The payment of the national living wage of £7.20 an hour to all staff over 25 years old at the Whitbread-owned Costa coffee shops will mean price rises for customers when it kicks in next April.
This is the warning from the £4.6 million a year (£383 an hour) Whitbread chief executive Andy Harrison who is paid more than 50 times the living wage out of the huge profits to be made from selling a £2 plus product with a 10 pence ingredient cost. Continue reading
The organising committee of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics have withdrawn their recently-designed logos, with considerable loss and embarrassment, after Belgian designer Olivier Debie claimed they were close copies of a logo he had designed for a Belgian theatre, and threatened legal action for plagiarism.
The committee originally contested the allegation, noting that the theatre logo was not trademarked and in any case stating their conviction that their version was an original design. Their designer, Kanjiro Sano also denied plagiarism. Continue reading
Those still believing that review websites such as Tripadvisor offer only honest customer opinions of restaurants should know that such establishments are being offered positive reviews for £4 each.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph the MD of London restaurant Gauthier, Soho, James Lewis, was contacted by a Mr Suhayal Malik offering this service recently, and which he declined. However Lewis has warned that there are companies now set up to provide fake glowing reviews on review websites, this deception made easier by the fact that Tripadvisor don’t scrutinise entries especially carefully, nor ask for proof that a visit has ever been made. Continue reading
The panto of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves has been re-named Snow White and her Seven Friends for its presentation at the De Montford Hall in Leicester.
The theatre’s management say that they changed the title to avoid offending any of their customers uncomfortable with the word “dwarves” And rather than having real dwarves in the production they are having children play the parts of Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful and Dopey. Continue reading
The deaths of eleven members of the public at the Shoreham Air Show has finally persuaded our Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) that it is probably not a good idea to have aeroplanes doing stunts over land areas where people might be. Accordingly acrobatics over land by vintage jet aircraft have now been banned in Britain, for the time being at least.
The PR department at the British Air Display Association (BADA), whose members make money from air shows, has been quick to attempt a positive spin on the tragedy, claiming inaccurately that the last time any members of the public were unlucky enough to be killed at a UK air show was nearly 63 years ago in 1952. This was the year that a de Havilland jet broke apart in the air at the Farnborough Air Show killing the pilot and observer on board, and the crashing parts, in particular one engine that broke in half, then killed 29 spectators on the ground. In fact six passengers and their pilot also died at the Biggin Hill Air Show in 1980, 35 years ago, when a Douglas Invader, attempting a rolling climb, crashed in a valley, very close to a housing estate. So much for PR. Continue reading
o Some pocket-friendly hotels in the USA are showering guests with freebies, according to the International New York Times. Continue reading
Organisers looking for a five-star golf venue in Portugal, perhaps away from the Algarve, will want to check out the Hotel Quinta da Marinha Resort. This is located in a rural setting just outside the very pretty coastal town of Cascais, 25 kilometres west of Lisbon, in an area that has been dubbed “Portugal’s Beverly Hills”.
The hotel has its own 18-hole, par 71 Robert Trent Jones course with driving range, pitching area, putting green, equipment hire and pro teacher for lessons and clinics. For those who like to play on more than one course there is another one adjacent, one in nearby Estoril a few kilometres away and four more within 20 kilometres. On-site for golfers are 40 one and two-bedroom villas with the option of self-catering. Continue reading
Organisers wanting to get their delegates doing something physical, or cerebral, for purposes of serious team-building or just serious fun have a number of options we explored on our recent press trip to the Belgian capital, courtesy of visitbrussels. Continue reading
Claims that some restaurants and groups keep service charges that diners believe are shared among the waiting staff have sparked calls for changes in the practice of tipping.
Under fire in the media has been French chain Cote, who refute the claims, but the row has focused attention on tipping. On the one hand are those who say that the waiting staff are underpaid by their employers for what they do and rely on the generosity of restaurant customers to make up their wages with tax-free cash tips. Others say that the restaurants should pay their staff better and not rely on them being compensated for their employer’s meanness by their customers. Continue reading
Event organisers are invited to join a complimentary three-day, two night familiarisation trip to Leeds, the Leeds Big Sleepover 2015.
This takes place Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 October, organisers are welcome to bring colleagues, partners or clients and there will be opportunities for individual inspections of chosen venues as well as a programme of hosted meals and entertainment.
Applications to Web: leedsbigsleepover.co.uk