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Armani Hotel Dubai online booking goes live

Armani Hotel Dubai, located in the world's tallest building Burj Khalifa, said it has begun taking online bookings starting from Sunday (January 31). It is the first hotel to open under the collaboration between Giorgio Armani and Emaar Properties. 

The booking system allows guests to search real-time room availability and book across all room types, including the highly exclusive and one-of-a-kind Armani Dubai Suite, said a hotel official.

The Armani Dubai Suite is located on level 39 of Burj Khalifa and faces the Arabian Gulf with stunning views of the city and beyond.

The suite has a spacious living room, an eight-seat private dining room, private gym, full-service bar and pantry, and two luxurious bedrooms, all equipped with modern amenities.

Other room categories available to discerning guests includes 24 Armani Studios, 44 Armani Classic rooms, 38 Armani Premiere rooms, 36 Armani Suites, six Armani Executive and six Armani Ambassador Suites, and five Armani Signature Suites.

All are designed to the highest industry standards, from the room designs to the carefully selected textiles and fabrics to the impeccable service, every aspect of the hotel experience will bear the Armani signature.

Alongside 160 guest rooms and suites, the hotel will feature eight restaurants offering world cuisine ranging from Japanese and Indian to Mediterranean and, of course, authentic Italian.

The impressive array of entertainment destinations includes the region’s first and only Armani/Privé club and the world’s first in-hotel Armani/SPA, alongside Armani/Dolci, a chocolate and sweets store, Armani/Fiori, a flower shop, and Armani/Galleria, an Armani accessories store.

Complementing the hotel and located on levels 9 to 16 of Burj Khalifa are the Armani Residences, 144 luxurious private residences, which like the hotel have all been personally designed by Giorgio Armani.

Marc Dardenne, CEO Emaar Hotels & Resorts, said, “Promising the Armani lifestyle not only in terms of aesthetics but also with regard to hospitality and service requires us to have the right people in place. The team that has been hand picked from around the world is currently undergoing a series of orientation workshops.'

'Representing over 50 nationalities, once operational, the team will be world-class in its approach. Moreover, each team member will be a true ambassador of the Armani brand as they introduce and acquaint guests with the Armani lifestyle experience,' he added.

Prospective visitors can also register online at www.armanihotels.com to receive further details about the hotel.

The opening of the Armani Hotel in Dubai on March 18 will be followed by the launch of the Armani Hotel Milano.

Other properties underway include the first Armani Resort, planned for Marrakech, and the first Armani Residences villas, scheduled for Marassi in Egypt. Further Armani hotels, resorts and residences will open subsequently in key international destinations such as New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and London.

Manila Hotel gets its sexy back

For a long while there, the Grand Dame let herself go.

The historic Manila Hotel, which hosted such familiar names as General Douglas MacArthur, the Beatles and His Royal Highness Prince Charles, did not invest enough in the daily maintenance work and grand multimillion-peso changes that would have allowed it to retain its appeal and keep up with changing customer tastes.

And so corporate clients, as well as leisure travellers who could no longer stay on nostalgia alone, gradually left and transferred their considerable business to the more modern luxury hotels that now crowd the Makati and Ortigas central business districts.

But as the country’s first five-star hotel moves closer to its 100th birthday, Manila Hotel is getting itself back into serious shape to lure them back in.

The first order of business was to invest in the long-delayed renovation of the

98-year-old hotel, and the new owners of the hotel led by businessman Emilio T. Yap have opened up their wallets and let go of millions to see that those renovations bring Manila Hotel to the 21st century.

Renovations started in the last quarter of 2008, starting with Mabuhay Palace, the Manila Hotel’s Chinese restaurant. Sweeping improvements of the pool, garden and guest rooms followed in the first quarter of 2009, then the spa and health club in the second quarter of 2009.

The rooms in the older main building were refurbished while those in the Tower section underwent full renovation. All 500 rooms will be touched by the renovation.

“Our renovations around the hotel revolve around one objective: further elevating our lofty standards to create an inimitable hotel experience,” Manila Hotel President Marcelo S. Ele Jr. told the Inquirer.

“As we near our 100th year, our resolve to deftly balance tradition and innovation—and to make that fusion apparent in our outlets and amenities—is stronger than before,” added Manila Hotel General Manager Leon Keekstra, “We are, after all, the country’s first five-star hotel. And the legacy of service and luxury that we have preserved throughout the years will get better and better with time.”

The changes go all the way to the amenities and features of the guest rooms. These include a waterproof television in the bathroom, L’Occitane bathroom essentials, and a walk-in shower. For those who cannot leave business behind, high speed Internet access is available.

Keekstra said the renovation at such a grand scale was made more difficult by the need to keep intact much of what makes the Manila Hotel unique.

At one time, the Manila Hotel on Roxas Blvd. was the standard of opulence and the essence of Manila. And traces of those bygone days can still be found in abundance, such as the new and improved grand lobby—with its original Amorsolos and chandeliers of expensive capiz, crystals and brass—and the Filipinana-themed suites with a perfect view of the famed Manila Bay sunset that have appealed to such luminaries as author Ernest Hemingway, astronaut Neil Armstrong and actor Marlon Brando.

“As a testament to our legacy of luxury complemented by genuine Filipino hospitality, we are now undergoing major renovations to keep up with society’s demanding needs,” Keekstra said, “This transformation is not easy, especially when the original one is a masterpiece in itself.”

“We therefore make sure that as we complement Manila Hotel with the convenience and modernity of the present times, we continue to preserve our rich history and the elegance of the past. Further, we are in a constant quest to elevate our level of service, ultimately treating every guest as royalty,” he added.

That the investments are coming in at a time of great global economic uncertainty confounds many observers. Because while others are cutting down costs, the management of Manila Hotel is spending on renovations and new amenities.

Ele said, however, that these investments would pay off in the end.

“We are optimistic about the market and we believe that our guests deserve the very best. This ultimately makes all of the improvements worth it. Our guests can expect that this is just the beginning,” Ele said, “The all-new Manila Hotel will be a landmark in Asia that will rank alongside the world’s finest hotels such as Raffles in Singapore, The Ritz in Paris and The Sukhothai in Bangkok.”

“Manila Hotel is not here to compete directly with the other hotels. We are here to create a category of our own. Besides, Manila Hotel will not be regarded as the Grand Dame and considered part of the patrimony of the country for nothing,” he added.

Now all the Manila Hotel hopes for is that travelers will go and see how it is getting its sexy back.

Choice Hotels planning hotel openings in Haiti

The Choice Hotels group - owners of hotel chains including Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Clarion and more - is making plans to open the first chain hotels in Haiti in almost a decade.

The Associated Press is reporting that the hotel company will start the chain with a Comfort Inn in Jacmel. The 32-room motel will open in May. A 120-room upscale hotel at the nearby Belle Rive tourism development is slated to be open this fall.

The Choice Hotels will be the brands first hotels in Haiti. Jacmel is located in Southern Haiti and is the country's fourth largest city.

Tourists opting for low-cost air travel, moderate hotels

Post the recession, India is witnessing a preference for low-cost air travel, increase in business-driven tourism and a rise in the number of moderate-tier hotels for long-haul travellers. Over the next two decades the focus will be on low cost air travel both in the domestic and foreign circuits, said speakers at a seminar at the SATTE-ITB 2010 travel fair in the capital.

'The focus of Air India is on low-cost carriers as we had been badly affected by changes in the money market in 2007, which had pushed up our cost of operations and an ageing fleet. We are now pulling out the old aircraft and refurbishing our fleet by inducting new Boeing aircraft so that flying becomes an economical experience for travellers and profitable for airlines,' Rohita Jaidka, executive director (Commercial) of Air India, one of the speakers at the seminar on 'The Challenge of Change', said.

The airline is receiving its first consignment of 27 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in November 2010 and replacing its existing fleet with 21 Boeing 777s, six 747s and 24 737s.

'Air India is also joining forces with Star Alliance, an umbrella of 21 airlines in the US,' she said.

The benefits to accrue from the move, Rohita Jaidka said, are 'expanded coverage area, more opportunities for frequent fliers, wider network, special schemes for the government of India segment, rise in the volume of student traffic and focus on AI holiday segment. Delhi will be used as a transit point'.

The tourism, aviation and travel segment - the three components that make up the industry - 'is learning to listen to customers', said Aditya Ghosh, president, Indigo Airlines.

'We are now listening to customers. The last three years have shown that we are no different from the world and customers' expectations and profile have changed,' he said.

Over the last 18 months, travel and tourism trade has been receiving tremendous support from business travellers - much more than the leisure segment - and they are looking for variety in their itineraries and transport.

According to statistics furnished by the Confederation of Indian Industry at SATTE, business travel bookings are expected to show a gentle upswing as the economy steps into 2010.

Business travellers with reduced purses are looking for cheaper bargains and budget hotels, the industry body said.

The Asia-Pacific region has registered a growth rate of 5.1 percent in November 2009 compared to 2.1 percent globally, cites CII. As the economy looks up, business travel is likely to look up in late 2010. Last year, the industry logged 15 percent negative growth.

'There were some customers you thought were yours, but suddenly they felt that they needed to go to Indigo, Jet Airways and Kingfisher. As things move up - 50 percent of them have moved up, we need to build more capacities and choice for customers. We do not give enough choices to our customers. The customer is evolving faster than you thought,' the president of Indigo Airlines said.

As the customers tighten purse, hotels too are restructuring hospitality. While the markets have become softer, business plans of hotels have more strategies to suit the trends, said Matthew Cooper, general manager of The Marriott Courtyard-Gurgaon owned by the J.W. Marriott Group in the outskirts in the capital.

The Courtyard Marriott is a 'moderate tier four-star property' of the Marriott chain of hotels.

'Travellers look for right beds, right size rooms, quality beverage and food in a hotel now. We are targeting the long-stay clients so that business stays over the weekend. It also helps the hotel set up a personal relationship with the guests. The meltdown has cut hotel trade down to size,' Cooper told IANS.

The chain is building three Courtyard hotels to 'accommodate the needs of moderate tier business travellers'.

Several hotel chains like The Park, the Sarovar Group and Premier Inn India have entered the mid-market moderately priced hotel segment in the last two years.

One of the first movers in the mid-market segment, the Lemon Tree Hotels currently has 10 operating hotels - and 17 more in the pipeline - aggregating over 2,500 under 'construction'.

According to Rika Jean-Francois, product manager for South Asia and Pacific of ITB-Berlin, which is looking for strategic partnerships in tourism, India was projected as a potential market in the next five years.

The SATTE-ITB 2010 travel fair, which began Jan 29, ends Today, Sunday 31st January.

Jumeirah wins two major European travel awards

Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hospitality company and a member of Dubai Holding, picked up two titles at the German edition of Business Traveller magazine.

Business travellers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland voted Jumeirah as Best Hotel Group in the Middle East for the second year in a row.

Jumeirah Beach Hotel kept its Best Hotel in the Middle East award for the third consecutive year.

The two awards were handed to Jumeirah Frankfurt general manager Dagmar Woodward.

The Frankfurt property is set to open in September 2010.

Furthermore, in the sixth edition of the ‘GT Tested’ Reader Survey, Jumeirah was recognised as the Best Hotel in the Eastern United States: Jumeirah Essex House, New York City and Best Hotel Chain in the Middle East: Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts, for the second year in a row.

Readers of Global Traveler magazine are American premium travellers, averaging 32 round-trip flights a year, with 96% travelling in first or business class regularly.

More than 25,000 readers responded to the survey

China bugs and burgles Britain

THE security service MI5 has accused China of bugging and burgling UK business executives and setting up “honeytraps” in a bid to blackmail them into betraying sensitive commercial secrets.

A leaked MI5 document says that undercover intelligence officers from the People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of Public Security have also approached UK businessmen at trade fairs and exhibitions with the offer of “gifts” and “lavish hospitality”.

The gifts — cameras and memory sticks — have been found to contain electronic Trojan bugs which provide the Chinese with remote access to users’ computers.

MI5 says the Chinese government “represents one of the most significant espionage threats to the UK” because of its use of these methods, as well as widespread electronic hacking.

Written by MI5’s Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, the 14-page “restricted” report describes how China has attacked UK defence, energy, communications and manufacturing companies in a concerted hacking campaign.

It claims China has also gone much further, targeting the computer networks and email accounts of public relations companies and international law firms. “Any UK company might be at risk if it holds information which would benefit the Chinese,” the report says.

The explicit nature of the MI5 warning is likely to strain diplomatic ties between London and Beijing. Relations between the two countries were damaged last month after China’s decision to execute a mentally ill British man for alleged drug trafficking.

Earlier this month the United States demanded that China investigate a sophisticated hacking attack on Google and a further 30 American companies from Chinese soil.

China has occasionally attempted sexual entrapment to target senior British political figures. Two years ago an aide to Gordon Brown had his BlackBerry phone stolen after being picked up by a Chinese woman who had approached him in a Shanghai hotel disco.

The report says the practice has now extended to commercial espionage. It says Chinese agents are trying to cultivate “long-term relationships” with the employees of key British companies: “An undercover intelligence officer may try to develop a friendship or business relationship, often using lavish hospitality and flattery.

“Chinese intelligence services have also been known to exploit vulnerabilities such as sexual relationships and illegal activities to pressurise individuals to co-operate with them.”

The warning to British businessmen adds: “Hotel rooms in major Chinese cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, which are frequented by foreigners, are likely to be bugged ... hotel rooms have been searched while the occupants are out of the room.”

It warns that British executives are being targeted in China and in other countries. “During conferences or visits to Chinese companies you may be given gifts such as USB devices or cameras. There have been cases where these ‘gifts’ have contained Trojan devices and other types of malware.”

China has repeatedly denied spying on Britain and the West. Its London embassy did not comment.

In 2007 Jonathan Evans, the director-general of MI5, had written privately to 300 chief executives of banks and other businesses warning them that their IT systems were under attack from “Chinese state organisations”.

There have been unconfirmed reports that China has tried to hack into computers belonging to the Foreign Office, nine other Whitehall departments and parliament.

Last year a report by Whitehall’s joint intelligence committee said China may be capable of shutting down critical services such as power, food and water supplies. But the latest document is the most comprehensive and explicit warning to be issued by the UK authorities on the new threat. Entitled The Threat from Chinese Espionage, it was circulated to hundreds of City and business leaders last year.

The growing threat from China has led Evans to complain that his agency is being forced to divert manpower and resources away from the fight against Al-Qaeda. His lobbying helped to prompt the Cabinet Office to set up the Office of Cyber Security, which will be launched in March.

By: David Leppard

Source: Times Online

INTERVIEW: The man who helps hoteliers make money

If he had any doubts, Andy Cosslett certainly knew he had made a success of running InterContinental Hotels Group when at a recent Washington convention one enthusiastic hotel owner chased him up a crowded escalator, vigorously shook his hand and shouted: 'I just want to thank you. You've made me a truckload of money!'

When Cosslett took over in 2005 after 14 years in various roles with Cadbury Schweppes, he found himself in charge of a fragmented group of hotel brands - some owned, some franchised - covering different parts of the market, from the flagship InterContinental to Crowne Plaza, Staybridge Suites and Holiday Inn.

Over the past five years, Cosslett, 54, has implemented a massive sale of the hotel properties so that IHG owns only 16 of the 4,400 hotels it operates over seven brands in nearly 100 countries - the rest are owned by franchisees. IHG is now the biggest hotel operator in the world by the number of rooms it has - more than 640,000.

Despite such impressive statistics, Manchester-born Cosslett - known to everyone as Andy - remains down to earth, admired both for his straight-talking and readiness to drag his team off to the nearest pub for a pint.

He has also embarked on an ambitious relaunch of Holiday Inn with a £600 million, four-year makeover that has already seen 1,700 out of the 3,200 hotels modernised.

'The brand had run out of puff,' says Cosslett bluntly. 'So we're replacing the Holiday Inn estate with a newer one that meets with what our guests really want, such as internet access. I'm confident that it's going to pay off even in the recession because we've spent years doing our homework.

'As we're not spending our money on these hotels, but asking the owners to spend money, it would be cavalier to ask them to spend money on things we don't absolutely know are going to make a difference to the performance of the hotel. Part of my job is to keep asking questions and get the facts.'

Although the hotel industry has just gone through one of the worst recessions in recent history - IHG's operating profits fell by 40 per cent in the first half of 2009 - Cosslett is still optimistic.

'I think it's a great time to be in the industry,' he says. 'The overall demand for hotels is going to stay strong - people are living longer, having longer retirements.' While business travel has been 'hammered-leisure travel has hardly missed a beat. 'It's interesting because when people have less money and fear for their jobs they continue to travel,' he says. 'People are still taking leisure breaks - our hotels are full at weekends.'

IHG is ploughing ahead with ambitious growth plans, opening 350 new hotels in 2010, and Cosslett says: 'We've outperformed the industry pretty comfortably for the past two years, which is important to us as that tells us we're doing the right thing.'

However, Cosslett admits the hotel industry can be slow to change direction. 'The industry spent a lot of money installing CD players in hotel rooms the moment that the iPod was launched,' he says.

'It also spent a lot of money putting computers in hotel rooms at the time people turned up with laptops and BlackBerrys - some of that could have been avoided.

'You need to be in touch with what's going on in the broader world, but it's a traditional industry and it takes time to make changes.'

Cosslett is keen to stay out of budget hotels and the very top end and is focusing on expanding IHG's Staybridge brand, aimed at the extended-stay market, and Indigo hotels, which are design-led with limited service, outside the US.

Aside from the Holiday Inn relaunch, what is taking up most of Cosslett's time at the moment is lobbying the Treasury to get a reduction in VAT in the hospitality industry to five per cent.

A keen rugby fan who plays tennis, swims and runs regularly and has a golf handicap of eight, Cosslett lives with his wife and two teenage sons in Buckinghamshire and is looking forward to the 2012 London Olympics, which IHG is sponsoring.

But Cosslett says: 'At the moment, Government policies are threatening the investment that the hotel and tourism industry wants to make, particularly in the run-up to the Olympics.

'Germany and France have both recently reduced VAT levels in the hospitality sector in an effort to stimulate more demand and create jobs. Perhaps this is an approach we should think about in this country?'

By Sarah Bridge

Source: Mail Online

Barbados Shores Up a Troubled Four Seasons

Call it a bailout, Caribbean style.

Barbados, a popular vacation spot for the affluent, is bailing out the troubled Four Seasons luxury-resort development on the tiny island. Construction of the project stalled a year ago as financing dried up and sales of its private villas slowed, after initially attracting a cast of celebrity buyers.

In a bid to salvage jobs, the government of Barbados agreed last month to guarantee a $60 million loan from a Caribbean bank to help restart construction. In return for the guarantee, the government ultimately will end up with a 20% equity stake in the project.

The down side: if the developer defaults, Barbadian taxpayers will get stuck with the loan.

While $60 million is small in comparison with the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on bailouts in the U.S., it is a big commitment for a nation whose government revenue totaled just $549 million last year. Like other Caribbean islands, Barbados, with a population of roughly 270,000, depends on tourism, which accounted for 15% of its gross domestic product last year and 64% of its total earnings.

Government loan guarantees for hotels are rare. But they might become more common in the Caribbean, given the recession's toll on the industry, which has hit hardest at the market's luxury end. In the first three quarters of 2009, developers canceled construction of 20 luxury hotels in the Caribbean, which would have added 4,000 rooms in the region, according to hospitality-research company Lodging Econometrics. By comparison, 23 luxury hotels with a total of 5,300 rooms were canceled in the U.S. over the same period.

In such a tough environment, hotel-industry analysts say, some tourism-dependent islands could choose to get more involved in various projects to help ensure their flow of well-heeled visitors in coming years. "It's going to take government subsidy and government intervention to jump-start many of these deals" in the Caribbean, says Scott Berman, a hospitality-industry consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

The Barbadian project is one of several hotels in the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts chain that have run into trouble amid the current slump. The chain runs 83 hotels that carry its brand, but doesn't own any of them. It makes money by charging their owners management and branding fees.

In Dallas and San Francisco, Four Seasons hotels have gone delinquent on their mortgages, their owners have confirmed. Beanie Baby tycoon Ty Warner is negotiating with lenders to extend a mortgage on his New York Four Seasons and three other resorts because they weren't generating enough cash flow to automatically qualify for an extension, says a person familiar with the matter.

The Four Seasons chain, which the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates bought for $3.4 billion in 2007 in partnership with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, is squabbling with some of its hotel owners over cost cutting, which it fears could cheapen its luxury image.

A particularly nasty dispute with the owners of the Four Seasons Resort Aviara in Carlsbad, Calif., is in arbitration, both sides have said.

A Four Seasons spokeswoman declined to comment on issues involving the owners of the chain's hotels, but added that the properties' operations continue as normal.

For Barbados, stepping in to backstop the Four Seasons loan was a final, dramatic solution. Two previous efforts by the resort's developers to land new financing, most recently from Maybach Group of Canada, had failed.

The new loan from Caribbean bank Ansa McAL Merchant Bank will go mostly toward paying off a previous $31.5 million loan from Bank of Scotland used to buy the resort's 32-acre site.

In a statement outlining the deal, Barbadian Prime Minister David Thompson said, "I am pleased to support an initiative where Barbadians pull together to put an iconic project back on track–one that will help shape the future of tourism in Barbados."

The Four Seasons Barbados is the brainchild of Mike Pemberton, a 68-year-old, U.K.-born developer who has lived in Barbados for three decades. Among the Caribbean properties he helped develop are Barbados's Glitter Bay Hotel and the Fairmont Royal Pavilion hotel, as well as a Ritz-Carlton in St. Thomas.

Mr. Pemberton began planning for the Four Seasons when Sandals Resorts International put Barbados's former Paradise Beach Hotel on the market in 2004. He assembled a group of European investors, arranged for the Bank of Scotland loan and bought the hotel and its surrounding land.

Mr. Pemberton's group then razed the hotel to make way for a 110-room Four Seasons and 35 private villas priced at $11 million to $18 million apiece.

Early on, the villas attracted big-name buyers, including "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and Formula One team owner Eddie Jordan. Inspired by Mr. Pemberton's home on the island, the models ranged from 10,000 to 20,000 square feet, and included private pools, indoor ponds stocked with koi or small sharks, floor-to-ceiling windows and hardwood floors.

Mr. Cowell's villa spans two plots and cost $32 million. His representatives didn't return calls seeking comment.

Mr. Pemberton, who initially planned to handle only sales and marketing for the project, had to step in as general contractor when no suitable contractor could be found on Barbados, he and others say.

By late 2008, his project was running into difficulties. Only 16 of the 35 villas had been sold. Buyers who had made deposits of 10% to 40% were slow to make additional payments. In January 2009, Mr. Pemberton's group stopped construction with the villas only partially completed and little more than groundwork done on the hotel.

Now that Barbados has stepped in with a loan guarantee, Mr. Pemberton and his investors expect construction of the development to resume this quarter. Once they find a new contractor, Mr. Pemberton's company, Cinnamon 88, will go back to handling the project's sales and marketing.

Mr. Pemberton's investors, led by British real-estate investor Robin Paterson, reckon they will need another $250 million in villa sales to finance the completion of the resort.

To do so, they must find another 19 buyers willing to pay eight-figure prices. "The government and we are confident about the continuation of villa sales," Mr. Paterson said.

That won't be easy in the current economy. Scott Smith, an analyst with hospitality-research company PKF Consulting Inc., predicts Caribbean villa sales will remain in a lull for several years until travelers rebuild enough wealth for such discretionary purchases.

"It's going to come back, but probably not until 2012 or 2013," he said.

By:  Kris Hudson

VoIP 'increasingly popular with hospitality industry'

An increasing number of companies in the hospitality industry are implementing voice over protocol (VoIP) systems in the hope of improving customer services and staff accountability, it has been suggested.

Stan Schatt, vice-president of ABI Research, tells TMC Net that VoIP technology allows customers of hotels and resorts to make bookings more easily.

"High-end hotels are increasingly turning to technology as a differentiator to attract a high-spending clientele," he comments.

The recent Enterprise Communications in the Hospitality Industry report from the research company noted that worldwide VoIP revenue from the hospitality trade is expected to exceed $2 billion (£1.2 billion) by 2014.

Mr Schatt adds that VoIP technologies will initially be focused on those who spend more than $300 a night in hotels or resorts.

According to Oz VoIP, implementing the medium will allow members of the hospitality industry to regain revenue by offering guests cheap calls, which will provide an incentive for them not to use their mobile phones.

Chris Wheeler - My Life in Hospitality

Chris Wheeler is the executive head chef at Stoke Park Country Club and Resort.

Chris Wheeler told his careers officer he wanted to be a zoo keeper, but was informed he would have to be a vet.

"Catering was my second choice," he explains. "I suppose it's nearly the same though - feeding animals!"

After a nine-month cheffing work placement in France, Wheeler realised that he didn't want to do anything else.

"There is such a passion for food in France and it was infectious," he explains.

Upon finishing college, Wheeler had the choice of earning £120 per week at a local fish and chip shop or £50 per week working for Jean-Christophe Novelli at Le Provence in Lymington, Hampshire.

"Obviously I went to Le Provence - something to this day my father has never quite understood," he laughs.

Within a few months the restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star and after just a year, Novelli gave a 19-year-old Wheeler an ultimatum: step up from commis to sous chef or be sacked.

However, in 1993 the entire staff walked out of their jobs at the same time after the restaurant owner turned up one evening and demanded a customer leave so that he may have his table.

"Jean-Christophe walked out that night. The rest of us finished the service but we didn't go back," remembers Wheeler.

Despite being offered the job of head chef at the tender age of 20, he chose to develop his skills as a pastry chef at a Surrey hotel before rejoining Novelli's team at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mayfair, which proved to be a massive change in both lifestyle and workload.

"It was a shock to go from the country to London. We all had to step up a gear because we suddenly had so many restaurants to compete with," he says.

"But it was an amazing experience. We were awarded five AA rosettes, which is a fantastic achievement for a seven-day operation."

When Novelli decided to quit Mayfair for Clerkenwell to open Maison Novelli, Wheeler went with him. There followed a tumultuous period of dizzying highs followed by a crashing fall.

"After six successful months at Maison, we went crazy. We opened six restaurants in one year," he recalls. But four years later, all six businesses went bankrupt in one week.

In 2003, after a period of freelancing and unemployment, Wheeler decided it was time to set up on his own, at which point he went to Stoke Park Country Club and Hotel as executive head chef.

HIGHS... At Stoke Park, Wheeler was able to put his pastry skills to good use when he was asked to bake the cake for the 2004 Daniel Craig film Layer Cake, which cast and crew all tucked into at the end of shooting.

Le Provence provided Wheeler with some of his biggest career highlights.

"Every Monday we'd have the likes of Raymond, Marco - my heroes! - coming down to see us. I still have the photos," he recalls.

"Getting the first Michelin star was a huge high. We were so excited we jumped in the river - it was January so it was quite cold!"

When Fay Maschler came to review Maison Novelli, Wheeler had to don Novelli's white shirt and take charge of front of house.

"No one else spoke English," he explains. "It was the best experience. I really learned to appreciate the jobs of others."

As a result, Wheeler makes sure most of his chefs at Stoke Park spend a few weeks in a customer-facing role so they too can understand the bigger picture.

LOWS... Aside from periods of unemployment, Wheeler describes the closure of all six Novelli restaurants as his lowest point, particularly as they'd declined an offer of £5.5m to sell the chain.

"We'd worked so hard and we were doing so well, so it was really difficult when it fell apart. But we had spread ourselves too thinly.

"When I get depressed, I dig out and look at that offer letter."

Family Fiancée, twin daughters
Age 36
Favourite holiday Lake Como, Italy
Drives Ford Maverick
Motto Give everybody a chance


RECESSION-BUSTING TIP

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