THE HOTEL LOUNGER.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1641, 7 January 1913, Page 6

THE HOTEL LOUNGER.

UNPROFITABLE. GUEST IN THE BEST CHAIR, ;, ; The hotel lounger has ever been a problem to hotel managers. A man. with very little money but a great deal of assurance, ho 6tays for an hour or two in the lounge or.smoking-room, uses the hotel notepaper, and generally behaves as though he were paying a pound a day for his board and residence. Of late, says tho London "Daily Mail," the loungers have considerably increased in number. So much so that in one London hotel;at least any man who is not known to be a bona-fide visitor is'politely asked on entering if he is staying in the hotel or desirous of seeing l a visitor.' ' A typical hotel lounger was described by a member of the staff of the hotel: "He lives in lodeings and uses this hotel ns his'home. He comes in in the morning about.twelve o'clock and orders.a bottle of beer. Seating himself in the best lounge arm-chair, ho goes • steadily tlirough all tho papers he can find. About luncheon time he departs, for he has never been known to take n meal in tho hotel. His regular daily expenditure horo is not riioro 'than on rare occasions he has been known to 'stand' a drink. "Wliat ho docs in tho afternoon no one knows. Ho returns to the hotel about six o'clock, for ho knows that at this hour one or two acquaintances will be there and he will bo certain of drinks. Just beforo dinner he departs again, having informed anvone who may .bo interested that he is dining elsewhere. ' • About 9.30 or ten in the evening he appears again, arrayed in evening dress. A little more lounging, and then home to his.lodgings. Ho Is a good tnllwr and >«■"»• how to ..maJw himself agreeabl*" . '