Letters
Red alert over green experiments
Being a hotelier in the middle of a busy tourist town in the Lake District seems like a piece of cake, and running two hotels in the centre of the same town has for many years been a pleasant and sustainable business.
Now, unfortunately, we have had the misfortune of being looked upon as an interesting town in which experiments should take place in the form of "green issues" and schemes such as gradually reducing cars to the Lake District. The culprits are the county councillors, who seem hell-bent on introducing pedestrianisation to the town centre.
It worries me a great deal that we may see a decline in our business if our guests cannot drive their cars into the town to enquire about accommodation or to check in.
The councillors have no interest in our worries, being more interested in the "bigger issues" of eventually banning or limiting the cars within the National Park, and are now pressing ahead with the final consultation in May this year quoting that there have been tremendous advantages to hotels, shops and businesses in other towns which have been pedestrianised. We have never seen or heard any proof of this.
Legally, it seems there is very little one can do when one is up against the authorities and their green issues. In any other situation when threatened in business, at least one can fight through the courts for loss of business and compensation, but apparently not so in this case.
It would be of great help to hear from any readers who may have found themselves in similar situations. Did it work for their town? Did they gain from pedestrianisation? Or was it a disaster, having a negative effect on their business? Do readers have any suggestion as to how to tackle these "public servants", who always seem to think they know better than those who live and work in the area.
Kit Graves
Kings Arms and Skiddaw hotels, Keswick, Cumbria
Some people are off their trolley
Having worked in our industry now for many years, both as an operator and a consultant, I thought I had heard it all. However, a recent experience has given me cause to think again.
During a discussion with an equipment supplier, I was told that it had recently had an enquiry for an "at-the-desk merchandising unit". Being ever eager to keep up to date with new ideas, I was intrigued. My mind was filled with visions of a robotic vending machine, making its way through an open-plan office, stopping on demand and boosting sales. What a splendid innovation, I thought.
I was brought down to earth, however, with the revelation that what the client really wanted was nothing more than an old-fashioned tea trolley!
Andrew Etherington
Merritt-Harrison Catering Consultancy, Guildford, Surrey.
Lessons in health are needed here
The general manager of catering for Lincolnshire admits in "Lunchtime lessons" (Caterer, 6 April, page 32) that, while there is a cost saving in scrapping hot school meals, "there is a loss of a different kind" - one-to-one social skills and lack of dexterity with a knife and fork, for example. She fails to mention another, significantly more serious, loss in her own county - that of good health.
In the Daily Telegraph, May 7 1991, there was a report entitled "Food for Thought" by Charlotte Doyle, featuring research on cold packed lunches by a team of Women's Institute health workers in Lincolnshire. They were "appalled by what they had seen". Dr Vivien Beveridge,a local GP, linked coldpacked lunches with an increase in iron deficiency and anaemia among eight- and nine-year-olds at her health centre.
West Sussex county catering adviser Diann Berry says that Sodexo (previously Gardner Merchant) not only provides the statutory free lunch box, but "makes the same lunchbox available to all children, thus masking any stigma of free meals". Masking any stigma?
Berry fails to mention that between September 1999 and January 2000, the county council provided only statutory cold packed lunches, thus breaching the duty to provide lunches for pupils who want to buy them.
Can you see the Army getting rid of the Army Catering Corps? Of course not. The Crimean War taught the army that soldiers had to be fed properly to fight properly. The ‘army' of countless thousands of children has to be fed properly to learn properly.
The policy decision [not to provide hot meals] by some education committees is not only immoral and irresponsible - it will soon become illegal.
Richard Symonds
The Hot School Meals Campaign, West Sussex.
Is this the end for booking agents?
How refreshing it is for booking agents Expotel to acknowledge that the higher commission rate a hotel pays, the more business it gets (Caterer, 30 March, page 20).
Many years ago, Expotel denied my claims that this was how its selection criteria worked.
Of course, it does leave booking agents with a slight problem - they are not providing a service to anyone. In effect, they don't have a customer.
By his own omission, Maurice Segal is not selecting the "best" or "best-value" hotel for the supposed client, so he's not providing a service there. And he's not providing a service to hotels because the guest is going to stay in one anyway.
All agents do in reality is to leech off hotel rates, thus raising costs to hotels and their customers.
Now that the vacuousness of this parasitic industry is clear, maybe hotel guests will reach the same conclusion and bypass them to save money.
John Jenkinson
The Evesham hotel, Worcestershire.
Quality awards aren't for us
Robyn Jones asks "Are quality assurance schemes off the marque?" (Caterer, 13 April, page 20)
I started my previous laundry company in the mid-1970s. Fifteen years later, as an executive employing more than 180 staff, I felt a pressure from suppliers to introduce BS5750. Seeing it as a marketing tool, I introduced it into the business by involving everybody.
It proved to be very beneficial internally, but I never used it in marketing.
I then tackled Investors in People. It proved that junior management were better trained and more highly motivated than some senior management. I sacked the whole management team, and the new, internally trained managers doubled the size of the business within a few years.
I now have a new laundry business with an emphasis on standards. We are focused on satisfying our customers and there is such a buzz and enthusiasm about the company that we don't have the time or the need to look internally to gain an external award.
David Coulter
Coulters, Mere, Wiltshire.
Easy formula for turnover figures
I have found an easy way to find out what turnover (non-VAT) is needed to cover specified main expenses. One works on a 50% gross profit margin on turnover for the business, so that the expense is doubled to find out the takings required.
This means, for example, that if the business rate rises £30,000 per year, the turnover needed for this expense would be £60,000 per year or £1,154 per week.
Wouldn't it be a good idea if the Government, when increasing taxes, worked out these figures to see what burden they would be placing on hospitality businesses.
They would then begin to get into the real world and, I hope, increase or reduce taxes accordingly.
John Gomersall
Worminghall, Buckinghamshire.
Interview skills need some work
The "frantic" couple from Norfolk (Caterer, 30 March, page 20) say nothing to support the view that there is a lack of cooking skills within the industry. They merely demonstrate that a love of food is an insufficient basis on which to run a restaurant.
You need to have a thorough understanding of the different types of training and qualifications within the industry and know that an NVQ level 2 Food Prep student with 80 days at college will generally cook better than a contemporary with a degree in catering and hospitality.
If you want a cook, you should employ one who has cooking qualifications.
Another basic but essential skill to running any business is that of being able to interview prospective employees. If you can employ a cook who cannot make a roux, then your interview skills are in need of a little attention.
This industry would make anybody frantic at times, but there are ways to minimise the problems.
Chris Woolley
Broomfield hotel, Bolton, Lancashire.
