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IT IS a universal truth that a bad hotel drives out good guests.

And the new Channel 8 series, The Hotel, which made its debut last week, serves out this fact.

Judging from the first three episodes, it gives viewers one good reason to check in. But several to check out.

Set in a fictitious three-star hotel with a two-star name to match, Regina, this 20-par-ter tells the tale of two brothers, played by Chen Hanwei and Edmund Chen, who run the hotel, and the in-house fighting between the staff over control within the establishment.

The series then weaves in appearances by other MediaCorp stars as guests of the hotel. More than 90 artistes are slated to appear alongside regulars of the series. These include Ivy Lee, Jacelyn Tay, Huang Shinan, Yang Libing and Chen Liping.

As a hook for viewers, it is a clever format that cuts across the banalities of a normal drama series on both channels 5 and 8. The possibilities for laughs with new guest appearances each week should be infinite.

Sadly, The Hotel fell short of expectations. The three episodes were impregnable to humour because they were shielded by funereal writing

For starters, the characterisation were all too cartoonlike and two-dimensional. There was a spot too many exaggerated acting, lame and bogus plots, sad jokes and fake reactions learnt by heart. Like the hotel Regina, there is room for improvement.

Even award-winning actresses like Jacelyn Tay, Zoe Tay and Ivy Lee put in spectacularly gauche performances.

The latter, especially, was in true irritating form, harking back to those pre-The Price Of Peace days, when the press hated her for a good reason - awkward enunciation and awful acting.

Maybe The Hotel is a good chance and a good time for MediaCorp to house-keep its stable and weed out those "talents" with mediocre acting skills.

Right now, the series resembles a promotional video for a one-star suburban hotel. Or worse, a star-studded reel waxing the virtues of coming to Singapore and our service industry.