The reason hotel and restaurant service is not good may be because the wages are really low. This prevents staff to stay long on the job, as they are always looking for a better paying job and because of the high turnover rate, employers do not train the new staff well. If one feels exploited, it is hard to have a good self-esteem and pride oneself on his/her job. Moreover, working for the service industry in a high tourist area can be really stressful, as the tourists many times do not speak the local language, are demanding (expecting things to be just like at home), do not know how to explain what they want.

I returned from a trip to France and Germany last week. The only places where we had bad service (I mean, not very polite) were in the high tourist areas. I saw how hard the staff was working. In other areas, service was good.

Helio in Vancouver