Breakfast Briefing - The latest hospitality news
Quote of the Week
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends"Martin Luther King, Jr. Tweet of the Week
@designboom tweeted:China are building a terrifying 'invisible' glass bridge and dizzyingly high hotel. Suspended 300 metres high between two mountains, visitors will be offered the option of booking overnight stays in the three pavilions’ “exclusive VIP suites”. To view the full tweet, click here News of the Week
Harbour & Jones takes Christmas Jumper Day to the next level of creativity for Save the Children
Leading events and catering company, Harbour & Jones created a fun and innovative way to celebrate Christmas Jumper Day, whilst raising over £1,000 for Save the Children. The sales and marketing team came up with a novel Christmas ‘Carol’ theme to mark the festivities. As well as embracing traditional jumpers, each team member was allocated a famous celebrity Carol to dress up as including Carol Voderman, Carol Kirkwood, CAROLine Flack and even 1980s comedy star Bob CAROLgees. Bespoke printed sweatshirts proudly displayed each participant’s photo of their chosen Carol, which also included social media handles to help share the fun initiative online. Harbour & Jones staff also took the opportunity to reach out on Twitter to the famous Carols themselves, with additional tweets to BBC breakfast, BBC Radio 1 and Eastenders. The team at Harbour & Jones were delighted to be retweeted by Carols Vorderman, Decker and Smillie. To add an extra special element to the festive day, Harbour & Jones adapted the traditional Christmas carol Deck the Halls, writing their own lyrics. These included “We bring to you our Christmas Carols” and “All decked out in hot apparel”. Nathan Jones, Company Director and Co-Founder of Harbour & Jones (who dressed as Carol Vorderman for the day), commented: “We take pride in being able to help charities which support critical situations happening around the world. Christmas Jumper Day was a perfect excuse for employees to express creativity and festive fun whilst being able to raise awareness of the Save the Children campaign. We are pleased to have raised over £1,000 to donate to Save the Children.” Read more
Story of the Week
HOSPITALITY WORKERS GET JUST 5-6 HOURS SLEEP A NIGHT OVER CHRISTMASOn the back of research revealing that hospitality workers sleep on average just 5-6 hours a night, the UK’s leading distributor has been helping its customers take back time - An average of 28 hours of overtime will be worked this Christmas by those in hospitality
- Staff will be running on 5-6 hours’ sleep, 2 hours less than recommended
- Over a lifetime in hospitality, workers will miss out on over 120 hours of sleep – five whole days - over the festive period alone
Research carried out by Matthew Clark the UK’s leading drinks distributor, reveals that this Christmas, bartenders, waiters, hotel staff and chefs will be loading up on overtime with just five to six hours of sleep a night. Worryingly, 64% say that they very regularly miss out on sleep and especially so over the festive period and nearly 10% are getting by on just three to four hours’ sleep. Over a lifetime in hospitality, workers will miss out on over 120 hours of sleep – five whole days - over the festive period alone. The research reveals that those in the industry will be working an extra 28 hours over the festive period. In this time, you could pour 840 pints of Guinness or cook 168 steaks. Ollie Sheridan, Regional Manager of Pubs of Distinction has a long-standing career in hospitality and explains the tasks that take up that extra time: "As a Regional Manager in London for the Pubs of Distinction group, I’m no stranger to long and sometimes antisocial hours – and never more so than at Christmas where I often miss out on parties and gatherings with my friends and family. Despite this, it is the best time of the year to work too – the pubs are always busy and buzzing, and customers are in good spirits. Of course, when we do close, as staff it doesn’t end there; we need to tidy up, cash up, and place our orders. As I carry out regular stock audits on each site, having this information to hand 24/7 saves me quite a lot of time when compared to sifting through piles of invoices looking for that missing bottle of vodka! I will be asking Santa for an extra few hours’ sleep this year!” eHotelier Hospitality News
Trivago goes public: Trivago, a global hotel search platform backed by Expedia, announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 26,110,118 American depositary shares (ADSs) representing Class A shares of its affiliate, travel B.V.* (the Company) at $11.00 per ADS. Find out more Marriott brings festive cheer to global travellers at Hong Kong airport: Marriott International is ringing in the start of the holiday season with the unveiling of a monumental installation at Hong Kong International Airport. A celebration of the holiday travel period, this dazzling installation welcomes passengers to Hong Kong from now until 13 February, 2017. Learn more Overtourism’ poses threat to housing and environment in several major world cities: As global tourism grows at an unprecedented rate, with 2016 experiencing an increase in worldwide outbound trips by over 4.1% annually, the problem of ‘overtourism’ is starting to cause concern for a number of authorities within popular tourist destinations, according to consumer insight firm Canadean. Find out more Global Hospitality News
Relais & Chateaux Tokyo Conference on food related challenges of tomorrow: Through this conference, Relais & Châteaux wished to provide an effective, committed contribution to understanding the planet’s food challenges and the issues facing its members. Learn more Wave of Caribbean M&A shows maturing industry, region: Sources said the recent spurt of mergers and acquisitions in the Caribbean and Mexico points to increasing confidence in the performance of travel in the region and the all-inclusive sector.Find out more Fees trump value in Marriott’s Starwood sales: Hotel analysts share their perspectives on how Marriott International will move forward in selling off Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide-owned assets, following the sale of the St. Regis San Francisco. Read more Deutsche Hospitality structure fuels three-brand growth: Out of the embers of Steigenberger Hotels, the creation of Deutsche Hospitality will, according to its CEO, allow the strategic growth of its brands globally.Find out more Corners of the World
Monarch warns profits will dive by 35% after tough year: Monarch, which was handed a £165 million lifeline by majority owner Greybull Capital two months ago, said earnings for the year to October 31 would be likely to plummet 35% to £48 million. Read more Hotels bridge holiday gap with loyalty perks, low rates: For many hotels, the week between Christmas and New Year’s is slow every year. To combat that, some hoteliers are using brand loyalty rewards programs, discounted room rates and special packages to bring in guests. Find out more Chinese capital’s growing impact on Western hotels: Chinese investment in the Western hotel industry has been building steadily since 2011. Here’s a timeline that looks at how it started and how it has grown. Learn more International hotels set to expand presence in India: International hotel brands are likely to account for 47% share in the Indian hospitality industry by 2020 and 50% by 2022 from the current 44% as they are expanding at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6% against industry growth rate of 6%, ratings agency ICRA has said. Read more