Outlook One from the department for completely-inevitable-wastes-of-money. At least, let us pray so.

Laura Ashley (boring clothes, even worse curtains) is opening a "boutique" hotel somewhere in Hertfordshire (it won't say where, so nervous is it about the place being swamped by mobs of wallpaper enthusiasts).

It bought the property for the thick end of £6m, and presumably thinks the hotel-game is a cinch, there being no recorded examples of them turning out to be disastrous money pits.

The hotel shall be "refurbished as a brand showcase for our products and design service", it says here.

Of the shops men resent being dragged into Laura Ashley is absolutely top of the pile. Now they run the risk of being dragged into one for an entire weekend. News of this venture must be suppressed.

s.english@independent.co.uk