“It looked like there was vomit on top of it.” – A diner
The “historic Cambridge Hotel” is located in “upstate New York,” Gordon Ramsay tells us, and has been open for over 150 years.
As a Long Island native who went to college in “upstate New York” (Binghamton, specifically) I can report that people who live in “upstate New York” hate that New York City and Long Island “down staters” call their part of the state “upstate.” For whatever reason, they prefer “western New York” (at least those parts of the state that are more “western” than New York City,” I suppose).
Anyway, John Imhof, a balding middle-aged guy, bought the Cambridge Hotel in 2007 along with his wife, Tina.
In classic Hotel Hell or Kitchen Nightmares form, the key piece of information shakes out that John and Tina have “zero hospitality experience between them.”
And in classic Hotel Hell fashion, Part II, we soon learn that the Cambridge Hotel has super dirty and gross rooms and incompetent service overall across its restaurant and guest services parts of the business.
The Cambridge Hotel is now “losing thousands of dollars every month,” and John tells us that he and Tina are $750,000 in debt. The business and their family home are both on the line.
Upon arrival, Brittany the hotel manager informs Ramsay that the ghost of a little girl named Alice still haunts the hotel. We see black-and-white photos of Alice on the wall (presumably from when she was alive), and Ramsay quips, “It looks like something out of The Exorcist.”
I would have said The Shining, but that’s more my generation, I guess.
Alice sadly passed away at the age of four back in 1913.
“I believe in ghosts at the hotel,” Brittany tells the camera.
Meanwhile, “freaky” framed black-and-white photos are all over the hotel, and there’s an area of the Cambridge Hotel that’s actually cordoned off due to alleged ghostly activity, it seems.
When Ramsay arrives at his guest room, his first reaction is, “Bloody hell.” The linen is “rough and nasty” while the room itself is “dated and uncomfortable.
Ramsay meets the Imhof’s and learns of the Cambridge Hotel’s dire financial situation, which includes taking in massive loans from their friends and family – including their daughter. Their home is now up for sale, with John and Tina planning to move into the hotel to save money.
“I don’t know how I manage,” Tina admits, and tells Ramsay that she’s been on the brink of leaving both the hotel business and John from time to time.
At the hotel restaurant, Ramsay orders the pork and beans and it comes out “ice cold in the middle.” Soon, he learns from Phillip the (sweaty) server that most of the food is sous vide, or cooked/microwaved from frozen bags, save for the homemade apple pie.
One diner says of her pork and beans dish: “it looked like there was vomit on top of it.”
When Ramsay’s apple pie a la mode, the apples are raw while the edges of the plate are blazing hot – obviously it came out of the microwave.
Soon, Ramsay confronts Chef Rich in the kitchen, calling him lazy for the way the food is prepared and his obvious lack of passion and gumption.
Rich denies these accusations, and separately tells the camera that Ramsay better be “careful” or he made to be placed in a body bag(!).
When John insists that everything the Cambridge Hotel is doing is “the right thing,” Ramsay fires back, “There are so many basics wrong, I could cry.”
When Ramsay pulls Tina aside for a chat, she tells him that while John is smart in terms of his legal background, “he’s terrible here,” and that she “can’t get it through his head.” Further, she feels all of her suggestions are “pushed aside.”
Tina is clearly distraught and at her wit’s end, and it’s moments like this that elevate what can often be a silly and trashy (in a fun way!) reality show into something much more compelling and engaging.
At this point, Ramsay is near meltdown territory and tells John in front of Chef Rich that the Cambridge is “f—ing soulless” and that “it’s littered with s— antiques that are broken… disgusting rooms, food that comes out of a f—ing bag.”
This is Gordon Ramsay’s Emmy reel right here, in other words.
Unbelievably, John’s reaction to this is, “I can’t control any of that stuff!”
Ramsay counters this one with, “Control? You’re like a little f—ing Hitler around here!”
After a night of sleep in his “uncomfy” but unhaunted as yet guest room, Ramsay has a large group of guests confront the owners the next day. All easily agree that their experience was so terrible that they would never stay at the Cambridge Hotel again.
Ramsay also relays to the entire group that in checking out the hotel in the middle of the night, he realized that:
- The front door of the hotel is left unlocked overnight
- There are no employees staffing the front desk (or anywhere else for that matter)
- Extra keys to all the guest rooms are hung on the wall out in the open for anyone to breeze by and grab
- Oh, and a ledger with the guest’s personal information, including telephone numbers, is out in the open
That is arguably worse than whether or not the ghost of Alice is lurking about, arguably?
This sounds possibly illegal in some ways, or at the very least it leaves the Imhof’s wildly open to litigation – especially if harm came to one of the guests staying at the hotel.
“Sell the place,” Ramsay angrily tells John and Tina. “Because you’re not fit to run it. This is madness.”
Ramsay then resolves to set Brittany up to be a true general manager, one without interference from the Imhof’s. She quickly arranges drink specials and a party atmosphere for the restaurant that night, to John’s chagrin.
After brooding by himself for a while – in a contrived set-up in which Ramsay locks John in the “haunted” attic of the hotel for a while – John resolves that he’s ready to give up some control and not be such a control freak.
The next morning, the overnight renovation is revealed, which starts with an actual lock on the Cambridge Hotel’s front door to help with security. The guest rooms look transformed and really do show off the transformative power of tasteful and skillful interior design. And over in the restaurant, a new A La Mode room features a pie based on a recipe that Ramsay has provided for the hotel, along with homemade ice cream.
John, now on board with the program, proclaims that the pie’s crust is the best he’s ever tasted.
The episode epilogue talks about how guests are now loving the overhauled guest rooms and upgraded restaurant. And most of all, John Imhof isn’t “interfering” as much now.
Hotel Hell, “Cambridge Hotel”: is it still open?
A huge no! The Cambridge Hotel was auctioned off after being foreclosed on back in 2012 – two months before this episode originally aired on FOX.
Oof.
Some stats and info about Hotel Hell, “Cambridge Hotel”
TV SHOW – Hotel Hell
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 1
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – FOX
EPISODE DESCRIPTION – Gordon visits the Cambridge Hotel, New York, where ex-military man John Imhof and his wife, Tina, own and run the allegedly haunted Cambridge Hotel. General John runs the hotel like a dictatorship, an approach that’s driving the staff crazy.
GENRE – Docuseries, Office Culture, Trashtastic TV, Reality TV
CAST – Gordon Ramsay