In this Hotel Hell episode, Gordon Ramsay visits the Cambridge Hotel in Cambridge, New York.
Cambridge Hotel is set in countryside, a few hours drive from Manhattan.
The hotel has 16 bedrooms and a large restaurant.
It has been in operation for over 150 years.
The hotel is owned by ex service man and local lawyer, John Imhof.
He bought the hotel with some help from his family in 2007.
John runs the hotel with his wife Tina Imhof.
The staff of the hotel complain about how John is a control freak.
It is clear that his hands-on approach isn’t working.
His mismanagement is causing the hotel to lose guests and thousands of dollars.
They are $750,000 in debt.
Tina is refusing to put any more of the family's money into the hotel.
On getting to the hotel, Gordon meets with the front desk, where he notices a bizarre R.I.P sign.
The hotel claims that this is for Alice.
She is a four year old girl who they claim haunts the hotel.
While being shown to his room, Gordon notices that the stairs creak.
There are many horrendous pictures on the hotel walls.
He was shown Alice’s home on the third floor staircase, which was sealed away from the guests.
Gordon is shown to his room where he is met by an overwhelming floral decor.
Gordon isn't impressed and thinks that it will give him a headache.
There is also a pointless bar hanging over the bed, rough towels and sheets full of holes.
Gordon meets with the owners, John and Tina.
They reveal that they had no hotel experience prior to owning the Cambridge Hotel.
They had made a loss of $350,000 in their first year of running the hotel.
They further lost $250,000 in their second year.
Both their parents and children have lent them money to fund the failing business.
They are planning on moving into the third floor of the hotel as they have put their house up for sale.
John claims that the reason for all of the borrowing is his optimism that the hotel can still turn around.
Tina says she is unsure of how she has been able to cope so far and has considered running away a lot.
She admits that John doesn’t listen to her and that she is almost at the point of giving up.
Gordon sits down to sample the food, he passes on the lentil soup.
He orders the pork and beans, duck and the Pie A La Mode from server Phillip.
The pork and beans were cold in the middle.
Gordon skips on the duck after discovering it was microwaved after being frozen.
He samples the Pie a la Mode, the restaurant’s unique selling point.
He is disappointed as the pie is also microwaved.
Gordon calls Tina aside to get her perspective of the situation.
Tina admits that John is a fantastic lawyer.
He is good at his job but doesn’t know anything about running a hotel.
John doesn’t listen to her but tosses her suggestions aside.
Gordon calls the staff to discuss the root of the problem.
They claim they cannot do a single thing without running it through John.
Gordon tells John that problem in the hotel is John himself.
He acts as the dictator, who must control everything in the hotel.
The next morning, after a sleepless night, Gordon calls the owners to his room.
In the room the hotel’s paying guests were gathered.
The guests tell the owners their complaints ranging from stray hairs, broken beds and broken door locks.
They all say that they wouldn’t return to the hotel.
Gordon points out the most serious problem he noticed.
The main entrance is left unlocked at night with no night porter or no security.
Every room key and customers card details were left open behind the reception desk.
They are there for anyone to take, leaving the guests vulnerable.
Gordon looks at the top floor which was supposedly haunted.
He was horrified by the look of the rooms.
Gordon comes up with a plan to give John’s hotel a make-over.
He reveals his plan to Brittany, the general manager.
He asks her to plan a ladies night with chef Rich preparing fresh food.
Gordon discovers that prep cook Scooter is going to culinary school.
He hopes to become a pastry chef with his own bakery.
Its night time and the ladies night has brought a lot of guests of different age to the hotel.
John tries to step in but Tina and Brittany kick him out.
Gordon ends up locking him in a room on the third floor.
Before locking John in, Gordon explains that the situation going downstairs is what the hotel would look like if John trusts his team.
The state of the haunted room would be the result if John continued to run the hotel like a dictator.
Gordon calls on John’s daughter and tells her to keep her dad on track for the way forward.
The night was a success and John finally that he can trust his staff.
The hotel made $1400 in two hours, more than what the hotel sometimes makes in days or weeks combined.
The next morning, Gordon reveals the new and modernized Cambridge hotel that his team worked on overnight.
The room has been given new wooden flooring and white drapes to tone down the overwhelming floral wallpaper.
He also provided the hotel with $75,000 worth of linen and towels to replace the old, rough ones.
Gordon takes them downstairs to the newly named A La Monde room where the chefs were given a new apple pie.
Some guests were already trying the new pie and they loved it as it was fresh and delicious.
Scooter is in tears at the thought of serving one of the best home-made pies in New York to the guests.
He feels more confident in his cooking skills now.
Brittany also feels confident in herself and her job.
As guests begin to pour in, Gordon makes his last big change, to take down the ghastly RIP sign.
Before Gordon leaves, he meets with Scooter and gives him his email address.
He tells the young cook that he wants to finance him through the rest of his learning in college.
Gordon only wants a loaf of bread in return when Scooter opens his bakery.
The Cambridge Hotel closed in June 2012. It was placed in foreclosure in the spring and was bought by the bank.
Scooter graduated from catering colleg.
He was said to be working in a local Italian restaurant.
Gordon paid for two years of his tuition at Culinary School.
John is now working as at Guantanamo Bay Prison as officer in charge of the Office of Military Commissions.
The building was sold at auction for $375,000.
It was converted into an assisted living residence.
Cambridge Hotel aired on August 20 2012, the episode was filmed in January 2012 and is Hotel Hell season 1 episode 3.
Read About More Hotel Hells
Next episode - The Keating Hotel
Previous episode - Juniper Hill Inn
If everything had to be done in order to help Scooter, it was worth it. I love to see passionate people being helped to achieve their dreams.
ReplyDeleteI disagree, nothing is worth poor Tina and the girls having their lives ruined because of that awful man. Since the building was foreclosed, it's probably safe to assume that B Tina lost her house, and their children will never see a penny back from what John took from them.
DeleteI truly hope John's wife and kids disowned him. Throughout the entire broadcast, it looked obvious that he simply doesn't respect the ideas or capabilities of women as a whole. His wife and daughter, his general manager, even his female guests...he would interrupt them, ignore their opinions, and dreaded the idea of a women-only event. And at the end of it all, he blatantly states that he didn't learn anything.
ReplyDeleteAnd now he works at GitMo. The man is simply an objectively bad person, there's no two ways about it. I sincerely hope Tina left him, because she deserves so much more than the terrible life John has anchored her to.
You took the words right out of my mouth
DeleteIma take a moment and just wanted to say that Brittany is a stunning and a beautiful lady.
ReplyDeleteHell yes you are right. I just wanted to take a moment and say you couldn't be more right about it.
DeleteNo man can deny that, is a FACT, she is a beautiful woman, and as you my fellow man, also take a moment and ponder about that fact.
DeleteAnother thing that is a shame is that Gordon's pie recipe was wasted in the end....
ReplyDeleteYes the only thing I was wondering about was scooter and that pie!!...I want some pie ASAP
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but John seemed to really make a 180. It was simply to late to recover. It takes a very big person to do that! Especially with a persona like his. He seemed to genuinely humble himself, wanting to change. That's just an insane amount of debt to recover from. It was just to late to recover from. No one would have given them a loan to refurbish all the rooms. This show typically only does one or two rooms. In this case they got linen as well. Was kind of hoping before the credits that they got it back on its feet and sold it.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that they only remodeled one or two rooms on this show. But it makes total sense because the cost to do more rooms would be astronomical. The owners of these hotels would just need to take it from there and continue to update one room at a time. I love Gordon and how brilliant he is and mostly how compassionate he is. He is one totally remarkable man.
ReplyDeleteI doubt they only do a whole relaunch with only 2 rooms done and a packed house and the rest of the guest get the nasty rooms still
ReplyDeleteThey definitely only do one or two rooms
Delete