What the weekend papers say

M&C to manage new Shanghai hotel
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels has been awarded the management contract for the five-star Millennium Hongqiao Shanghai. The 350-room hotel is scheduled to open next year. – The Times, 19 November

Hot food returns to Scottish trains
Commuters are to be offered hot food by Scotland's main train operator for the first time in 15 years. Bacon rolls will make a comeback as First ScotRail extends catering to daytime services next month after acquiring four trains with buffet areas. – The Scotsman, 19 November

Punch offers to take on Spirit pension deficit
Punch Taverns, led by Giles Thorley, is preparing a £2.5b knockout bid for rival pubs operator Spirit that will include an agreement to take on Spirit's debts of about £400m and plug its £80m pensions deficit. – The Observer, 20 November

Pubs face quick shutdown for being unruly
Pubs across the country which stay open too late or fail to take proper security measures face being closed down within seven days under a tough new regime introduced by ministers. The crackdown on unruly establishments comes into effect this week under a "one strike and you're out" policy which hands new powers to police and local authorities. – Sunday Telegraph, 20 November

Pub group will make £33m from longer drinking hours
A report by Goldman Sachs on Mitchells & Butlers, which operates about 2,000 pubs, says the company is likely to be a “major beneficiary” of the new late night drinking laws. The report states: “Our calculations suggest the potential [operating profit] upside could be as high as £33m.” – Sunday Times, 20 November

MPW says Britain does not have world’s best restaurants
Marco Pierre White has savaged British cooking and the diners who put up with it, saying Britain could not claim to have "the world's best restaurants" and instead brands food "depressing" and "totally unacceptable". He argues that Britain still had "an atrocious food culture"; that young chefs "all just want to be celebrities”. – Sunday Telegraph, 20 November

Former Macdonald Hotels director to sue for sex discrimination
A former director of corporate affairs of Macdonald Hotels who claims she was paid £50,000 a year less than male colleagues in equivalent roles has launched a ground-breaking legal battle against Scotland's biggest hotel chain. Elizabeth Irons, 35, blames the company's founder and executive chairman, Donald Macdonald, for her unfair treatment. – Scotland on Sunday, 20 November

Hospital cancer patients block booked into hotels
Patients at University College hospital in London will be moved out of wards and put up in nearby hotels under plans to save tens of millions of pounds on hospital beds. More than 100 patients have already stayed at the Radisson Edwardian Grafton. Despite the high cost of the accommodation, it is cheaper for patients to stay in the hotel than in hospital. A bed on a cancer ward costs between £500 and £600 a night. – Sunday Times, 20 November

Starbucks to open 1,800 new stores worldwide
Starbucks is opening another 1,800 new stores this year. This is more than the Seattle-based group has ever opened in a single year before. Just under one-third of the new stores will outside the US, the company said. Starbucks already dominates the UK coffee house market with about 500 stores. – Independent on Sunday, 20 November

Tax man warns pubs of flying inspections
HM Revenue & Customs, the newly merged tax authority, has written to tens of thousands of pub landlords warning that they may be raided by tax inspectors without warning. The letter, sent to 30,000 landlords, reads: "We are carrying out a programme of visits to VAT registered public houses. You may get a visit over the next six months and some of these visits will be made without an appointment.” – Sunday Telegraph, 20 November

Scottish restaurants face fine for not displaying smoke-ban signs
Scottish restaurateurs face fines of up to £200 for failing to display no-smoking signs, even if they long ago banned lighting up. The new measure, which comes into effect when the smoking ban becomes law next March, means that many of Scotland's leading restaurants will be forced to hang garish signs roughly the same size as a piece of A4 paper. – Scotland on Sunday, 20 November

Blackstone put more hotels on the market
A collection of hotels are about to be put on the market again, as Blackstone, the private-equity firm, prepares to sell most of its current European hotel assets, worth between €320m and €350m. The group is understood to be close to selling its Marriott hotels in Munich and London’s Grosvenor Square, as well as its Nikko hotel in Düsseldorf, Germany, acquired in 2003. – The Business, 20 November

Five-star Dublin hotel lost €3m last year
Dublin’s five-star Westin hotel made a loss of more than €3m last year, confirming poor trading at the upper end of the market. The hotel has racked up losses of more than €17m since it opened in September 2001, - Sunday Times (Irish edition), 20 November

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