Article: AN INSPECTOR CALLS; His mission: To test hotel hospitality to the limit.(Features)

THERE are fewer than 60 shopping days until Christmas and already there's bad news for retailers. One survey has warned that a third of us plan to spend less on Christmas this year than 12 months ago.

So it's encouraging to hear the sunny conversation between two American women of a certain age on the next table during breakfast at this plush, cosy hotel in Knightsbridge, London.

'After Harrods, let's walk down Walton Street and then check out the Ralph Lauren store near where we had dinner last night,' says one of them. 'I'm bound to find Gary something for Christmas there.'

Lucky Gary. Lucky ladies staying here, a sister hotel to The Capital, ...

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