Hyatt's Andaz Liverpool Street Hotel has just instituted what is possibly the hotel world's cheekiest service yet: bedtime story house calls. For commitment-phobes, mama's boys, lonely travelers, book fetishists, neglectful parents, or literary-minded singletons, Andaz Hotel may have just what the doctor ordered.
For the next two weeks, sprightly writer Damien Barr will read to hotel guests in the comfort of their hotel rooms. No books are off limits, including racy ones, although Barr notes that "security is always on standby." A former writer-in-residence at London's College of Art, he claims he came up with the Reader-in-Residence concept to "get out of writing."
The geeky Londonist heart loves this idea. When was the last time someone read to you in bed? And if you're commitment phobic, this is the perfect genteel scholastic version of a one-night stand: all the literary pampering you'd like with none of the morning-after awkwardness. And if you don't fancy having a story read to you, Barr is happy to talk (literary) shop instead. Frustrated computer programmer/Tolstoy-lover in an IT world with no one to talk to about the Russian greats? Barr's your boy. We have a feeling London's visitors are going to clamber for this service, making it last much longer than its introductory two weeks.
Any moment now until some enterprising Londonist starts a city-wide bedtime reader service...any takers? Far more lively than delivery curry & Lovefilm, we say.
By Kira Hesser
Image courtesy of Hazel Tsoi-Wiles
