Peter Hancock

A lot of the hotel owners and managers I've met recently expect the Olympic Games to dampen their business this July and August. The fear is that UK residents will head for London and overseas while inbound visitors will eschew the areas where no sport is taking place.

I do not have research statistics to support my theory, but my belief is that a great many of those who live in or close to London, once they start to experience a few inconveniences caused by the games, will be desperate to avoid crowded trains, blocked roads and airport queues and will make a last minute decision to head out into the British countryside for a few days. And what a sensible decision that will be, with hundreds of lovely towns and villages served by great places to eat and stay.

Along with VisitEngland's "Holidays at home are great" campaign, the possibility of thousands of London escapees looking for a room could bring welcome cheer to domestic tourism this summer. 

The news has lately concentrated a great deal on the perceived weaknesses of the coalition government, citing such things as the Conservatives' cosy relations with the Murdoch empire and an uninspiring Queen's Speech as examples of failure. Many commentators have complained that not enough is being done to grow the economy or create jobs and that the deficit reduction programme is causing unnecessary pain.

It is quite right for journalists and the opposition to needle away, that is an important part of their remit, but I'm sure there must be lots of people who feel, as I do, that the coalition under David Cameron's leadership is doing rather a good job in absolutely appalling circumstances. So vast is the national debt (now measured in trillions of pounds and growing daily) it is almost incredible that business is carrying on so normally. The last budget represented relatively minor tweaks to the tax regime while our friends in Greece and elsewhere face misery and uncertainy like never before. Most importantly, we still have low interest rates which result from the money markets having confidence in George Osborne's deficit reduction programme.

Perhaps because of the way policies have been presented in recent decades, many people now believe that governments can solve problems by spending money. In fact, they are much better at causing problems, especially when they spend money we don't have. Economic growth and real jobs can't be manufactured in Whitehall, they are both reliant on profitable businesses doing well. Without the profits from business, there would be no jobs and no public money so all any government can do to "stimulate" the economy is to try to remove some of the obstacles that earlier governments have placed in the path of entrepreneurs. Cutting the rate of corporation tax is one welcome example of this, reducing VAT on hotel accommodation would be another.

So let us hope the coalition lasts and that this government has the courage to promise less, do less and spend less than its predecessors. Well run businesses can take care of the rest.

Polo is probably called "the sport of kings" because it's so terribly expensive to take part. Not only do you need a string of horses in perfect condition and the means to transport them but even if your team wins the prize is usually a silver cup and a pat on the shoulder from whichever member of the aristocracy is dishing them out that day.

What a privilege, then, to be able to watch a top polo challenge taking place and enjoy a fantastic lunch in beautiful surroundings for just £75. Yes that's what Hospitality Action - our industry charity - has laid on for anyone who would care to join us on Sunday September 9th 2012 at the Beaufort Polo Ground near Tetbury in Gloucestershire, right next to Westonbirt Arboretum.

The day includes a champagne reception, 3 course lunch prepared by four leading chefs from the region (Martin Burge of Whately Manor, Hywel Jones of Lucknam Park, Michael Croft of Calcot Manor and Sam Moody of the Bath Priory) wines, afternoon cream tea and of course the polo itself. You can expect to meet a couple of hundred people, many from the hospitality industry, and the knowledge that profits are going to help those from the hotel and catering trade who find themselves in crisis.

Please book your place (a table of ten costs just £700) by calling Guiliana Vittiglio on 020 3004 5504 or visit www.hospitalityaction.org.uk

An advantage of being an honorary "St Julian Scholar" is the ability to go to the organisation's seasonal conferences. The latest took place at Lucknam Park Hotel, about 10 minutes from my home in Wiltshire and one of the most luxurious country house hotels in England. Attending were about 40 General Managers from leading hotels, all alumni of the top hotel management schools in the UK, Europe and USA. My simple task was to do a few introductions and keep us to the timetable.

We received inspiring presentations from Springboard, The Edge hotel training school & Cranfield school of management and fascinating insight from the company that compiles the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to work for. But it was a presentation by Karen Plumb from Tripadvisor that generated by far the most questions. Tripadvisor has quickly become the hottest potato in the hotel industry: loved, loathed and feared in equal measure because of its tremendous power to influence customers and the many opportunities it offers to those with a motive for posting false reviews. Despite the strength of opinions in the room I am pleased to say the scholars retained their legendary courtesy and Ms Plumb batted the many questions with a practised ease. The message was pretty clear, look after your guests brilliantly and the good reviews will follow.

Best of all...there was not a single mention of the Olympics!

If you are thinking of attending Hotelympia this year - it's at the Excel Centre in London's Docklands from Feb 26th to March 1st inclusive, see www.hotelympia.com - please try to make Tuesday Feb 28th the day you come.

That's because the organisers have entrusted me with hosting a panel discussion on THE STAGE at 2pm with three leading hoteliers: Stephen Carter, Robin Hutson and Richard Ball, all of whom have had the distinction of being voted "Hotelier of the Year" by the readers of Caterer & Hotelkeeeper magazine. Hecklers are especially welcome, so long as they have a good question for our panellists.

Later that day (4pm) I shall be interviewing Sir David Michels about his role as the new President of the Institute of Hospitality as well as his varied experience in some of the country's top boardrooms.

Oh yes, and there might be one or two stands with interesting things for sale.

An important challenge befell the members of our  board the other day when the four PR agencies whom I had invited to pitch for our business made their presentations, one after the other, and took questions from the hoteliers in the room to establish which was best suited to handle Pride of Britain's PR over the next few years.

Because we are a consortium of 43 independent hotels, the chosen agency needs to be able to adapt to the needs of a wide variety of establishments, whilst helping us to boost the reputation and recognition of the brand itself. Yes, 30 years on and incredibly there are still people who have never heard of us.

All of the shortlisted companies impressed us with their knowledge, enthusiasm, grasp of modern communications and understanding of the workings of the media. One had to be selected and so we went for the people who seemed most attuned to our peculiar ways but in truth I doubt we would have regretted taking on any of them.

What interested me greatly was the range of aswers to the question "how should we expect to measure your success?" The fact is that the results of good PR, like much of marketing in general, can be a devil of a job to quantify. Some might look at the number of column inches in newspapers achieved and try to calculate what that would have cost as paid-for advertising. Apparently this is no longer regarded as a the way to judge the outcome, since merely being mentioned in one publication could drive far less business than a really interesting piece in another. Also, we know that introducing journalists to a new property is no guarantee of a favourable write up - the best of them have too much integrity at stake. And now the bribery act has been passed I suppose we must rely on good hotel-keeping to win them over!

Going for Gold was the title of this year's General Managers' Conference organised by the Master Innholders. It took place at The Hilton on Park Lane in January.

Once again I was fortunate enough to attend and to play a small part in the proceedings as chair of the first day - a real pleasure as the programme was packed with interesting speakers like Danny Meyer and Lord (Sebastian) Coe. The man behind all this was Jonathan Raggett, Managing Director of Red Carnation Hotels and himself a Master Innholder. His instructions were very clear: make it fun and keep us to the timetable. From the reaction of the 440 delegates present I think he achieved both, giving next year's organiser an even tougher challenge.

The high point for me came when our penultimate speaker had left the stage and we were awaiting the arrival of Lord Coe. Alone in front of the distinguished audience I had no option other than to stand there telling jokes until the great man appeared. And that is why, on entering the ballroom, his Lordship was confronted by my voice over the PA system concluding a little story with the words "bollocks to Churchill". What must he think of us?

Next year it's going to be at the Grosvenor House, presumably with the ever expanding attendance in mind. If the numbers do continue to rise, a sure sign of success most would say, then I would advocate longer breaks. As a networking opportunity the GM's conference is second to none...provided you can grab a moment with everybody you want to see.

In the meantime it's one gold medal for Mr Raggett and the organising committee.

Compared with the mass distribution afforded to a Tweet or Facebook post, this little blog is but a quiet backwater. A cul de sac. A place where few venture even by accident and so ideal for a little tete a tete with you, safe in the knowledge that nobody else will read these comments. I hope you are good at keeping secrets.

My job is to market a collection of lovely hotels using every tool at our disposal, both online and offline. Last week we held our annual conference and received wonderful encouragement from our 43 member hoteliers who seemed very interested in the many new digital marketing initiatives we have embarked upon. I confess to feeling quite chuffed by this, and have occasionally allowed myself a moment of hubris when looking over some of our creative work like new designs for the web site or e-flyer. What could be better than reaching hundreds of thousands of individuals at the touch of a button? How impressed they will all be when they see what we've sent them!

Today came stark reality. My colleagues and I had waded through our e-mails as usual and been confronted by loads of beautifully crafted web pages. No comment. Click, click, move on to the next one. Then the post arrived and with it a hand-written card from one of our customers. Everyone stopped to read it. "What a nice man" said one, "Doesn't it make you proud to work here?" said another. Yes, it does. By their very rarity, cards and letters have acquired a new status. By being just a teeny bit more trouble to write and send, they imply to you, the recipient, that you are a very important person indeed.

Just like this blog, they are dedicated to a very select few.

Until this week I had accepted without question our country's relatively high rate of VAT as an inevitable part of the coalition government's vital drive to get on top of our shocking, and still spiralling, national debt. That was before I had listened to the case for a lower rate specifically for accommodation as argued by the British Hospitality Association (BHA).

Most other countries in Europe have a lower rate of tax than we do on accommodation. This means we are comparatively expensive and therefore less competitive. A lower rate for hotels and other lodging here would enable prices to fall and we could then attract more customers, doing more business with our suppliers and employing more staff along the way. This is a "win win" for the economy and would get us closer to achieving the Prime Minister's ambition to see the UK move up the ranking as a tourist destination and close the gap between what foreign visitors spend here and what we spend abroad. Critically, it would almost certainly increase the amount of tax collected from the hospitality industry whilst getting unemployed young people into work.

I support our government's deficit reduction programme and hope ministers can be persuaded that a lower rate of VAT on accommodation would actually help us all.

So, the British public have kicked the Alternative Vote proposal into the long grass. We can now look forward to elections continuing to be based on 'one person one vote' and whoever gets the most votes in any constituency wins. As an meercat puppet advertising insurance might say, "simples!"

But it isn't just politicians who rely on votes for their trade. Hotel consortia like Pride of Britain are really clubs, with the members (the owners and managers of the hotels in the collection) entrusted with the job of voting for or against the admission of new members with the single aim of preserving the integrity of the brand, or club. We use this system every time a hotel gets past our inspectors and is therefore deemed worthy to be recommended to all members in a ballot.

At first I found the whole palava rather frustrating, it went against my earlier experience in a profit-driven business where getting customers was always the top priority. But as time has gone by I have come to value this element of democracy more and more. What better guarantee of quality could be invented? And as the consortium evolves so do the factors that our members think about when deciding how to vote.

So far this year I have turned away a small fortune in fees from potential member hotels and sponsorship - at least enough to pay for two weeks in the Goring's Royal Suite - all because we observe this democratic approach. We may not grow the consortium very quickly like this, but everyone who gets in knows they have satisfied the hardest critics of all.

You don't need me to tell you about the important work done by Hospitality Action - helping those from within our trade who have fallen on hard times or who have suffered some terrible setback.

Raising money for Hospitality Action has been a labour of love for many in our trade over the years, some devoting a great deal of their personal time to this vital business. We should also acknowledge the generosity of several companies who support HA through their membership, sponsorship and other donations.

Well, yours truly is lucky enough to have rubbed shoulders with some of these people and I'm hoping to do so again on May 24th when everyone on the South West fundraising committee attempts to cycle from Whatley Manor to Lucknam Park in Wiltshire (feel free to sponsor me if you like!). This is just the start of a big "Cyclathon" involving Pride of Britain Hotels, Relais & Chateaux, von Essen and Best Western among others. Teams will cycle from one hotel to another, or a series of them, each attracting their own sponsorship going directly  to Hospitality Action.

If you are averse to strenuous excercise then perhaps a gentle stroll through the gardens at HRH The Prince of Wales's home at Highgrove is more to your taste? Join us on 10th May if you can. The day starts with an early lunch at Lucknam Park. To buy your ticket please contact Astrid@hospitalityaction.org.uk

There is also to be a glorious Polo Day on September 11th at the famous Beaufort Polo Ground near Tetbury and anyone can come. The cost is £100 per person to include a fine day's polo plus a 3 course lunch prepared by leading chefs from the region. I'll be there stuffing my face as usual - all in a very good cause!

In a newspaper article last weekend the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire claimed that the success of ITV's Downton Abbey has given a great boost to the popularity of Britain's stately homes as places to visit.

This is excellent news for us all because our country has so many great places to visit, including the 350 historic houses and gardens, ancient monuments, nature reserves and parks in the care of the National Trust. More visits to all of them means more business for hotels and restaurants nearby.

But it isn't only Downton Abbey we must thank. The King's Speech has revived interest in Great Britain on a massive scale, as has the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton. Are we witnessing a tourism renaissance, almost entirely resulting from luck? I do hope so. When people in the trade talk about tourism they very often focus on the funding awarded to the various bodies who promote different regions and compare the rates of VAT in different countries. These things matter, of course, but they matter less than the fundamental motive that makes tourists go where they do: the prospect of an enjoyable experience.

Perhaps we should add the writers of these blockbusters to our already impressive list of National Treasures?

"Marketing means more business" was the theme of this year's National Hotel Marketing Conference, which took place on Feb 17th at the Royal Horseguards Hotel in London, and it certainly lived up to its title.

The conference organiser, Martin Evans, kindly invited me to speak about the general issues facing hotel marketeers and my amateur slot was followed by an impressive range of expert speakers, all of whom gave hard, practical advice to their audience of hoteliers and travel industry professionals. We came away with lots of ideas - I'll be implementing some of them at Pride of Britain straight away - to stay ahead of the competition in our fast changing world. Much emphasis was placed on the digital marketing tools of course but we also learned about customer care, selling over the phone and even a success story that still relies on good old print and paper.

This was the first time I had attended the NHMC. It will not be the last!

So, the Government is to withdraw its support for the Quality Assessment Scheme - stars to you and me.

Does it matter? We still have the AA which has managed the job for a hundred years without troubling the chancellor and, as many have commented, Tripadvisor is to some extent taking the place of official ratings anyway. But hang on a minute...aren't hoteliers all up in arms about the "unfair" reviews people can so freely post about their businesses?

From conversations with quite a lot of owners and managers I have noticed most are surprisingly relaxed about all this. Sure, the odd caustic comment gets them rattled but so long as the majority of posts are favourable, which they should be if a hotel is well run, no real harm is done. As to stars, the concensus seems to be that they are fading in importance in the eyes of customers. For that we can't entirely blame Tripadvisor. The star rating systems are of limited value in terms of telling customers what sort of experience they are likely to have - think of the massive variety of establishments that display 4 stars - whereas a brand name such as Hotel du Vin, Best Western or Relais & Chateaux gives more than a hint about the style, price and level of luxury you can expect. In the case of Pride of Britain Hotels we hope our customers associate the name with outstanding hospitality, whatever the star rating.

Anyway, the plot thickens! Because guest houses and B&Bs can also now qualify for up to 5 stars they often appear among the top results for locations on Tripadvisor, ahead of fully fledged hotels that offer more and charge more but may have fewer stars. Some say this is misleading and shows that an imperfect rating system is now compounded by the way these ratings are applied to third party review sites.

One thing I can guarantee. The most highly rated establishments will continue to refer to their "five star" status long after any schemes are scrapped - it's part of their identity. We'll see their light for years after the stars themselves have ceased to exist. Just like the real thing, in fact.

Anyone lucky enough to get a place at the recent Master Innholders' General Managers' Conference might by now be in a state of worry about the future. This is because several of the expert contributors had warnings for the UK hotel industry which, if not heeded, could lead to our certain demise.

The warnings included facing up to rapid economic expansion in Asia, adapting to changing patterns of consumer behaviour and the explosion in the use of social media, not only for promoting your business to customers but also for customers to tell the world and his wife whether it's any good!

I have been attending this conference for a few years and have noticed that much more of the content is now related to marketing than in the past. It is pretty much taken for granted that the attendees (largely successful operators in the luxury category) have already mastered the art of hospitality, hence the concentration on maintaining a competitive edge by other means. And because the whole event is run by hoteliers for hoteliers the programme can't be hijacked by outside commercial interests. This, I think, is the secret of the success of this extraordinary annual event. Long may it continue.