MONTH IN REVIEW
MONTH IN REVIEW
www.hotelowner.co.uk
TOP 3
FROM THE WEBSITE
1. Ibis ditches check-in desks
with new programme
2. Woman dies following Legionnaires
outbreak at Ludlow hotel
3. Prominent Oxford hotelier
dies at home
ORGANISATION
New hotel
alliance of 500
properties
formed
Some 500 hoteliers have joined a new,
worldwide hotel organisation made up
of privately-owned properties.
It is the merger of two existing hotel
groups – Private Hotels Europe that
represents more than 300 private
owned hotels in Germany, Sweden,
Austria and Denmark and Charme &
Caratère Hotels that represents over
270 hotels all over the world.
The new organisation will be named
‘Global Alliance of Private Hotels’ and
consequently replaces the former
Private Hotels Europe.
Charme & Caratère Hotels is
headquartered in France, but also
represents hotels outside of Europe.
Besides Charme & Caratère Hotels,
‘Global Alliance of Private Hotels’ also
includes the hotel chains Ringhotels
in Germany, Petit Hotel in Sweden,
Naturidyll in Austria and Small Danish
Hotels in Denmark.
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REGULATION HEALTH
UK hospitality group Whitbread’s
withdrawal from the Ethical Trading
Initiative (ETI) just 18 months after
it was granted foundation stage
membership, is a “slap in the face” to
its 50,000-strong UK workforce, trade
union Unite has said.
The ETI board of directors were
informed of the resignation of the
Premier Inn and Costa Coffee owner at
a board meeting on 14 September. .
Unite has been highly critical of
Whitbread’s apparent refusal in the
last year to accept that the ETI’s
nine ‘good labour practice’ codes
apply equally to its directly employed
UK workforce as to workers in its
overseas supply chain. In particular,
base code two on freedom of
association and the right to bargain
collectively.
Rhys McCarthy, Unite national officer
said: “Whitbread’s resignation from the
ETI is a snub to the workforce. We had
high hopes that its membership would
open the door to better union relations
in the notoriously anti-union and
exploitative UK hospitality sector.
“It is deeply disappointing that
Whitbread would rather pull the
plug on its application to become an
accredited ETI member, than work
with Unite to become a genuinely
ethical and sustainable employer to its
UK workforce.”
He added: “The UK hospitality industry
is fundamentally unethical. It is built on
low pay, long hours and exploitation;
workers have few rights and little power.
It’s time for the industry to stop seeing
unions as ‘the enemy within’ and start
working with us to change and improve
the way it operates.” A call for a new approach to tackling
Legionnaire’s disease following the
death of a woman at a hotel has been
put forward by training and consultancy
specialist, Develop Training (DTL).
The victim, who was in her 60s,
stayed at the Feathers Hotel in Ludlow
in July. Another woman in her 70s
was also diagnosed but has since
recovered. Laboratory tests showed
links between theLegionella bacteria
found in the hotel’s water samples and
the two women.
The hotel has since voluntarily closed
temporarily on advice from Public
Health England and Shropshire Council.
Steve