The restaurant at the Scandic Hotel in Berlin

The conservatory dining area at the Scandic Hotel in Berlin

Here's a thought – what's the difference between public relations and customer service?

Not a lot really as I'd say PR is when you're promoting something to the media or other major organisations while customer service does just 'what it says on the tin' (how I dislike that phrase) by dealing directly with customers.

But, in my opinion, the two are entwined. For if you give great customer service then those satisfied customers will tell they friends, family and, via social media, potentially the world and so customer service has spiralled into PR via word of mouth.

In short. PR is all around us in our everyday lives.

And I reckon there's no stronger PR than your own PR which, in this instance, stands for personal recommendation. If you hear people praising excellent service they've had from a business then you're highly likely to believe them. After all, why wouldn't you?

Here's how it can work in practice. Businesses reckon they put the customer first but how many really do?

I treated Ruth to a birthday trip to Berlin recently and, as you do, went on Trip Advisor to search for accommodation. We'd never been to the city before, knew very little about the layout so it was either hit or miss through the internet. After much trawling we came across the Scandic Berlin hotel based in an area called Kurfürstendamm. It had excellent reviews, we looked on the map and went ahead and booked for 3 nights.

I'm no Alan Whicker and can hardly lay claim to have travelled the world but this hotel chain seems to have genuinely thought about what its customers want rather than what it wants to give them.

And there's a big difference. Two aspects stood right out for us.

We weren't sure about the breakfast as it was £11 each – costly to a Yorkshireman - but Mrs Hirst was adamant that with being in Berlin just 3 days we wouldn't have time to go searching for food. And she was right.

Sounds a lot but the breakfast was served from 6.30am until 12noon. They didn't start clearing things away at 11.30am. They said 12noon and they meant 12noon with the selection the same then as it was earlier, not some congealed lukewarm mess by then. And there was everything you could think of from cereals to a full English to a cold continental.

Eat what you want … but you could also take food away in little paper carrier bags they provided so you could knock up a sandwich for lunch. So two meals for the price of one really. On our last day we went sightseeing before breakfast and then had it around 11am to see us through to our flight home.

Second major plus was a free mini-bar in the room. Yes, free (no ridiculously high charges for a minuscule can of Coke here) and well stocked with bottles of beer, wine, water and soft drinks. Take what you want and it was restocked every day. Oh, and the safe in the wardrobe was free and easy to use too.

The hotel even has a sauna, steam room, spa and gym with bang up-to-date training equipment. The whole place was spotless and the staff naturally friendly and helpful – none of that 'plastic' customer service that's obviously a painted smile. They happily kept our cases while we went off sightseeing before our flight home.

It was so good – and Berlin too – that we're not only telling everyone about it but we've already decided we'll be going back.

I suppose we've even personally recommended it to ourselves.