Salute this challenge to capital congestion
I cannot agree with Michael Gottlieb's gloomy prognosis concerning the effects of the congestion charge on the restaurant trade in London (Caterer, 6 February, page 9).
The extra £5 on his estimated £150 for a night out, would, of course, be insignificant if he had to pay it. However, since the charge applies only from 7am to 6.30pm, he will probably avoid it altogether. There is no charge at the weekends.
As far as on-costs for business are concerned, once again these can be avoided by delivering early in the morning or, with a little care, scheduling deliveries once or twice a week rather than yesterday. Let's hope the charge reduces the gridlock in central London and makes the area much more pleasant for everyone. This should, in turn, lead to more people using and enjoying all the facilities, including restaurants.
I, for one, salute the courage of a politician who is willing to challenge the takeover of our city centres by choking queues of cars and lorries to provide a better environment for human beings.
David Smith, managing director, The Direct Tableware Company, Royston, Hertfordshire
Rewriting the guidebooks
I was interested to read about Johansens (Caterer, 23 January, page 40) since it was with the example of Johansens guides in mind that I established Distinction.
It seemed to me that the success of Johansens had left a gaping hole in the market, as the guides' all-inclusive nature meant that premium hotels were having to compete for space with properties commanding vastly lower room rates.
Nothing wrong with that, of course - not everyone can or wants to pay £200 a night - except that it didn't seem all that helpful to the reader.
Nor is the Johansens reader helped to distinguish between properties by text which, to be polite, always accentuates the positive. As the extracts you printed confirm, the omnibus of hotel write-ups is now full of the same words saying next to nothing. It was to circumvent this problem that we decided that the global title Distinction World, and the web site distinctionworld. com, should carry virtually no text at all.
The response from our participating hotels already indicates that this departure is almost as welcome a relief for them as it was for us.
In the end, the issue is the basis of selection. We decided from the outset to provide a service aimed only at the top-end hotel visitor and, rather than pretend to inspect premises or give marks out of 10, we invite hotels to participate based on our subjective judgement that they are right for our target audience.
It is, of course, essential that our judgement is proved correct but, as Johansens managing director Andrew Warren rightly says, "you can tell within seconds of entering what a hotel is going to be like."
Mark Hodson, chief executive, Ptarmigan Publishing, Devizes, Wiltshire
Booking agents may be an evil of the industry...
We run a policy with hotel booking agents (see "Are booking agents necessary?", Caterer, 30 January, page 18) that we will pay by the 10th of the month following receipt of the invoice. This is accepted by the agents that use us on a regular basis.
There are, however, occasions when agents are paying on behalf of the client yet they hold on to the money far too long.
One of our clients had events all week during November. The total bill came to £13,500, which we received in February. If I held on to agents' commission for as long, how would I be treated by them?
Agents have a great system of putting three to five options to the client, so are holding space with three to five venues. Sometimes a venue undertakes an inordinate amount of chasing to get a decision - often to be told that the client has decided to cancel or go elsewhere.
And does the agent ring the venues where they are holding space? Nine times out of 10, no. But what happens when a hotel doesn't respond quickly enough to enquiries? All hell's let loose.
The relationship between agents and venues seems one-sided. A lot of mending needs to be done within the industry, led by the big players.
Name and address withheld
but we still need them
A "newcomer" to the industry asked if booking agents were necessary (Caterer, 30 January, page 18). As an "old-timer" in the industry, my response is a resounding "yes". No hotel salesperson will agree that we need all agents but, as Angie Mason, chairman of the Hotel Booking Agents Association (HBAA) responded last week (Caterer, 13 February, page 23) there are agents out there who provide a valuable service.
The HBAA started with a charter of commitment for agencies to manage their business with hoteliers in a fair, moral and upfront manner, and it has now formed a Committee of the Charter Partners to strengthen hotels' communication with agents.
Who doesn't understand the frustration in dealing with agency rates, local client rates, rates negotiated through central office and the confusion that this can cause. What I do hope is that, through the expansion of the HBAA, the angry e-mails that the previous letter writer spoke of will be replaced by sensible conversations and mutual agreements to everyone's benefit.
Annie Jones, sales director, Hanover International Hotels
Soundbites
Breakfast offer to London cab drivers
In response to Sue Burgess (Caterer, 6 February, page 22) readers might be interested in what the Whitbread Company does to ensure that the local cabbies know where its new hotels are.
The "Great Cabbies' Breakfast" has been introduced at each new Travel Inn venue for one week, so they can enjoy a complimentary drive-through take-away breakfast.
In the coming months there will be breakfast activities to announce the openings of the new Liverpool, Sheffield, London Docklands (ExCeL) and Heathrow Travel Inns.
Abbey Fletcher, Whitbread PR, London
Different laws for Scots
A number of trade publications based in England fall into the error of forgetting that we, north of the border, have a separate legal system and, in particular, a radically different system of liquor licensing.
When the reforms now proposed were first announced, Caterer suggested these would bring the UK into line with the rest of Europe. In Caterer 1 August 2002, for example, Stephen Moss said that the reforms "would do little to bring in the modern, European-style eating and drinking patterns that the UK needs to adopt". The term UK in this case cannot include Scotland.
Scottish laws are currently under review, but they are different.
Jack Cummins, Editor, Scottish Licensing Law and Practice, Glasgow