Tag Archives: Restaurants

by | June 20, 2014 · 9:30 am

Hospitality Industry Health Update: “Food and Water Quality an Ongoing Challenge for Hotels”

“…While a wide variation of food and water quality practices exists from country to country,water it’s a misconception that safety concerns are limited to poor areas in developing regions. Many germs have no boundaries, so the NSF StaySafer program will play an important role in establishing a universal set of standards that can be used as a benchmark and complement local requirements…”

From the buffet salad bar greens to the ice clinking in drinks served poolside, hotel administrators are finding that protecting guests from food and water illness outbreaks is a continuous challenge.

It’s also a necessary undertaking to demonstrate the hotel’s commitment to its patrons’ well being. Travelers won’t soon forget the awful stomach cramps if they experience a sickness during their stay, and such episodes can cause nearly irreversible damages to a hotel’s reputation.

For more: http://bit.ly/1kVhmFd

For a brief video on some of the steps you can take to help prevent Norovirus outbreak at your hotel, check out the video below:

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/98741016 w=500&h=281]

Petra Risk Solutions’ Loss Control Manager, Matt Karp, offers a P3 Hospitality Risk Report – ‘Preventing Norovirus at Your Property’. 

P3 ( Petra Plus Process) is the Risk Management Division of Petra Risk Solutions – America ’s largest independent insurance brokerage devoted exclusively to the hospitality marketplace.

For more information on Petra and P3 visit petrarisksolutions.com or call 800.466.8951.

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by | June 16, 2014 · 9:50 am

Hospitality Industry Restaurant Update: “The Main Ingredients for a Successful Hotel Restaurant”

For many hotels, especially in the boutique and lifestyle segments, restaurants are a calling card, Morgan explained.hotel restaurant To help chefs gain notoriety, especially a local following, it’s important to invest in marketing and PR efforts as well. ‘The hard part when you’re underwriting a restaurant is to say how important marketing and PR is, because most people look at that as a money pit,’ Morgan said. ‘But if you do it right, and you’re using the right resources or firms, it can be very successful’…”

Restaurants play a bigger role than ever before in boutique and lifestyle hotels. And with the right concept, owners can make a healthy profit, said a panel of food and beverage experts at the Boutique Hotel Investment Conference in Manhattan last week, presented by the Boutique & Lifestyle Lodging Association.

“Today more than ever, eating is a lifestyle, so people want to go to hotels where they know they have a good restaurant, good chefs, and it’s a full experience,” said Richard Sandoval, chef and owner of Richard Sandoval Restaurants, which has about 30 self-operated restaurants around the world and 10 hotel concept developments.

For more: http://bit.ly/1pB8wUH

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by | June 6, 2014 · 9:00 am

Hospitality Industry Management Update: “Union Fight Divides Workforce at DoubleTree”

“…Organizers have been walking picket lines with workers and visiting employees at their homes,Double Tree and guests have been approached by union supporters in the lobby and have had fliers slipped under their doors. Over one weekend in early May, a push to get groups to cancel room reservations accounted for more than $30,000 in lost business, according to workers who reject calls for a union…”

An effort to organize employees at Hilton’s DoubleTree Suites has turned the hotel near the Charles River into a workplace that is sharply divided. On one side are housekeepers and other staff members fighting for more affordable health care and a collective voice. Resisting their efforts are administrative workers, restaurant servers, and others who don’t want to lose benefits offered by Hilton, which they say is a generous employer.

Both groups say they are in the majority.

For more: http://bit.ly/Sgavz6

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by | April 23, 2014 · 8:42 am

Hospitality Industry News Update: “Restaurant And Hospitality News For VARs”

This week the news includes a warning that hackers are using third-parties to gain access to data through vulnerable systems. Also, hotels and other retailers are adopting new mobile technology for check-in. Image And finally, in an interview with Forest Key of Buuteeq, we find out why hotel marketing is flying to the cloud.

Hackers Lurking In Vents And Soda Machines

This article from The New York Times discusses how your clients could be vulnerable to cyberattacks through solutions and devices be tied to a leaky third party, such as online menus, or even heating and cooling providers who now monitor and adjust office temperatures remotely, and vending machine suppliers who can see when their clients are out of Diet Cokes and Cheetos. Vendors are tempting targets for hackers because they tend to run older systems, and once hackers have found a way in, the devices offer them a place to hide in plain sight.

For more: http://www.bsminfo.com/doc/restaurant-and-hospitality-news-for-vars-april-0001

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by | April 9, 2014 · 8:37 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Risk: “Caring For Dying Wife Cost Chef at Tony Hotel His Job, Lawsuit Alleges”

“…Esselborn maintains he was entitled to take the time off to care for his ailing wife. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act allows workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for immediate family members with a serious health conditionImage….A message left Tuesday for the hotel’s general manager was not immediately returned. The suit, filed in Manhattan state Supreme Court, seeks unspecified monetary damages…”

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Annadale resident Robert Esselborn and his family endured a staggering blow on Christmas Eve when his wife, Barbara, a popular school teacher, died nine days after suddenly taking ill. She was just 38.

The day before, Esselborn had been jolted on another front.

He was fired by reality-show-winning chef Anthony Paris from his night cook job at Manhattan’s chic Crosby Street Hotel for taking time off to care for his dying spouse, Esselborn alleges in a lawsuit.

For more: http://www.silive.com/southshore/index.ssf/2014/04/caring_for_dying_wife_cost_che.html

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by | January 30, 2014 · 8:32 am

P3 Hospitality Industry Risk Report: “Regulating the Use of Electronic Cigarettes by Hotel Guests” Presented by Loss Control Manager Marco Johnson of Petra Risk Solutions (Video)

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/85264426 w=500&h=281]

Petra Risk Solutions’ Loss Control Manager, Marco Johnson, offers a P3 Hospitality Risk Report – ‘Regulating the Use of Electronic Cigarettes by Hotel Guests’. 

P3 ( Petra Plus Process) is the Risk Management Division of Petra Risk Solutions – America ’s largest independent insurance brokerage devoted exclusively to the hospitality marketplace.

For more information on Petra and P3 visit petrarisksolutions.com or call 800.466.8951.

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by | January 22, 2014 · 8:42 am

Hospitality Industry Business Practices: “Bitcoin To Be Accepted For Food and Lodging In Two Las Vegas Hotels”

“…Using bitcoins for the casinos itself won’t be happening anytime soon. State regulators, particularly the Nevada Gaming Control Board, are being more cautious about acknowledging and accepting the new type of currency.Image The gaming industry isn’t particularly keen on pushing for it either. This is almost in contrast to the government of Singapore who just recently recognized Bitcoin as a valid, and therefore taxable, currency…”

Bitcoin has been making waves across the world, and now the cryptocurrency craze has reached the good city of Las Vegas. Starting Wednesday, two hotels in Las Vegas, including the The Golden Gate, the city’s oldest casino, will start accepting Bitcoin payments but only for hotel expenses.

Four years have already passed since Bitcoin came into being, but this new kind of currency only truly exploded last year, sometimes to rather insane heights. While it still mainly remains an oddity and curiosity for many, it has started to be become quite literally a serious business for others, including some governments.

For more: http://www.slashgear.com/bitcoin-to-be-accepted-for-food-and-lodging-in-two-las-vegas-hotels-21314010/

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by | January 15, 2014 · 8:42 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Update: “State and Local Laws that Challenge a Hotel’s Existence: Alcohol License Regimes”

“…Hotel executives cannot escape the complex ins and outs of alcohol licensing.  However, there is no reason to fear the application and renewal process or to make assumptions about the limits of your hotel’s existing license.Bar If you are armed with the right questions,then you can more competently discuss these issues with your legal counsel and local alcohol licensing staff. Ask your legal counsel if you have the appropriate license and see if any of your current practices exceed the boundaries of the hotel’s alcohol license…”

The alcohol licensing process for hotels involves a patchwork of state and local regulation that can be difficult to navigate.  Licensing is often highly localized and variable.  Nevertheless, a hotel executive should have a working knowledge of the legal questions to ask in order to understand the bounds of their existing alcohol license.  After all, the alcohol license provides a valuable source of revenue for the business and offers an avenue to provide amenities to guests that encourage repeat patronage.  Conversely, violations of local regulation can result in costly fines and revocation of existing licenses that affect the profitability and marketability of the property.

For more: http://hlconverge.com/index.php/component/k2/item/760-state-and-local-laws-that-challenge-a-hotel-s-existence-alcohol-license-regimes

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by | January 6, 2014 · 6:44 am

Hospitality Industry Legal Risks: California Hotels And Restaurants Increasingly Face “Prop 65” Toxic Substance Disclosure Lawsuits; “Two-Week Grace Period” Enacted

“…there has been an increase in these lawsuits over the years, with some lawyers targeting small businesses for everyday exposures, like California Prop 65 Toxin Warningalcohol or cigarette smoke outside a bar…Proposition 65 suits have helped make California the most litigious state in the union, and those lawsuits disproportionately affect small businesses…mostly small businesse paid about $22.5 million in Prop 65 settlements in 2012 alone…For virtually all environmental law in the U.S., it’s the government’s responsibility to go after businesses or products that are hurting consumers… But Proposition 65 doesn’t work like that. The state just puts out a list of chemicals that might hurt you. The responsibility is on businesses to warn consumers, and on consumers to sue if they don’t…”

“…In the amendment to the law passed in 2013, small business owners faced with a lawsuit now have a two-week grace period to comply…”

All over California, signs in restaurants, parking garages and other businesses warn that you could be exposed to chemicals that can cause cancer. The disclosure is mandated by 1986 state law. If a company fails to warn consumers, it can be sued.

But a lot has changed since the law was passed: The list of toxic chemicals is longer and the lawsuits are more prolific. In October, Gov. Jerry Brown signed an amendment to ease the burden on businesses.

For more:  http://www.npr.org/2014/01/05/259925903/calif-toxin-law-warns-consumers-but-can-burden-businesses

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by | January 2, 2014 · 6:51 am

Hospitality Industry Theft Risks: Maine Restaurant Bookkeeper Charged With Embezzling $80,000 Over 10 Months

“…Starting in January 2013 and continuing through October, (the defendant) began forging checks and taking cash from the Brass Compass and Hospitality Industry Employee TheftArcher’s restaurant. The lawsuit claims that Allen forged Archer’s name on $49,592 in checks and stole about $30,000 in cash from the two restaurants…Also, during those 10 months, Allen failed to pay state sales taxes for the two restaurants, which has resulted in Archer incurring interest and penalties for the failure to pay the taxes…”

The owner of two Rockland restaurants has filed a lawsuit against her former bookkeeper, alleging she embezzled nearly $80,000. Lynn Archer and her company Archer’s LLC filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Knox County Superior Court against Melanie L. Allen of Union.

Allen was arrested Oct. 23 by Rockland police and charged with felony theft and felony forgery. At the time, police said Allen was suspected of embezzling at least $18,000 from the Brass Compass Cafe and Archer’s on the Pier, both Rockland restaurants owned by Lynn Archer.

For more:  http://bangordailynews.com/2014/01/02/news/midcoast/rockland-restaurant-owner-sues-bookkeeper-over-alleged-theft/?ref=latest

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