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Black Friday for Kempinsky's Hotels

Black Friday for Kempinski: The two houses Atlantic Hamburg, Berlin and Bristol are not  "Leading Hotels of the World" any more. The exclusive marketing organisation with headquarters in New York City. Reason: lack of quality standards.

Kempinsky is not to happy about the situation as currently all houses undergoing substantial repairs and upgrades. A temporary exclusion should have been more appreciated.

Such a decision should by the LHW's main office is not easily made, and even the $85.000 annual fees have been waved as the standards to not fit any longer within Leading Hotels of the World set rules. This is certainly a decision nobody would expect, the least Kempinsky.

German::

Schwarzer Freitag für Kempinski: Die beiden Häuser Atlantic Hamburg und Bristol Berlin sind vorerst keine „Leading Hotels of the World“ mehr. Die exklusive Maketingvereinigung mit Sitz in New York City schloss die unter erheblichen Renovierungsstau stehenden Hotels aus. Grund: mangelende Qualitätsstandards. Welche Mängel exakt zu diesem ungeheuren Vorgang führten, will man bei Kempinski ernst noch ergründen.

Da die Sanierungsarbeiten im Atlantic Hamburg bereits im Gange seien und man für das Berliner Zweithaus (neben dem Adlon) mit dem Eigentümer über Renovierungen verhandele, dürfte es nur um einen temporären Ausschluss handeln, so eine Stellungnahme der Kempinski AG, Genf.

Eine solche Entscheidung dürfte man sich im LHW-Hauptbüro nicht leicht gemacht haben, schließlich verzichtet man mit dem Zwangsausschluss auch auf Gebühren von mindestens 85.000 US-Dollar, die ein Mitgliedshaus im Jahr bezahlen muss. Umso schwerer wiegt der Rauswurf der beiden Hotels.

Nigeria: We Can Turn Tourism Into Our Main Source of Revenue

Everyone has seen the Director General of the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, in full traditional garb. Very few know that he is a veritable sports enthusiast who takes his physical fitness very seriously. Standing well over six feet without his cap, in full sports gear and newly broken sweat , he joins Morenike Taire for a chat after a round of golf at the delightful IBB golf course in Abuja (the best in West Africa and one of the best in Africa), he could easily be mistaken for a tourist rather than their chief host.

"One must always make time for fitness", he prescribes as a preamble before dashing out for a round of lawn tennis. He exudes charisma and his popularity is palpable as calls of "Otunba, Otunba" rents the air as he passes from left and right. His skills in culture and hospitality are evident.Finally, Otunba Runsewe tells ALLURE what makes Nigerian tourism tick. Excerpts:

Other countries have their icons such as the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, the pyramids of Egypt. What do we have?

We have to appreciate one fact. We started appreciating tourism a little bit late. Let's take a country like South Africa with 58 million people, they are generating 66million dollars per annum in tourism and any economy that generates such money develops economic strength of its people. Now, you're talking about landmarks.

We have some definitely but they're not well celebrated. When you're talking about landmarks you first and foremost have to think about the strength of your people. You have a monument like the first prison in Africa which was located in 1901 in Lokoja. All the missionaries who came all the way from the Western parts who died in the North were buried in Lokoja.

Also we had the first primary school in 1836 also in Lokoja. When you say tourism strength are you talking about ecotourism, cultural tourism, etcetera? To come back properly after this introduction to your question, when you talk about land marks, when we were growing up we had Cocoa House, but when the Cocoa House was on we had other landmarks too but they were not celebrated. Today we have Olumo Rock, today we have Tinapa, we have the Igunnu festival, we have Eyo, and we have the Black Heritage. All these are landmarks. It depends on our attachment to them. Until I became the DG of tourism there was no celebrated tourism. We must celebrate these things which are what we're now doing. I'm giving you small landmarks which are part of the strategy we're using to promote tourism.

Were you in Lagos recently for the Eyo festival?

I was outside Nigeria but let me tell you that I was extremely impressed when I saw CNN giving it a whole report and I saw the most colourful traditional outfits. To me it's one of the contents we need to celebrate and we need to take very seriously. What we've done now is; Eyo becomes a program that comes up at a particular time of the year where international, local, foreign, etcetera can come in to help build the economic strength of our people. If they want to buy Lagosians will sell it to them.

I think there's a bit of a problem because while the international community generally approves things like this, a lot of Lagosians were hesitating to go because they consider it to have traditional connotations

You mean demonic

Yes.

That was before. I managed one of the very first festivals, The Abuja Festival. Previously, before some particular masquerades come out you have to perform rituals. All these things are things of before. We're now talking of modern festivals. Eyo is now a modern festival. All those things that happened that time have now been reduced to the barest minimum or no longer there. What I can tell you is that there are new innovations, new approach to all these festivals unlike what obtained before.

What are you doing to make sure these things are carried on even after a change of baton in government?

The truth about this is that we have a problem with continuity but I can tell you some of these pronounced approaches_ take for instance the Agwugwu festival_ have come to stay. There's no way anybody can change certain things. We have now started to realize the benefits of these festivals to our economic development.

Some people are complaining that to move within Nigeria is difficult. Obudu for instance. There are people who want to go but they say it's expensive, rather than go there why not go to London or somewhere in Europe?

Obudu is a unique product and there's a cable car there and did you know that this cable car is one of the longest in the world. It's one of the best. That has definitely reduced the level of fear of people who come to Obudu unlike what it used to be. I agree with you, we could have been better on a rail line which is part of we're discussing.

The governor of Cross Rivers state can tell you he's very open to modern development. We've had useful discussions with him and he's ready to develop tourism. Tourism is not a totally locally preached product. It has a lot of international input, that is, investment and we expect a lot of foreign investors to come into tourism. The governor is ready and very open to that. We have a reasonable level of things coming up.

For Obudu right now, we can do better than we're doing by providing a better transportation system and that's why we're introducing 300 new buses so that at the end of the day these buses are mainly for tourism not for regular commuting- no. Strictly for tourism. I believe that will give us a new look and a better approach.

Further than that, what are your expectations in general for Nigerian tourism?

We can turn tourism into our main source of revenue.

We can?

We can. 25 years ago, nobody gave Dubai a chance. It was a desert but when their then crown prince saw that there was danger for them he brought in some of the best Geologists in the world to check and test run the oil wells. By 2050 the oil will reduce. They took advantage of a whole lot of opportunities. Do you know they don't produce anything in Dubai but everything is sold there because the environment is right? Free Trade.

My vision is for Nigeria to be the most preferred tourism destination in Africa.

What does Dubai have that we can emulate?

Dubai has a lot of things to emulate. Dubai has the will to promote tourism, Dubai has the opportunity, and they have the time to convince their people of the benefits of tourism. Dubai also has a good transportation system, good hotel, and environment. All these bring about making tourism easier to promote and that's what they have which I believe we also have but probably did not identify them on time or capitalized on them. We can have a change.

Which is your favourite Nigerian destination? Which is your favorite out of Nigeria destination?

They're all my favourites. My job is to promote all of them (laughs). Definitely, I'm not going to leave one for the other.

What of outside Nigeria?

Well, outside Nigeria, any place or country that promotes tourism in its totality would be an area I'd love to go to.

Can you give an example?

You mentioned Dubai earlier on. I like to go to Dubai. I like to go to South Africa. I like to go even to London. Any country that does well in tourism, it's my desire to go there because anytime I go I add one or two more things that we can add to our own structure to make Nigeria a better tourism destination.

A lot of people talk about how tourism will be a big earner and everything but we really don't know how. Can you explain this?

The truth about it is it's not easy for people to come straight and appreciate the benefit of tourism.

How do the visits translate into naira and kobo?

Of people coming here? Of course, everybody that comes stays in an hotel uses transportation, eats, drinks and everything. That would be the main thing. Business tourism is different. It's strait jacketed_ do your business and go back. We're talking of people that will come and shop, entertainment, who will go round to our theatres, to our film houses, discothèques and everything. Spend money. At the end of the day it empowers our strengths. If you go to most of the night clubs in Abuja, white men dominate them. I'm so happy about that because they enjoy themselves but they empower our economy.

So, given a choice between going on holiday here at home or abroad, which would you pick?

At home, of course. I'm the one working to develop our tourism and I must make sure it's done very well so if I now choose another destination outside my own it will be difficult for me to promote what I want to promote. that does not stop me from going to exhibitions. Tourism is one product you cannot sell on the abstract. You cannot sell it on your own. You need to sell it by moving from one place to another.

What of the cultural aspect? There's something that has always bothered me. For instance, there's this place in Badagry_ the point of no return and all. I've always had a problem with celebrating that. What is its value?

You see, the marketing of these destinations depend on your approach or your ability to convince your target audience. Let me give you an example. We have the Ikogosi spring waters where the hot and cold waters mix.

It has not been well celebrated. If you get that in India for instance, the whole world will know there's something to see.

So what we need to do with such products is to identify it and then draw up a strategy of marketing it. The beauty of tourism is you don't use the same strategy to promote all products. You have different strategies for different products, so that is one product that needs its own strategy to develop.

Does it not have a negative connotation because of the slavery thing?

There's nowhere in the world that there's no history of people. If slavery is part of what we're selling, why not? There is no river that has flown all through without having history of something being inside. It's a river. We must identify the product and sell it properly. The more people come the more they can be part of it.

People say you're flamboyant. Is this true?

Once you're a public figure you're perceived in different dimensions by different people. I love our traditional dress. I will borrow from the late chief MKO Abiola : once you climb your father's throne, the younger ones are praying for your death, because the throne is only one.

Barceló chief sees dismal summer

Spain’s tourist outlook for the summer is dismal with sales dropping between 5 and 10 percent as vacationers cut back on spending and the length of hotel stays, predicted Simón Pedro Barceló, president of Barceló Corporación Empresarial hotel and travel group.

“This year is going to be very difficult as we’ve already seen from the 20-percent fall in industry sales during the first four months of the year, which was the low season,” Barceló said at an economic conference in the Spanish capital.

While the total decline in sales for 2009 could be between 10 and 15 percent compared to the previous year, Spain won’t see such a pronounced drop as last year when tourism spending was estimated at 30 percent less than in 2007, he said.

“People will still go on vacations this year, however their holidays might be shorter or they won’t go as far,” he said. “The problem is, no one really knows.”

Spain’s industry ministry recently reported tourism spending was off more than 7 percent from the same period last year and visitor numbers from major generating markets also are down, especially from Britain, where the weak pound-to-euro exchange rate is harming continental destinations.

Barceló, the third-largest hotel operator in Spain and the 24th largest in the world, currently owns, rents or manages 187 hotels worldwide, as well as a travel agency chain and other tourism-related businesses.

Barceló praised the Spanish government’s efforts to attract quality tourism, which officials describe as big spenders who want to experience the delights of the country’s heritage, culture and gastronomy instead of the low market sea-and-sand crowd.

“But I believe the only bad tourist is the one who doesn’t come to Spain,” he joked.

Regarding Barceló’s foreign properties, the president said the company was experiencing very difficult moments with low occupancy and a big loss of activity, citing Mexico, where occupancy was around 20 percent last month, which he blamed largely on the H1N1 flu scare.

Because of the decline in earnings, the group had reduced its investments this year to €100 million (US$139 million), a 75percent drop from the €400 million (US$558 million) it spent in 2008, Barceló said.

“That’s an important cut-back, but you have to remember in 2007 and 2008, we made the biggest investments in the company’s history,” he added.

Disney recruits in London

Disneyland Paris is bringing its Europe-wide recruitment campaign to London this week to source jobs in sales, hotel and hospitality. This year, nearly 7,000 jobs are available in diverse professions at the theme park.

British employees represent the third largest community at Disneyland Paris, after French and Italians.

Selected candidates can sign contracts for the summer, Halloween or Christmas seasons, as well as being given the potential opportunity to sign on open-ended contracts from September [2009].

According to a press statement, the only requirement is a minimum age of 18 and conversational French. “Disneyland Paris seeks quality candidates who believes in the company ethos of service excellence at all times,” the statement said.

In total, Disneyland Paris includes 54 attractions, 56 shops and 69 themed restaurants.

Potential candidates can sign up on its new recruitment website: www.disneylandparis-casting.com

McEwan voted in as new ABTA chairman

Independent agency consortium boss John McEwan has been voted in as the first ABTA chairman

The Advantage Travel Centres managing director beat independent agency boss Daniele Broccoli, Britaly Travel, to the position. 

 

There were 556 valid votes, representing 40% of the ABTA membership.

 

McEwan received 303 votes or 54% of the vote while Broccoli achieved 253 votes or 46%.

 

McEwan will now head the association's board of directors.

 

The result of the members' vote was unveiled this afternoon.

 

 ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer said: “John brings a wealth of experience to the role of chairman and I am very much looking forward to working with him in continuing the development of  ABTA as the leading voice of the industry.”

 

McEwan said:  “I am delighted to be elected as ABTA chairman.

 

“It was a very public and lively election and I would like to congratulate Daniele for his contribution towards it.

 

“I now look forward to working with Mark and other members of the ABTA Board to take ABTA forward - delivering even better value to all Members and being at the forefront of change on key industry issues.”

McEwan succeeds president Justin Fleming who has stepped down after a three-year term of office.

Ramsay sorry over Grimshaw insult

TV chef Gordon Ramsay has said he is "deeply mortified" by the row caused over insulting remarks he made about Australian presenter Tracy Grimshaw.

Ramsay apologised for the "stupid comments" and said he had been prompted to do so after his mother rang him.

"I'm deeply, deeply sorry for the hurt that's been caused," he said.

The chef was rebuked by the Australian Prime Minister for showing a nude woman with a pig's face and likening them to TV personality Grimshaw.

'Petulant teenager'

Ramsay told the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper that Grimshaw had shown him "great respect and amazing support" for several years.

He said that his mother Helen had demanded an explanation from him on the telephone.

"She was disgusted and she wanted to know what actually happened," adding that her rebuke made him "start to get the picture".

"If any of you guys had called my wife a pig and it was in front of me, I'd punch your lights out.''

The celebrity chef, who made the comments at a Melbourne food fair at the weekend, said that earlier efforts to personally apologise to Grimshaw had been rebuffed.

Grimshaw is a well-known TV personality in Australia

"I made a strong attempt on Saturday to contact her and I suppose like any petulant teenager, when you get ignored, the whole thing escalated.

"I tried to contact her, there was no response on Saturday, so I kept jibbing away at her."

"I wish I'd had a chance to put this fire out three days ago," he added.

Ramsay said that Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's intervention was "unfortunate".

Mr Rudd said that the chef's remarks marked "a new form of low life".

Ms Grimshaw hit back at Ramsay, describing him as an "arrogant narcissist" and "a bully" on her Monday night programme.

Ramsay allegedly made other remarks also, but denied that he made claims about Grimshaw's sexuality.

In her televised response to the chef, Grimshaw said he had made some "uninformed insinuations" about her private life.

"Obviously Gordon thinks that any woman who doesn't find him attractive must be gay. For the record, I don't. And I'm not."

Want to buy a five-star, down-on-its-luck resort?

The St. Regis Monarch Beach, infamous as the hotel where American International Group sponsored a luxury retreat just days after accepting a federal bailout, has been scheduled for a foreclosure auction.

The companies that own the resort are in default on a $70-million loan from Citigroup Global Markets Realty Group, people knowledgeable about the debt said Tuesday.

Negotiations continue in an effort to avoid an auction, according to those sources. But unless something is worked out, the St. Regis will go on the block July 7, to be sold to the highest bidder, according to a "terms of public sale" document obtained by The Times.

The resort's troubles come as the recession and credit crunch have hammered the hotel industry, depressing room rates and occupancy levels and making loans all but impossible for hotel owners to get.

Resorts like the St. Regis, which cater to wealthy travelers and the high-end corporate retreat business, have seen some of the steepest declines in revenue.

Business is so bad -- and funding so expensive -- that hardly any hotels are being sold these days, and most are now worth 50% to 80% less than at the peak, said hotel broker Alan X. Reay of Atlas Hospitality Group in Costa Mesa.

Just this week, Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. said it would turn the trendy W Hotel in downtown San Diego over to its lenders, part of a growing trend that Reay said was a "bloodbath."

The St. Regis -- which has several restaurants, a golf course and a private beach club -- has been hit by a steep drop in bookings, according to the people with knowledge of the situation.

Built by the Makarechian development family of Newport Beach, the property is current, for now, on two other mortgages totaling $230 million on the 400-room hotel and golf course, these people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

When the Makarechians and their partners, including San Francisco's Farralon Capital hedge fund, refinanced the property and incurred $300 million in debt in 2007, credit markets had not yet seized up and the hotel's revenues were high enough to support the payments.

But that's no longer the case, these people said. Neither Citigroup nor representatives of the St. Regis would comment on the record.

The St. Regis always aimed to satisfy the smallest whims of wealthy people and high-end corporate travelers.

Before the hotel opened in 2001, Paul Makarechian, the 27-year-old scion overseeing non-residential projects for the family, took The Times on a tour, pointing out sweeping tapestries, elaborately stitched duvet covers matching fabric-draped headboards -- even motion sensors so employees would know without knocking if guests were present.

"If you're going to build a five-star luxury resort hotel that will outdo every other deluxe hotel on the planet, you don't scrimp on sheets," he said. "You don't scrimp on anything."

But in these times, perhaps a bit more austerity is in order.

Although the St. Regis is not directly on the waterfront, the Pacific Ocean is visible from its six restaurants and it boasts a five-star Mobil Travel Guide rating, compared with four stars for the nearby Ritz-Carlton and Montage resorts.

Guests can take a shuttle across the golf course to a private ocean-front club at Monarch Beach, the northernmost stretch of Dana Point, where they can sip cocktails after taking surfing lessons.

The St. Regis became something of an emblem of corporate excess and greed last October, as the global financial system was threatening to melt down.

The taint arrived by association with AIG, the giant New York insurer that, because of massive wrong-way bets on the mortgage markets, became the largest recipient of bailout money from the federal government.

Government tourism policies show “sad lack of vision”

The Government’s policies towards the tourism industry show “a sad lack of vision”, according to the chief executive of the British Hospitality Association.

Speaking at the launch of the BHA’s annual report, Bob Cotton said investment in new and refurbished hotel facilities has been running at £5b a year and must continue to do so if UK tourism is to compete internationally.

“However, the abandonment of the hotel buildings allowance and cutting back other allowances – together with the impact of the economic recession – will jeopardise future investment,” he warned.

Cotton said the failure to reinstate hotel buildings allowance, or improve the capital allowances regime, with the reduction of marketing support for VisitBritain ahead of the 2012 Olympics showed “a sad lack of vision, which will have long-term consequences”.

“Just when we need the allowances the most, the Government chooses to abandon them,” he added. “This does not make sense.”

By Chris Druce

UK hotel performance on an upward path

In depth analysis by Deloitte, the business advisory practice, reveals a clear trend in improvement in UK hotel performance over the last five months.

Whilst revenue per available room (revPAR) is still negative, the pace of decline is reducing and some markets are actually showing gains on 2008 numbers with strong leisure demand driving up weekend occupancies and revenues. There is also a trend of improving performance in the weekday corporate business market in London.

Marvin Rust, Hospitality Managing Partner at Deloitte, commenting on the analysis said: “The UK tourism industry continues to be challenged by the recession, with some companies announcing record losses and year-to-April revPAR, the hotel industry’s leading performance indicator, down 11.1%. However, our analysis shows that both weekend leisure demand in London and the Regions and corporate weekday demand in London over the past five months has shown an upward trend, signalling that the worst may be over for hoteliers.”

Weekend leisure demand is driving the recovery with much stronger performance than corporate weekday demand. RevPAR was down 3.8% to £54 on the weekend while weekday drops were more severe, down 14.6% to £58 from 1 January through 20 May 2009. However, some cities actually saw increases in weekend leisure demand during the period including Glasgow (4.3%), Edinburgh (3.4%) and London (0.3%). In this tough operating environment this is a great achievement.

Marvin added: “Although the results for corporate weekday demand in London look weak with a decline of 11.0%, the trend is definitely upwards over the last five months. Clearly one of the factors driving the upward trend across the country is the increasing number of Brits taking short breaks in the UK, where Sterling stretches further than in Europe. The strong Euro against Sterling has also made the UK less expensive than in the past, which is helping hotels perform better and walking around London there are a noticeable increase in the usual number of European accents in the shops and at London’s attractions.”

The only areas yet to show an improvement are weekday demand in the Regions and the country’s airport hotels where trading continues to be tough.

Tip off: waiters still paid minimum wage out of your service charge

A new law is intended to stop restaurant bosses pocketing staff tips. But as Jamie Elliott reports, there may be no change

A change to the law intended to stop restaurants using tips to make up staff's pay to the minimum wage will do nothing to stop employers pocketing all of the tips diners leave.

Last month the government announced the change to minimum wage regulations, which will come into force in October. It said the measures would close a loophole in the law that allows restaurants to make up staff pay to the minimum wage of £5.73 per hour through tips, and would "give thousands of workers fair wages ... and boost consumer confidence in the use of tips".

Responding to the news, consumer group Consumer Focus said that from October, "customers can be confident their tips will always go to waiting staff."

But, under the new rules, employers will still be allowed to keep all of the service charge and will not be obliged to display their policy on tips. Companies will also continue to be free to use income from tips to pay for wages and other business costs.

Since the planned changes were first mooted, Britain's biggest restaurant chains show no sign of heeding calls for a change in practices - and some clamp-down hard on staff who reveal tipping policies to customers.

"The new rules mean a restaurant will still be able to keep a proportion, or all, of the service charge from October," says Miles Quest of the British Hospitality Association. "But instead of saying staff receive an hourly rate below the minimum wage, topped up to the legal minimum by gratuities, staff contracts will have to state that employees are paid an hourly rate at least equal to the minimum wage."

Topping up pay

Waiters working for high-street chain Carluccio's, for instance, receive £3.75 per hour, plus three-quarters of tips left by customers on debit or credit cards to top their pay up to the minimum wage. Waiters Cash spoke to said that when this combination of basic pay plus tips leaves staff with less than the minimum wage, Carluccio's adds an extra top-up.

Under the new rules, Carluccio's waiters will continue to be entitled to the minimum wage, but this will have to be paid regardless of tips. However, the company will then be under no obligation to pass on any gratuities.

Carluccio's declined to say how it would alter its policy after October, but a spokesperson said: "All cash tips go direct to the waiter. Credit card tips are split with 75% going directly to the waiter and the remaining 25% shared between back-of-house staff but not management. Waiters and waitresses receive varying hourly rates plus their credit card tips, through the payroll. This totals an average of £8 per hour. In the unlikely event anyone falls below minimum wage the company simply tops up."

No change

Last month Tragus, which owns 270 restaurants including the Cafe Rouge, Bella Italia and Strada chains, sent a memo to managers telling them to print weekly reports to check the amounts of service charge individuals were collecting to ensure they were not pocketing any of it.

"If you find certain employees have low service charge, you must organise a meeting with the employee to discuss the reports. This may indicate they are fraudulently having the service removed when it was actually paid for by the customer," the memo said.

The manager who passed the memo to Cash told us: "When staff join we tell them not to say to customers that they don't get the service charge, but to say, instead, that it is distributed amongst staff. If a waiter consistently tells customers what happens to the service charge they will be disciplined and eventually sacked."

He added that the service charge heavily subsidises staff wages - of the £6.50 per hour staff in his restaurant receive, only £2.50 comes from the company, with the rest paid for by gratuities left on debit and credit card. Cash tips go directly to staff. "A medium-size Strada restaurant would take around £2,000 a week in service charges - all our business models are based on collecting this income," he said.

If his restaurant has an exceptionally busy week, staff may receive an extra 50p per hour on top of their basic pay for those seven days - £3.50 for a seven hour shift - but this has happened only three times in the past three months.

"It's very hard to motivate staff to work hard and provide good service when this often makes no difference to their weekly pay," the manager told us.

A spokeswoman for Tragus said: "At all of our restaurants we are happy for our customers to pay with either cash or a credit card as best suits them.

Concerning the recent communication to our restaurants about service charge, this relates to the tightening of controls around cash processing to ensure that the company protects itself against potential frauds.

"Tragus fully complies with the current law concerning national minimum wage and tips, and will ensure it complies with the amended legislation when it comes into effect in October."

Small restaurants

When Cash visited four Bangladeshi restaurants in Brick Lane, east London, waiters told us that all tips - those left on cards and in cash - were kept by the management and that the practice was widespread amongst Brick Lane restaurants. "I feel bad about it, but the owners make the rules," one waiter told us.

In London's Chinatown, however, waiters in six of nine restaurants Cash visited said they did receive all tips on top of their basic pay - in two restaurants staff told us 50% of gratuities went to them, while in only one did they report that no tips were passed on.

Waiters in four restaurants in the Shoreditch area of London also said they received 100% of tips.

The government plans to introduce a voluntary "code of practice on transparency" later this year which it hopes will encourage restaurants to display their tipping policies. However, Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, the trade union campaigning for change in this area, doubts the code will work.

"There remains an urgent need for a fully transparent tipping system where 100% of tips go to staff," he says. "Unite is unconvinced that the voluntary code of practice will give consumers the clarity they need to be confident that any money they leave will go to the hospitality employees who deserve it. Our experience of the industry does not inspire confidence in its ability to self-regulate on tips and services charges."

Liberal Democrat business spokesman John Thurso agrees. "This legislation has been all fanfare and no detail and will not have the effect it was intended to have," he says. "The law should be changed to make sure waiters receive the minimum wage plus any service charge left by customers."

What can you do?

Approximately a fifth of the UK's 30,000 restaurants do not pass on tips to waiters, according to the British Hospitality Association, despite a YouGov survey of 2,187 adults in January which showed that 94% of customers wanted gratuities to go to staff. 79% thought tipping policies should be clearly displayed.

To give waiters and waitresses the best deal you should:

• Pay all tips (including any service charge added to your bill) in cash

• Ask if all tips are paid to staff on top of the minimum wage

• If you are unhappy, do not pay the service charge - it is usually optional

• Avoid restaurants that do not pass on tips to staff

• Go to fairtips.org to see which restaurants have signed up to the Unite union's fair tips charter

Word on the street: 'I had no idea ... from now on, I'll put the money directly in their hand'