AXIS Hospitality International

A HOTEL IS A PLACE WHERE FOREIGN IS ALWAYS BETTER

DUCASSE BRINGS CONTEMPORARY FRENCH TO THE DORCHESTER

There is probably no hotel more British and traditional than the Dorchester. There is probably no French Chef more French than Alain Ducasse.

Both are at their very best when being either very British.....or very French. Do they belong together? I do not believe that they do! However I do not run the joint and those that do have concluded that it is 'a match'.

Jacques Chirac will of course be very proud. His relatively recent pronouncement about the state of British food has now been all but endorsed by the very institution that should be thumbing its' nose at his comments and promoting the fine culinary attributes of British Cuisine, British Design and the Culinary traditions of Park Lane.

..................or at the very least asking Chef Ducasse to use local ingredients in his interpretation of their very special qualities, as most executive chefs have to do as they travel around the world plying their trade.

Mais non........not only will Ducasse operate in a French designed restaurant, he will also import his Chef, his chicken, the caviar, the black truffles, the pigeon and most of the wines from France.

I may be wrong but it also looks to me like the service plate is from Germany so they are also avoiding British porcelains and fine bone china.

All this at a time when hotels and restaurants the world over are going to extraordinary lengths to explore the locally available ingredients, local artists, local furnishings and local talent.

Now here is a new one! One of their private dining salons has banquette seating and, heaven forbid, rectangular seating for maximum flexibility......and I might add minimum social interaction. They will doubtless be very successful and in spite of their foreign imports, will receive great accolades from all who are able to get a reservation. But it should be more than that. It should have been an extension of their existing traditions, a French interpretation of British values, British traditions....in fact a tribute.

This was a decision that someone made in a boardroom that sounded great and allowed blame to be delegated away but was not one that should have been taken for this property. The Dorchester is an iconic example of British hospitality.

Congratulations Alain, you will do well there...... and deserve to .........but please take some time to pay a little tribute to the traditions of the location and of the ghosts of those that preceded you in those hallowed kitchens on Park Lane.

And Jacques........don't you say another bloody word about this!!

Foreign is not always better! We have escaped, I thought, from the days where 'Continental or French Cuisine' was featured whether one was in Karachi or Kenya....or have we? The days have passed when travellers were looking always for their home food in the hotels where they travelled........ sure the Brits always seem to look for and find Fish & Chips in Spain and Americans their Hamburgers in Paris but we have moved on and now gain great pride from the traditions of the soil.

It is our responsibility to our neighbours, our farmers and our children...plain and simple.

Happy New Year!

A HOTEL IS A PLACE WHERE TOILET PAPER HOLDERS ARE MOUNTED BEHIND THE USER

WE WERE NOT HAPPY WITH SINK STOPPERS THAT DON'T...... OR NIPPLE HIGH SHOWER HEADS... AND SLIPPERY PANTS CLOTHES HANGERS

Now we have come up with a new one!  Toilet paper holders that are hung where no human hands can reach.

It is one amusing thing after another.  First they teach the maids to fold the first toilet sheet into the shape of a rocket. Now they have taught the installer to find the one place in the bathroom where it is physically unreachable.

The sequel to this will be that someone will introduce a swivelling toilet seat.

  PUUUHLEASE, gimme a break. Enough already!

We have been designing and redesigning bathrooms for centuries. Can't we figure out some basic principles of design that really work, that are user-friendly and that everyone follows? Let's face it, a two-star customer is not that different from a five-star customer when in the bathroom and their needs are more or less similar.

Here are my Top Ten Rules for hotel bathroom design.

1. Double sink. You can give me 3 sinks in the bathroom but please give me one where the sink stopper works.
2. Showed height. Mount the shower head at a level of 80" from the floor beneath. Gravity will do the rest, I promise you.
3. Readable Shampoo Bottle. Please increase the font size on the shampoo bottle. I know the name of the hotel where I am staying. I don't care what brand it is.....just make the product readable without having to find my reading glasses or install my contact lenses.
4. Toilet holder location. Place the toilet paper holder within reach and eyesight of the user. Please refrain from shaping the first sheet into rockets.......!
5. Shower temperature Controls. Showers that require running to get the right temperature should not be aimed at the user.....or the open shower door......or the towel rack.
6. Tubular Hairdryers. Hairdryers designed by a plumber are useless......even if they have concertina mirrors and electrical plugs that fit every known electrical appliance even if it was built in Kabul.
7. Soap size. One ounce soap bars wrapped in two ounce paper wrappers are a joke.
8. Re-Use the towels. I do not mind using the same towel again tonight......just wash it and bring it back!
9. Bathrobe size. Most of your customers do not have 32" waists or less. Your bathrobes therefore resemble hospital gowns on most of us........make them larger.
10. Toiletseat design. Toilet seats are manufactured differently for males and females. Unless you only deal with ladies, choose a seat that works for both.

And for my 11th........If the shower is in the bath, ensure that the floor is not rounded. If it is, the 'showeree' will be facing in the wrong direction and can not turn around. A well rounded bath will mean that the 'showeree' is standing on his own foot. This is OK for storks but not for most of us that have appointments in 43'.

For comments on your design plans, contact [email protected]

MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE IS NOT FOCUSED ON HOTEL PROFITS, JUST ACTIVITY.

WHY DO WE STRUCTURE HOTEL MANAGEMENT FOR  ACTIVITY NOT PROFITS?

It really is unforgivable that we focus our hotel management efforts to sell our public meeting space for non-profitable events rather than as a means to fill bedrooms where the real profits are?

Hotel Sales Departments control blocks of rooms and are there to sell bedrooms where, coincidentally, hoteliers make their profit.

Hotel Banquet Departments control meeting and convention space and are there to sell food and beverage events which basically lose money.

If you ask a developer or hotel owner why he builds meeting rooms in a hotel, he will tell you that they are there to fill bedrooms. If you then ask the person in charge of those meeting rooms if your group of 50 rooms guests can meet in the meeting room, he insists on a F&B minimum or $3,000.

Since I do not plan a group food event, I then take my 50 rooms (100 room nights) elsewhere to a location where the meeting room is free. The loss to the hotel in this case,

50 rooms at $125 X 2 nights = $12,500

Gross Profit on rooms 80%    = $10,000

Then our illustrious Banquet Manager takes a banquet and the rooms go empty,

150 persons at $50                  =$7,500

Gross Profit on F & B 30%     = $ 2,250

Now this simple piece of arithmetic is not rocket science. However the 'policy' is real and applied in most large hotels today. I know this because we have been contracted to assist a major US corporation plan events in some 120 cities throughout North America throughout 2008.

The simple truth is that we separate the responsibility for selling group rooms from the management and booking of meeting and convention space; and the latter is typically a food and beverage person, more interested in food cost, average banquet check and keeping his banquet staff busy than in the overall profitability of the property.

The booking and sale of a hotel's public space is in fact a learned science. It is a delicate blend of knowing one's market intimately, anticipating the need for the space and the lead-time for its' booking, packaging the meeting space to fill bedrooms, refraining from booking advance weddings that logjam meeting planners with room blocks. All this having a seasonal factor which changes from Summer to Winter and from Monday thru Sunday.

This is the area where 'yield management' and pricing have the most to gain or lose. This is an area where 'profit engineering' is most valuable. However, GMs and Financial Controllers still measure their Banquet Departments with a combination of Public Rooms & F & B Revenue and do not or will not calculate the contribution that a complimentary meeting room will have on bringing in a profitable chunk of rooms business.

If you think that this makes me mad, imagine what the owner would feel if he knew how badly we were screwing up his profit potential!!

For more caustic comments on the state of the industry, contact [email protected]

WHY BUILD A HOTEL?

THE POOREST COMMON EXCUSES TO BUILD A HOTEL

The reasons that hotels are built are as strange and varied as the people that make these decisions.

The best reason to build a hotel is that one is needed. People want to sleep or stay overnight in a location where there are insufficient bedrooms. It is also reasonable to assume that they will want to do so for about 20 years or so. These things do not move very easily!

Having opened a hotel in Central America that had been built in 6 months on the instructions of the country's president to accommodate an international conference,  I have some inside experience on the subject. It is irrelevant to mention that it was completed in time but the conference went elsewhere due to some social unrest in the country.

As I write this piece, I am staying in a hotel that was built in 18 months in order to accommodate a conference back in 1998........at the same time as I assist the same government today to build a hotel and convention centre to accommodate another conference.

Most hoteliers can tell stories of hotels they have run that were built on the strength of an 'Ego Trip'. These are generally fun projects that are long on imagination and short on profitability. Owners that have very deep pockets or bored, imaginative wives who are just dying to get their hands on a large project to set their decorator juices flowing.

Here are my Top Ten Poor Excuses to build a hotel,

1. "The President made me do it".
2. "It's our turn to host a conference".
3. "My wife has finished decorating the house".
4. "All my friends have one".
5. "My image will be enhanced".
6. "I have run out of walls at home to hang the art".
7. "Build it and they will come".
8. "My son needs a job".
9. "I can't get the money out of the country".
10. "To put my name on the building".

As long as there are hotels being built, there will be operators to operate, chains to provide identity and people like me to 'work out the kinks' and turn sleeping dogs into thoroughbreds.

For more poor excuses on why to build a hotel, contact [email protected]