Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 30447

Two for one serves its purpose

for a time . . .

MY good friend, John Jenkinson (Letters, 2 June) and George Goring (Letters, 9 June) who leapt to support him take a very laudable high moral stance on Two for One promotions.

Could I put the counter argument and defend the action taken by the ETB?

There are many hundreds of good hotels who have availability during various seasons, perhaps at weekends or, conversely, midweek - caused not necessarily by poor marketing but by location and market forces. Mine is a midweek "opportunity". Others face intense competition from perhaps the lodges or those hotels trading courtesy of their banks while in receivership. By rights, these should have been wiped out by the recession - the penalty for poor business management - and if that happened, just think, who would need Two for Ones?

As an ex-marketing man myself I see no harm in offering the equivalent of a retail "sale" during selected periods. This does not debase the product and helps to keep staff busy and motivated and the cash flowing.

What does concern me is the length of the ETB promotion (and some others), but the newspapers call the shots. Of course, they don't care if hotels benefit or not, their only interest being that of adding and retaining readers in the circulation war.

However, should a hotel fall into the trap of always running a "sale", then beware. It certainly harms the product irrevocably and is probably a short cut to bankruptcy. You have only to study the history of the now successful MFI to see a vivid example.

In my own case I successfully selected two principal Two for Ones to participate in last winter. They both delivered the sort of clientele who uses this hotel every day and, having had their bargain, the guests spent well in the restaurant and bar.

Helped by this I had a highly successful four months from February to May with occupancy levels of 68%, 71%, 80% and 82% respectively - and record turnover.

I do, however, fully agree that a halt must be called - I believe by the end of this coming winter - otherwise rates will be fixed artificially high to support a Two for One, investment in the properties will decrease and the businesses will not yield a proper return.

So, thank you ETB, Johansens and Consort for helping to pull us through the recession, but very soon enough will be enough.

JOHN PATTINProprietor,The Cottage in the Wood,Malvern Wells,Worcestershire.

. . . And has a central role

THERE is, of course, another side to the views expressed by a few readers on promotional offers and criticism of the English Tourist Board's role.

While the Two for One concept is not new, it is targeted, provides a short opportunity for customers to qualify and can work to the benefit of participating hotels. It is emotive and inaccurate to claim that the ETB is to "give half our rooms away for 10 months".

The ETB, backed by the other national tourist boards, has a central role in co-ordinating this promotion with a promoter who has run similar schemes in the past.

Surely it is better to be part of the decision process so that we can direct promotions such as these which would happen with or without us.

Had the promotion not featured UK hotels the public would have turned to European hotel deals, free flights and the plethora of overseas offers that are readily available, to the detriment of the domestic industry.

Hotels themselves have reported that previous promotions can and do work. They provide the customer with the opportunity to samplehotels they would not ordinarily visit and have produced full rate repeat business.

The ETB's role is to present opportunities such as these to allow hoteliers to make their own commercial decision on participation and we have seen no evidence, as suggested by John Jenkinson, that hotels participate out of fear of being left out. On the contrary there is a wealth of support from those who truly understand the opportunities that such proposals present. They, however, choose to keep this discovery to themselves.

MIKE COX Head of Sales Promotion, English Tourist Board,London W6.

see an end to shifty deals

THERE is a rot developing in the standards of British hotels setting and maintaining prices to their guests which is increasingly undermining our credibility.

The industry now needs an urgent review of what is acceptable practice and what is not with regard to charging customers. A conference, perhaps, at which the problems and issues can be gone over, and after which minimum standards should be set so that potential guests and hoteliers need no longer