BHA fails to recognise importance of budget hotels, says Travelodge exec

Guy Parsons, chief operating officer at Travelodge, has hit out at the British Hospitality Association (BHA) for failing to note the rise of the budget hotels sector.

The rebuttal comes in response to our Editor’s blog about the BHA’s centenary lunch at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

Parsons asks the question in his posting as to whether “budget hotels are leaving the BHA behind”.

Criticising the tone of the speeches delivered at the lunch the Travelodge COO goes on to call for less “self-indulgent” wedding speaking reflecting on the industries past glories, asking for an agenda to take the industry forward.

Parsons, a BHA council member, said the organisation had made the industry sound like “bullied victims” in the face of government legislation.

Parsons claims that the industry will only change its perception if it stopped “speaking like spoilt children” and developed a “dialogue with government on tourism strategy, investment, skills and sustainability”.

At the lunch BHA chief executive Bob Cotton called for new UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to resist the temptation to further regulate the hospitality industry.

Read Guy Parsons full posting on Caterer's Editor's Blog >>

View more news on Travelodge here >>

BHA website >>

By Christopher Walton

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