Cabbies target more London hotels

Ian Schrager's two London hotels and the Marriott Grosvenor Square have been the latest to face boycott protests by angry drivers of black cabs.

The cabbies claimed staff were diverting guests to minicabs, even when black cabs were waiting in the hotel ranks.

Members of the London Taxi Drivers' Association (LTDA) targeted Schrager's Sanderson and St Martin's hotels. They claimed Sanderson staff were directing guests to a man outside who arranged minicab rides costing a minimum of £10.

Staff at St Martin's were said to be ignoring ranked black cabs to call minicabs on their phones.

Porters at the Marriott Grosvenor were suspected of doing the same, prompting a week-long picket of the hotel earlier this month by the LTDA and other taxi organisations.

Hunter Hansen, general manager at the Marriott Grosvenor, insisted it was hotel procedure to give guests what they asked for, whether a black cab or private car. A spokeswoman for Schrager's hotels said while tourists preferred black cabs, they were sometimes hard to find.

Last year, the LTDA targeted three Radisson Edwardian properties, the Grafton, Marlborough and Mountbatten hotels, and the year before it picketed Thistle's Selfridge hotel.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 24-30 August 2000