It is heartening to see, particularly during this season of goodwill, that the art of writing a letter is not lost in the world of hospitality. What a shame it is though that these letter writing skills have been used to trade insults and allegations between two hotel giants.
It all started with Orient Express boss Paul White, who labelled the approach for a joint venture with India's Taj Hotels as "inconsistent with our business strategy" and that they had "no interest in their proposals".
White looked to draw a line underneath the four month old saga by stating, in no uncertain terms, that he believed that "any association of our luxury brands and properties with your brands and properties would result in a reduction in the value of our brands and of our business and would likely lead to erosion in the RevPar premiums currently achieved by our properties".
Fair enough you might think. White has rebuffed this year's long standing rumour that the chain has been up for sale for £1.5b. However it is a little harsh on Taj, who with an 11.5%, are Orient Express' largest shareholder and also run hotels that are not re-branded as Taj Hotels, like 51 Buckingham Gate and the Crowne Plaza St James in Westminster.
It has all been enough to make Taj Hotels vice-chairman R K Krishna Kumar loose his temper somewhat which, of course, he has done by way of a letter. Kitchen Rat hopes you enjoy the extract below.
"I could only infer from the language and tone of the letter, which was highly misinformed and unduly aggressive, that it could not have been written by a senior member of Orient Express' management team and supported by the company's Board. I thought it was written on your behalf by an over-zealous advisor and released before it was properly vetted by your office.
"However, as time passed and your team commented publicly about the letter and its contents, it became clear to me that the letter was indeed written with your full consent. This was extremely distressing to me, as Indian Hotels found this letter to be pejorative, inaccurate and libellous."
It continues over four pages, thoroughly reviving the tradition of letter writing. Kumar is not one to spare the details either as he has the foresight to include a detailed breakdown of RevPar, ADR, EBITDA and many other hotel measurement abbreviations. He also concludes with a demand for an immediate apology.
One could safely assume that the joint venture is off.