Table talk
Moto - the seat with a hole
Moto, the Compass-owned motorway service area chain, flushed all-comers clean away at the Loo of the Year Awards last week. The chain pulled in 42 awards for its service areas - the biggest pile of prizes organisers had ever seen. Managing director Tim Moss said: "The most popular destination at our service areas is the loo. Moto has always pledged to bring the nation clean loos, and that idea has never gone down the pan." Considering that the average person spends the equivalent of three years of his or her life in the toilet, Moss said that the company's rigorous cleaning regime and provision of fresh flowers in loos was "certainly not a bog-standard achievement".
It was just an ugly rumour
After reporting that its falling profits were caused by "a less attractive guest mix" last week, Six Continents' hotels division moved swiftly to avoid a potential public relations blunder. A spokesman firmly denied customers at its upmarket Inter-Continental and Crowne Plaza hotels were becoming increasingly ugly, but said the economic slowdown had led to fewer business guests and flat corporate rates. He said "attractive" should have read "profitable".
Next year, they're putting in a boxing ring
An increase in the numbers of through-the-night rows among weekending couples at a Leeds hotel has prompted the manager to offer a package of peace offerings. Nigel Dibb, at the DeVere Village hotel, said couples who arrive stressed from work and travel are offered end-of-the-corridor bedrooms so they can let rip without disturbing other guests, a 20% reduction in calming treatments in the hotel spa, £5 off flowers to make up the next day, or the loan of a dog to take for a walk and soothe frayed nerves. And if things really get out of hand, there is the offer of two single rooms, subject to availability.
Amazing what some folk will do for a crustacean
Jeremy Probert, Whitbread's public relations manager, was reminiscing about his love of Berni Inn prawn cocktails last week. The fact that Whitbread bought the chain and converted it to its Beefeater brand suggests Probert was not the only Whitbread employee to find the dish appealing.
Keep an eye on the cell-by date
A number of new contract wins were unveiled along with Compass's full-year results last week - TNT, KPMG, the European Commission, and the CCA. "What's the CCA?" one journalist asked. "Corrections Corporation of America," replied chief executive Mike Bailey. That's prisons to you and me. Compass has won a five-year contract worth $60m (£38m) in annual turnover to provide food and vending at 61 US penitentiaries. "It's a captive and growing market," Bailey said.
Hope it's not meatloaf between his ears
As McDonald's chief executive Jack Greenberg announced his retirement last week, Jim Cantalupo replaces him after a brief absence from the board. Cantalupo, 59, is a burger, fries and shake veteran who joined the company in 1974 as a finance controller. He rose through the ranks, and is widely regarded as the architect of McDonald's international business success. "He's an operations guy who's been around a long time," said Dennis Lombardi, a restaurant and food service consultant in Chicago. "He's one of the guys who has ketchup in his veins."
