Blog

For those who don’t know it, it’s a fly-on-the-wall style documentary which follows Mark Jenkins, owner of The Grosvenor Hotel, a 3* hotel in Torquay.

Last night’s episode saw Mark hosting the hotels first ever pool party, which included a barbeque, cocktails, and 'Dolphin Racing.' Obviously. Here Mark got the children racing each other on inflatable dolphins while the guests bet money on the winner. Brilliant, and perhaps slightly illegal.

At first you think, “oh my days, who would even think about staying at this hotel,” now that you’ve seen how it’s ran. But the more you watch it the more you love the staff and the jester mayhem that goes on, and the more you think to yourself… “it would be pretty funny to go there.”

So this morning I googled ‘The Grosvenor Torquay,’ and to my interest, half way down on the first page is a story on The Daily Mail site from October 2010, saying how the famous Banksy had left his mark by graffiting a wall of the hotel. After a couple more minutes of Googling I found out that Mark bought the hotel in November 2010, but the Banksy image appeared after the sale had already gone through. Ummmm, coincidence?

I then come across another news story, which came out a few weeks later after the first initial story. Here Mark pledges to protect the Banksy, oh and also announcing he’s the new owner of the hotel. This press story then goes on to outline his plans for the hotel, while subtly mentioning that it has 46 en suite bedrooms, a separate Inn restaurant, south facing gardens, an outdoor swimming pool and sun terrace, as well as indoor leisure and function facilities. Ummmm, nice little plug.

I then find another story. In May 2011, the Banksy artwork (although never proven it was the real deal) then gets vandalised. It had cost Mark £700 to provide a protective glass around it. However the ‘vandalism’ story did feature on the BBC, The Metro, and The Daily Mail again. Not a bad ROI. Oh, and of course the story pictured a big image of the hotel, along with mentioning Mark’s plans for a new nightclub which he was going to name after Banksy himself. Ummmmm, this sounds like the work of a PR pro at hand.

What next!?! Anthony Worrall Thompson wanders into the hotel’s kitchen and helps himself to some cheese and wine, whilst the Top Gear team drives a tank into his pool!!!

I wonder if the production company behind The Hotel approached Mark, or the other way round. I suspect the latter. In my opinion this chap knows what he’s doing. I tip my hat to you good sir.

Ps Of course I could be totally wrong and Mark’s just a complete clown. Either way, it’s good entertainment. Do watch it if you haven’t already!