Four top members of staff have left London's five-star Baglioni hotel since it opened three months ago. A source at the hotel, who asked not to be named, said they were made redundant, but the hotel has denied this.
Those who have left are: Stefan Reichelt, food and beverage director; Susan Ostroumoff, executive housekeeper; Michael Cheung, rooms division manager and John Frazer, hotel manager.
The source said their departures had been the result of cost-cutting "bully-boy" tactics and they had all been replaced by newly recruited, cheaper staff.
However, the hotel's general manager, Fabio Gallo, said Reichelt was the only person to have been made redundant and that this was the result of a staffing reorganisation.
Of the others, Gallo said Frazer had asked to be made redundant, Cheung had been offered a better job as operations manager at the Radisson Edwardian hotel in Oxford Street and Ostroumoff had asked to leave.
The 68-bedroom hotel, in Kensington Road, opened on 29 March. It is owned by an Italian family headed by Commendatore Roberto Polito. The family also has eight hotels in Italy and four in France.