An undercover investigation by the Financial Times at a President’s Club fundraising dinner in January at the Dorchester Hotel, London, led to allegations of hostesses being groped by some of the guests and sex workers supplied. Since the details were published the Club has wound up and some charities have refused to accept its donations.

Shortly after this it was revealed that hostesses at the February ICE Totally Gaming conference and exhibition at Excel, London were told to wear “nothing more than swimsuits” to attract buyers (presumably male) to their stands.

All this has brought on tut-tutting attacks of the moral compasses and calls in some of the event trade press to “root out sexism” from our industry, and everyone else’s, but it is left unclear who can or will actually do it. Question is, should the event or exhibition organiser be responsible, and in turn their sponsors and exhibitors? Should it be any trade association behind the event? Or should it be the venue where the event is being held?

Anybody?

A very public row has been running since a blogger on social media asked the owner of a Dublin hotel for a free five-night stay for herself and a partner in exchange for some positive publicity on her website.

Elle Darby,22, who blogs her followers about beauty, lifestyle and travel, sent her email request to Paul Stenson, owner of the Charleville Lodge Hotel, Dublin, who turned her request down, and then obtained publicity for his hotel by publishing the request, and his rejection. Darby, who received abuse from bravely anonymous internet trolls as a result, has published a tearful video entitled “i was exposed (SO embarrassing)” and Stenson has responded by offering his customers T-shirts featuring the row.

Views on the uninspiring spat are polarised. Some feel that Darby overestimated the selling power of her blog and was accordingly naive in asking to be given an expensive five-night stay for two. As a rule most honest event industry journalists writing about hotels are offered just one or occasionally two nights to do the job. Others feel that Darby was also naive in assuming that a hotel highly star-rated for its facilities would not be cursed with poor service and/or terrible food.

However there is also the view that Stenson was gratuitously cruel in the way he rejected Darby’s hopeful approach, which came across to us as just something to boost his ego, something he clearly needs.

Britain’s first women only members club is set to open its doors in a townhouse at Rathbone Place, Bloomsbury, London on March 8, where facilities include meetings rooms, an exhibition area, wellness area, library and beauty bar. Annual membership is £750, founding members include Kathy Burke, Tara Fitzgerald and Naomi Harris and the founders, business women Anna Jones and Debbie Wosskow, say that the club will provide an environment for over-21’s to socialise, network, debate and work out.

Men can only attend as guests, all the wines served are from all-female vineyards and all the cocktails are named after famous women. These could possibly include the delightful Queen Mary 1of England who sadistically had hundreds of male Protestants murdered by burning at the stake for their religious beliefs in the 1550’s, which earned her the nickname Bloody Mary.

Cheers.

o Three hotel groups have been named as supplying freebies to the UK’s serial acceptor of glad-handing, Westminster Council’s deputy leader Robert Davis, who trousered 514 gifts, meals, tickets for events and overseas trips in a three year period.

Hilton gave him a Christmas present of six bottles of wine, Edwardian hotels gifted him Wimbledon centre court tickets and he enjoyed a Spa trip to Mallorca from Hyatt Hotels.

o Travelodge have apologised for branding a 46 year old father a paedophile when he booked a double room for himself and his 14 year old daughter at the Travelodge, Macclesfield.

Karl Pollard booked the room with his daughter Stephanie after being told by the hotel that it was the only one they had left. He needed it to visit his mother who had just been diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer, and the pair had travelled four hours from south Wales for the purpose. After they had checked in a policewoman knocked at the door to advise him that, following a tip-off from Travelodge hotel staff he was being investigated on suspicion of grooming an underage girl.

On the basis that the underage girl was his daughter Travelodge apologised “for getting it wrong” and refunded his room charge. However Cheshire police commented that they had “done the right thing” by reporting what they believed to be suspicious activity, that “thankfully turned out to be a misunderstanding”.

o Blenheim Palace have apologised after organising a Chinese New Year party that was described as “shambolic”, “a farce” and “embarrassingly awful” by some of the guests.

Reportedly the £25 a head bash suffered long queues at the single food truck. The palace said it was the first time they had run the event and that they had been let down by several food vendors.

A stupid decision by precious souls at the Manchester City Art Gallery to remove its famous Victorian painting of Hylas and the Nymphs so as not to offend those who might be offended by the sight of topless young ladies in an artwork has sensibly been reversed after public outcry.

The 1896 painting, by pre-Raphaelite artist John William Waterhouse, shows seven beautiful young water-nymphs, most waist-high in water in which they are trying to entice the handsome and gay Argonaut warrior Hylas to a watery grave in their lily pond, and scupper his place in the search for the golden fleece. As the story goes they succeeded since Hylas, who was sent to fetch water for the Argonaut camp presumably rose to the challenge, was never seen again, and Jason and the rest of the Argonauts sailed on without him.

The work is widely regarded as one of Waterhouse’s finest.

Event show Confex has announced a Future Focus of the London based exhibition to take place in Manchester, July 4-5.

This will be at the Victoria Warehouse, a 1900’s canal-side cotton storage facility located in Old Trafford, west of the city and offering a combined 4,533 square metres of space, including areas for parties and a 20-capacity cinema. There is also a hotel on site with around 30 rooms, many without windows, from £29 a night, room only.