Hospitality Roundup – February 2020
Welcome to the second Hospo Roundup, where I will cover some news and upcoming changes in the hospitality industry.
Funny, sad, inspiring you to name it. I will continue to try new things and evolve as I am trying to bring you the most value possible. Enjoy!
Article of the month
All these celebrity restaurant wage-theft scandals point to an industry norm (Link)
The latest celebrity-chef-linked wage-theft scandal, with the high-end restaurant Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in Melbourne allegedly underpaying its staff by A$4 million, is the tip of the iceberg for wage exploitation in the hospitality industry.
Blumenthal joins a line of celebrity chefs linked to cases of million-dollar wage theft.
There’s former Masterchef judge George Calombaris’s company underpaying staff by $7.8 million. There’s Shannon Bennett’s Vue de monde restaurant accused of forcing staff to work up to 30 hours of unpaid overtime each week. There’s Neil Perry’s Rockpool Dining Group, accused of “audacious” time-sheet tampering potentially worth up to $10 million in unpaid overtime.
Hospitality News
This London pub has started adding a late-night fee to orders (Link)
Here in London, we’re used to pricy pints. But a fee for drinking after 10 pm? That’s a new one on us. It’s a practice that one London pub has reportedly employed, charging punters around an extra 10 percent, according to a post on Twitter last week. The Ten Bells in Spitalfields – which is better known for being one of London’s most haunted pub's thanks to alleged links to Jack the Ripper – has been freaking out customers for entirely different reasons. After buying a round of three pints at 10.05 pm, Matt Broad was miffed to find an extra £1.95 on his bill, attributed to ‘TB Late Night Pricing’.
Hell in a Handbasket: Budweiser Now Printing Labels Backwards, for Legibility in Selfies (Link)
Impala raises $20 million to build the API of the hotel industry (Link)
The company is building a service that works pretty much like Plaid, but for hotel rooms. The hotel industry relies on old-school “property management systems” to manage rooms, room types, pricing, extras, taxes, etc. Instead of asking hotels to switch to an entirely different property management system, the company is upgrading those systems with a modern API. This way, you can build applications that query hotel data directly with a few lines of code. You get a standardized JSON response from the API.
Websites That Work: How Fastbooking Helps Hotels Acquire Customers (Link)
Jean-Luc Chrétien, Co-CEO of Fastbooking, sits down with hosco.tv to talk about the technological and digital services that his company offers independent hotels today—and why AccorHotels acquired it last year. Prior to taking the reins at Fastbooking, Chrétien worked for AccorHotels for 30 years, where he developed an expertise in hotel sales, distribution, and customer loyalty. Today he helps hotels develop their businesses on the web via two different services—technology and marketing.
This move reflects a trend in the fast-food industry toward “natural” and socially conscious foods. McDonald's said last year that its switch from frozen to fresh beef for its Quarter Pounders led to a spike in its burger sales for the first time in five years. And at the end of January, Popeyes became the latest major chain to sign onto the Better Chicken Commitment, which mandates higher welfare standards for poultry used in chains' food.
A Waiters Life
Hawksmoor Manchester: Diners given £4,500 red wine by mistake (Link)
Astonishing moment waiter falls over carrying four meals but keeps hold of ALL the plates (Link)
Massachusetts waitress stunned by $7400 tip left by billionaire diner (Link)
A Question your guests might have
“People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou
How to spend your break
Book recommendation: The Chimp Paradox: The Mind Management Programme to Help You Achieve Success, Confidence, and Happiness by Dr. Steve Peters (Amazon Link)
The Chimp Mind Management Model is based on scientific facts and principles, which have been simplified into a workable model for easy use. It will help you to develop yourself and give you the skills, for example, to remove anxiety, have confidence and choose your emotions. The book will do this by giving you an understanding of the way in which your mind works and how you can manage it. It will also help you to identify what is holding you back or preventing you from having a happier and more successful life.
Each chapter explains different aspects of how you function and highlights key facts for you to understand. There are also exercises for you to work with. By undertaking these exercises you will see immediate improvements in your daily living and, over time, you will develop emotional skills and practical habits that will help you to become the person that you want to be, and live the life that you want to live.
More from Lost in Hospitality
Hospitality Roundup – January 2020 (Link)
Dark Kitchen – Then end of traditional Restaurants (Link)
I hope you enjoyed these articles as I did. I'm also feeling particularly grateful to have you reading. Thank you for sharing some of your precious time with me each week.
Which section above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Let me know!
Always serving,
– Dan Draper
P.S.
… and hey, before you go. If you wanna leave a Tip: Please kindly subscribe to my Social Media Pages, it helps with visibility. But most important share the message with your friends who may benefit from it.
You May Also Like
From waiter to millionaire mindset (+ my tactic in progress)
Change is coming, no matter what
