“Bad” Hotel

It had been over twenty years since I had been in London when I landed in mid-September this year. The last time, I had come with my high school marching band to participate in a New Year’s Day parade, and it was special to me mainly because I learned that Black people lived in London. To this day, that is my favorite impression of London. This time, I was coming with my companion as we embarked on our mission to write and observe the surroundings of twentieth-century architecture. To save money, most of our stays were in places with kitchens or communal housing, which is how we met, and the first place we stayed was a perfect example. However, the reviews for this location seemed terrible–until mine–and when we arrived, we saw why everyone deemed it a “bad” hotel.

When people have an image of hostels in their minds, whether they admit it or not, they generally expect that there will be a bunch of white or light-skinned people drinking and having a blast together while traipsing across the globe. Instead of a posh house or a bed assignment, my companion and I arrived at a middle-class house full of African residents who were having a group meal as we went upstairs. I am not shy, but I draw the line at expecting to be included in socializing when people just met me and they were all simply enjoying their evening before we arrived. We were given a tour and shown our room–not invited to participate, since we were guests. We dropped our stuff, then went out to dinner and bought groceries based on what we thought we could make with a microwave and a kettle–there was no stove for guests.

The entire week, we were so happy that we lived in that neighborhood because it was not only affordable, but everything was there. Because there were people from various backgrounds, people tended to mind their own business, and we were out there as early as eight and came back as late as eleven. People were not falsely friendly, but extremely functional, and that was my favorite part; anything we wanted to do, we were able to get it done without needing to manage someone’s insecurities. The neighborhood reminded us of where we had lived before leaving the United States, which also had several migrant residents and a variety of services, meaning that we never had to leave our neighborhood there, either.

The reason that this hotel was considered “bad” is because of the over-promotion of luxury lifestyles. Rather than simply being a place to sleep, every place has to be “luxury,” and all the service staff have to be ready to jump when the guests arrive and stay standing until the guests leave. Unfortunately, white people are often considered recipients of luxury while “everyone else” should be providers of luxury, which makes it difficult for people who are simply renting out a portion of their houses (where they live). Instead of simply being tourists, people need to understand that life does not end for everyone else because a few folks decide to take a trip. Just like people need to learn to live communally on a regular basis, they need to learn how to share space with people when they go on vacation.