The A-Z of Caterspeak
FOR those of us entrenched in this great industry of ours, it is all too easy to become an unwitting victim of Caterspeak. It is a curious affliction, for it affects not those people who suffer from the disorder, but others attempting to communicate with them.
The extent of this street language in which caterers speak to each other was brought home to me last week in a conversation with a reader. The caller was new to the industry and still bore the youthful flush of optimism that suggests hotelkeeping is both fun and profitable at the moment.
I began to explain how short-lead yield management could boost profitability on long-date firm rack, when the caller interrupted: "Sorry, what does that mean?"
It was clear that I had to start at the beginning. So, for that particular reader, and anyone else who is unfamiliar with Caterspeak, here is my glossary of some of the more commonly used terms.
COACH TOUR BUSINESS: Signal of a hotelier's willingness to accept £15 a night or less for dinner, bed and breakfast.
COST-PLUS: No-lose contract loved by contract caterers because they receive the cost of operations plus a management fee and whatever discounts they can terrorise out of suppliers without the client knowing.
DESKILLING: The new microwave arrives Monday, you leave Tuesday.
DISCOUNTING: The now politically incorrect practice of having a flexible pricing policy.
EFFICIENCY SAVINGS: You're out of a job.
ERM: Expression used by restaurateurs when asked if the business will survive another six months.
F&B: Abbreviation for the staple diet of hotel workers (fags and booze).
FLEXIBLE ROSTERING: Device to avoid paying overtime by abolishing the 40-hour working week in favour of the 160-hour month.
MULTI-SKILLING: From now on chefs wash the dishes, waitresses make the beds and the accountant mows the lawn.
PUBLIC RELATIONS CONSULTANT: Inventive title adopted by unemployed journalists to extract not less that £50 an hour from small businesses.
RACK: (i) Room rate hoteliers can only dream of (ii) [On the ~] meeting with bank manager at his request.
RECEIVER: A collector of hotels.
STREAMLINING: Management term to describe distress selling of properties.
TOURIST BOARD: Marketing organisation with double vision when counting tourists.
TOUR OPERATOR: A person who auto-matically insists last year's rates wereextortionately high and that they will have to come down progressively for the next five years.
YIELD MANAGEMENT: Helping staff to fill out Income Support claim forms on the understanding that their living-in allowance will be reduced by the amount of state benefit received. o
