，是从晚上8点关门前不久、已经温吞的自助餐台上刮下来的。在TripAdvisor上，阿德尔菲在利物浦112家酒店中排名第105位。
It belongs to Britannia Hotels, Britain’s largest privately owned hotel chain, with 64 hotels and over 10,000 rooms. Britannia has finished last in 12 consecutive(连续的、接连的) surveys of big hotel chains by Which? magazine(英国消费者权益杂志《Which?》). Yet many of those years coincide(同时发生、巧合一致)d with healthy profits. Now Britannia is changing course. Its 88-year-old founder, Alex Langsam, has stepped back and a four-person management board plans “immediate and rolling upgrades” to rejuvenate(使恢复活力、焕新) its hotels and reputation. Why the shift?
它隶属于布里塔尼亚酒店——英国最大的私营连锁酒店，旗下有64家酒店、逾1万间客房。在《Which?》杂志对大型连锁酒店进行的调查中，布里塔尼亚连续12次排名垫底。然而，其中许多年份恰逢利润可观。如今，布里塔尼亚正在改弦更张。88岁的创始人亚历克斯·兰斯曼已退居二线，一个四人管理委员会计划进行“即时且滚动式”的升级改造，以重振旗下酒店和声誉。为何转向？
It is a tricky time for British hotels. Wages, business rates(商业地产税) and energy costs are rising—and customers are increasingly value-conscious(注重性价比的). Britannia is positioned as a budget operator, with an average room price (£84 in 2025, according to Which?) higher than Travelodge’s (£69) but lower than Premier Inn’s (£94). Those chains offer consistency in standardised(标准化的) hotels, many purpose-built(专门建造的) and leased. Britannia has an owner-operator model. Under Mr Langsam it accumulated an eclectic(兼收并蓄的、风格多样的) estate of grand old buildings. He once described his company as merely the “custodian(保管者、守护者)s for a period of time” of such heritage assets.
对英国酒店业来说，眼下是个棘手的时期。工资、商业地产税和能源成本都在上涨，而顾客越来越看重性价比。布里塔尼亚定位为经济型运营商，平均房价（据《Which?》数据，2025年为84英镑）高于Travelodge（69英镑），但低于Premier Inn（94英镑）。这两家连锁提供的是标准化酒店带来的稳定体验，许多酒店是专门建造并租赁经营的。布里塔尼亚则采用业主自营模式。在兰斯曼治下，它积累了一批风格各异、气派的老建筑。他曾把公司形容为这类遗产资产“一段时间的保管者”而已。