London's newest hotel is the long-awaited Soho Hotel from boutique operator Firmdale. The hotel, which opens officially next week, is situated in the heart of Soho between Dean Street and Wardour Street. In addition to 85 bedrooms and suites, there are six one- and two-bedroom apartments with their own entrance and private lift; two screening rooms; two drawing rooms and a gym with a personal trainer on site.
Refuel bar and restaurant features a mural illustrating the site's former life as a car park. The restaurant seats 100, with a further 60 at the bar. Executive chef Robin Read will create a monthly changing international menu with a focus on organically grown and seasonal produce.
The Soho has been designed by owner Kit Kemp, and rooms include oversized bed heads, modern furniture and a collection of modern art. Bathrooms are in granite, oak and glass with walk-in showers, double basins and bath products by perfumer Miller Harris. Staff will be dressed by Soho tailor Mark Powell and English knitwear designer John Smedley. General manager is Carrie Wicks, operations director for Firmdale.
www.firmdalehotels.comGender pay gap closes
New research from the Chartered Management Institute has found that women's pay packets are finally catching up with those of their male counterparts.
The institute's survey of almost 22,000 people found that the average salary for female managers had risen by 5% last year, compared with a 4.7% rise in average salaries for male managers.
It also found that, at department manger level, the average female salary breaks the gender gap - £51,854 for women, compared with £50,459 for men.
Findings also showed that the so-called "glass ceiling" was giving way to a "boardroom greenhouse effect" as UK organisations warmed to the idea of women in senior leadership roles. Today 31.1% of the management population is female, compared with 22.1% in 2000 and less than 2% in 1974.
You don't say...
- The capital accounts for half of all overseas visits to the UK
- The London tourism sector employs about 350,000 people - about 10% of the capital's workforce
- There are 26 Michelin-starred restaurants in the capital
- Between one-third and two-fifths of the 47,000 hospitality businesses in London have difficulty finding staff
London creates £3.5m action plan for better staff
The London Development Agency (LDA) is investing £3.5m over the next four years to create top-quality chefs, hotel managers, tour guides and other hospitality, tourism and leisure staff in London.
The LDA action plan is part of its work to attract more high-spending visitors to the capital, especially business tourists.
The agency has run pilot projects with several high-profile organisations, including Conran Restaurants and the Hyatt Regency London - the Churchill hotel. During the courses, frontline catering staff learned how to improve their skills in Champagne pouring, cigar choice, cocktail making and meat carving. The pilots have all been endorsed by the Academy of Food and Wine Service, which promotes professional service standards for food, wine and bar staff.
New in town
Simon Woodroffe, the man who taught us steak-and-kidney-pie-scoffing Brits to love little plates of raw fish being whizzed around a restaurant on a conveyor belt, has finally launched his much anticipated Yotel - a Japanese-style capsule hotel. The first glimpse of the "radical hotel" was unveiled at the 100% Design show at Earls Court earlier this month. Yotel aims to offer its customers four- to five-star quality for about £75. Yotel bedrooms feature rotating beds, techno walls, sophisticated lighting and a flat screen TV complete with a choice of 100s of films and CDs. All rooms will also have wi-fi access. What will really make Yotel different to anything ever seen in London before, however, is its windows, which are internal. All windows look into the corridors, which are naturally lit through reflective mechanisms and the channelling of light. Yotel management says this allows the hotel to "boldly go where other hotels simply can't", even underground!
If you're looking for a new way to unwind after a busy day at work. Starwood Hotels & Resorts has opened just the bar for you. The company has opened a Shisha Bar within its SkyBar at the Sheraton Skyline hotel at Heathrow. For £10, novices and experts alike can relax with a hookah pipe and enjoy eight different flavoured shishas. Originating in the Middle East, shisha is a tobacco mixed with molasses and fruit flavours. The hookah consists of a hollow glass base filled with water, a vertical pipe topped with a clay bowl for the shisha and coal, and a hose. To smoke the pipe you suck on the hose, smoke is drawn down the pipe and through the water, which cools and filters it. The pipe also makes a peaceful bubbling sound, which will take you right back to those groovy sixties!
Seafood restaurant chain Fishworks will open its fifth and largest restaurant at 89 Marylebone High Street later this year. The restaurant looks set to open at the beginning of November. Roy Morris, Fishworks' chief executive, said: "We are absolutely delighted to become part of the fabulous Marylebone village environment. The style, foodie focus and the people living in and visiting this villagey area so suits the Fishworks' offering." The restaurant will be Fishworks' second venture in London, it also has a restaurant in Chiswick.
Corus Hotels has just finished a £11m refurbishment of its hotel on Hyde Park.
Some 209 of the hotel's bedrooms and meeting rooms - as well as the Hydes restaurant - have been completely renovated in a bright contemporary style in this latest phase of the massive refurbishment. Previously, all the property's public areas and its remaining 191 bedrooms were renovated. The company has also embarked on an on-going staff development and training programme.