Friday Wrap: A round-up of the week's hospitality news

Las Vegas has always had a dark underbelly due to its historic ties with the mob but news that Caesars Palace has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit involving kitchen workers forced to have sex with supervisors or lose their jobs has to be a new low.

Perhaps in the context of the above the findings of a Caterer poll that women are still struggling to reach the top of the hospitality industry management tree will come as no surprise.

Certainly macho icon Gordon Ramsay made plenty of headlines this week whisking his testosterone heavy charms up across many a newspaper and magazine column.

Eating out guide publisher Harden’s accused him of overstretching himself and letting his high standards slip but the superstar chef’s book Humble Pie turned out to be one of the most popular with Travelodge’s customers. And Consumer foodie magazine Olive’s readers also voted Gordon Ramsay their favourite celebrity chef (and Wozza their least).

For good measure Ramsay also had a pop back at Harden’s saying they were simply trying to be sensationalist and flog a few extra copies of their book.

A case of the famously foul mouthed chef adopting the persona of the pot and calling the kettle black?

Punch drunk?

Scottish pubs and bars faced the sobering prospect of paying for additional late night policing, while Punch Taverns boss Giles Thorley could probably afford his own paramilitary force earning more than £11m a year.

Von Essen became king of the castle with the £12m purchase of Amberley and Peel Hotels made the most of a healthy property market and sold several assets including its Gorge hotel in Bristol.

French farce? French hotel giant Accor decided there simply weren’t enough brands to bamboozle customers with in the market and revived Pullman.

Getting up its own head of steam, Menzies, now under new private equity ownership, paid £54m for eight Thistle hotels.

However not everything was moving as quickly as people would have liked with one flooded Gloucestershire restaurateur complaining her insurance company has been procrastinating about paying out.