It was off to Manchester on Sept. 29-30 for the Annual Hospitality Conference at the Manchester Central Convention Complex.
The mood was optimistic — the homeostasis of the industry — but amid concerns about domestic politics, with the industry feeling more than most what is considered to be the brunt of the government’s increases in employer-paid National Insurance contributions, the weight of business taxes and cost inflation, and the continued struggle of hiring and retaining employees.
Hussein Sunderji, managing director at EQ Group, used a very wonderful turn of phrase to describe the current state of play, telling the audience, “it is not controversial to say that the hospitality industry has felt disproportionately affected by the government’s budget decisions.”
The AHC was not to be confused with the trade and education show Professional Beauty North, which ran on the same days, immediately adjacent in another section of the MCCC.
The guest keynote speaker was Surinder Arora, founder and chairman of the Arora Group, which is known for owning airport hotels in the U.K. but has branched out into British luxury with its acquisitions of the 251-room Fairmont Windsor Park and the 70-room Fairmont Luton Hoo.
Arora is very active in bidding for the development of a new runway for London Heathrow Airport, Europe’s busiest, and he railed against the airport owner, which he said wasted money.
The hint is that Arora could deliver a new runway at a fraction of the cost, and he likened Arora’s battle with Heathrow Airport Ltd. as a “David and Goliath” story, although both are very large companies, with Arora having more than 2,000 rooms in five hotels at this one airport.
In Manchester I stayed at a much smaller hotel, the 18-room DogHouse Manchester. It is one of four hotels owned by brewer BrewDog, of which I am a member in that I can get discounts on its beers, although not on its rooms.
The hallway is painted black, which makes things, obviously, dark. The light above the number on the door of one’s room is an illuminated can of Punk IPA, the first beer the company produced and which helped it, along with others, to spearhead the craft-beer movement and craze in the United Kingdom.
The room was great.
In it, there is a fridge full of BrewDog beer (I never go near minibars; I have the fear of doing something wrong and being charged a small fortune), and there is a record player with records from Manchester bands — Oasis, The Stone Roses and the like.
Hoteliers are fond of telling hotel-industry conferences that a hotel room comes down to two things: a comfortable bed and a great shower. I will state here the bed was good and the shower was the best I have experienced.
How is it possible for water to descend from a rainforest-style shower head both finely and forcibly, but that was my reaction and my conclusion as I stared up at it in a mild form of disbelief.
People who have not stayed in a DogHouse hotel ask if there is beer in the shower.
I do not know.
There was a black square on the shower wall which read “Shower Beer,” but this square did not seem to open or reveal any beer, despite the firm’s website seeming to suggest beer is available in every room shower.
Lunch at the AHC comprised of five street-food trucks set up in a closed-off outdoor patio, which is a very fun idea, but the queues to each stretched a little too long.
Evidently, hoteliers like pizza and burritos, less so Thai dishes and burgers.
And, also evidently, the train operator Avanti West Coast has vastly improved the reliability of its in-train Wi-Fi service, so I could write up my notes and observations on the way back to London.
All in all, a great couple of days.
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