Chris

They are indeed different, however none of us possesses that facts to know which has occurred here. There are business reasons for keeping prices up - when we ran a B&B for example, we would never discount below a certain rate even when we were quiet, because we found when we sold it too cheap the problems we faced increased. Guests were more demanding and less likely to respect our home. It made more work for us than a couple of extra room nights was worth.

I make no observation as to why that correlation existed except to speculate that there’s a point at which a value-added service, which you tend to cherish as an experience, becomes a commodity which you use at your convenience. Having worked for an international five-star hotel company in the past, I can assure you that the actual cost of servicing a room in one of those hotels is far, far below the minimum price they would ever actually sell that room for.

In Coutts case I’m pretty sure you can make a sound business case for having fewer, richer, lower maintenance clients whose custom acts as a sales tool to attract even more of the same accounts. Lots of investable money flows in while the cost of servicing each client is relatively lower.

Of course, it could be plain old fashioned snobbery at play here - I tend to suspect it is, in a way. Though it is a bit of a reach to take what might have been Farage’s personal experience and use it to pass judgment on an entire business model.