The majority of chain restaurants are refusing to, or are unable to give up discounting a new report has found with 64 per cent of the top 50 in the UK still offering vouchers to diners.
Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) is continuing to expand its boutique hotel brand Hotel Indigo with the signing of Hotel Indigo Cardiff, the first Hotel Indigo to open in Wales.
The upcoming Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations may provide a boost to hospitality businesses of a similar scale to the one enjoyed during the Royal Wedding last year but hotels may face a challenge to fill rooms, according to Priceaterhouse Coopers...
Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), which operates the Harvester and All Bar One brands, has reported positive sales growth in its half year results driven by food although profit for the business has dipped and poor weather has hit recent sales.
April proved to be a washout for the eating and drinking-out market as unusually cold and wet weather hit like-for-like sales, according to this month’s Coffer Peach Business Tracker.
Hotels in the UK posted April results that PKF Hotel Consultancy Services described as 'exceptionally strong' with a stronger performance compared with the same month in 2011 when the industry was boosted by the Royal Wedding.
Marston's has reported strong half year sales with an increased focus on food, families and female customers helping to drive pre-tax profits up by nearly 15 per cent.
Malmaison and Hotel du Vin owner MWB Group has today admitted that trading for the first quarter has been ‘challenging’, with room occupancy and F&B revenues across both brands levelling out, and a ‘slight reduction’ in Malmaison’s revenue per available...
Network Rail has revealed it expects to post record retail figures from its newly-launched Western concourse at King's Cross station driven in part by the restaurants and bars on site including Leon and the Fuller's pub The Parcel Yard.
Meliá Hotels International has predicted it will experience a 'strong' performance in the UK in the third quarter of the year driven by the Olympics and the opening of ME London as the Spain-based operator reported increased profits and revenue...
Enterprise Inns has reported a drop in profits but revealed it was slowing its pub disposal programme and was looking to refinance after cutting its levels of debt.
London is set to welcome its second Peruvian restaurant this year, with the opening of LIMA from World's 50 Best chef Virgilio Martinez in the ever-popular Fitzrovia neighbourhood next month.
UK pubs are estimated to have benefited from the 13.8m international visitors who visited a pub in 2011 to the tune of more than £40m, according to new figures released by the national tourism agency VisitBritain.
The Government in Scotland has confirmed it will push for a minimum price per unit of alcohol of 50p if its proposed legislation to introduce minimum pricing north of the border is approved by the Scottish Parliament.
Silla Bjerrum, the co-founder of Japanese restaurant and takeaway chain Feng Sushi and one of the restaurant industry's biggest sustainability champions, has told BigHospitality attitudes towards sustainability have changed beyond recognition in...
More than half of UK diners believe that speed of payment is now a more important issue for a restaurant to address than the quality of food, with 89 per cent claiming that slow payment has ruined their evening.
A major row between Scottish-based independent brewer BrewDog and global drinks giant Diageo provided ‘great media potential’ for the pub group, with its Twitter followers able to escalate the issue into a global trend overnight.
Hoteliers in the UK are being advised to market themselves towards guests from three emerging markets – Singapore, South Korea and Brazil – in a bid to increase room bookings.
Jurys Inn has become the first international hotel group to secure AIM accreditation from the Meetings Industry Association (MIA) for all its UK venues and is the latest hotel operator to announce its ambitions in the meetings sector.
InterContinental Hotels Group has revealed revenue per available room (RevPAR) in the UK grew in the first three months of the year and described the market as resilient as profits surged across the business.
A new report from global ratings agency Fitch Ratings has concluded there is a growing divergence in performance of pubs in the UK between managed sites and those that are tenanted or leased.
Accountancy firm Baker Tilly has analysed the latest figures from insolvency regulators The Insolvency Service and revealed the number of hotel and licensed businesses appointing administrators dropped unexpectedly in the first quarter of the year.
UK-based international hotel group Millennium and Copthorne (M&C) has reported a 24 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to £25.9m in the first quarter of 2012.
The average price of a three-course meal in a UK restaurant has risen by 7.1 per cent to £20.90 - up from £19.52 last year, while the average price of an individual dish has risen nearly 3 per cent year-on-year, from £6.19 to £6.41.
Liverpool and Manchester have experienced big rises in the number of international tourists they attract as cities in the regions begin to emerge as rivals to Edinburgh and London for foreign visitors.
Bar and nightclub operator Novus Leisure has announced it is on track for record profits of nearly £20m for the 12 months to June in a financial update this morning.
National pub group JD Wetherspoon has announced that it is to reduce the number of new pub openings in the next financial year as it grapples with a £50m increase in its annual tax bill.
The branded restaurant sector is to grow by more than 20 per cent in three years and fast food operators are to spearhead growth in the eating out industry, according to the Allegra Project Restaurant 2012 report from Allegra Strategies and Barclays.
Almost half of UK restaurant-goers – equating to some 15 million people - rate discount vouchers as ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important when deciding where to dine out, with the number continuing to increase.
Hotel prices during the Olympics period later this Summer are continuing to rise with the cost of rooms in the capital up 65 per cent on average on last years prices although occupancy levels still have room to grow, according to the latest study from...
The Plaza restaurants at Salford's Lowry Outlet Mall have seen sales rise by more than 20 per cent driven in part by the increased footfall in the centre from nearby developments including the BBC move to MediaCityUK.
Advertising in all the right places and whittling down prospective candidates for a job can seem wasted if you are forced to dig out the job description again after only a few months. So how can you ensure staff development supports the recruitment process...
Restaurant, hotel and coffee shop operator Whitbread has reported an 11.2 per cent increase in total revenue for the financial year to 1 March 2012, with Group like-for-like sales also up 2.6 per cent.
The latest findings from a customer service benchmarking survey show that 87 per cent of hospitality businesses are not providing good enough service to generate guest recommendations.
The hospitality industry has reacted to the news the UK economy has returned to recession and is now in a 'double-dip' recession, according to the latest figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The British Hospitality Association (BHA) has revealed results of a new survey which show an overwhelming majority of operators support calls for a VAT cut.
As pub group TCG launches a new quick service food concept, foodservice analyst Horizons warns that managed pub companies could encounter problems as they run out of space to grow in the pub market and may have to consider becoming restaurants in their...
De Vere Group has announced it has disposed of two hotels with plans to sell two more to fund development of its brands including De Vere Village Hotels where Robert Cook has launched a new luxury room type; 'Upper Deck'.
Cyrus and Pervin Todiwala have launched an event catering partnership for their pan-Indian restaurant Café Spice Namaste with the London-based event company and caterer Moving Venue.
Raymond Blanc, Spirit Pub Company, The Clink and Sark Island Hotels are among hospitality professionals and businesses nominated for the Footprint Awards 2012 which celebrates sustainable and environmental excellence in the foodservice supply chain.
Pubs and bars are among the country's 'most distressed' UK businesses with a massive 95 per cent rise in critical problems faced by the sector in the first quarter of the year, according to the latest Red Flag Alert statistics from Begbies...
The UK restaurant industry is weathering the financial storm, with increased consumer spend and on-going innovation in the foodservice market providing a solid foundation for post-recession recovery over the next 18 months.
UK hotel investment remains the most active in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) but increasingly more 'creative transactions' are being considered over straight cash purchases, according to two new reports out today.
The so-called 'Pasty Tax' will be introduced as planned after a last-minute amendment to the Budget proposals for VAT changes on hot takeaway food was narrowly defeated by 35 votes in the House of Commons last night.
Spirit Pub Company has announced it is continuing to transform the business as pre-tax profits for the 28 weeks to 3 March 2012 rose 7 per cent to £20m driven by a strategy for the managed site portion of the business.
International hotel operator Accor has revealed in its first quarter results that increased revenue growth globally has been driven in the UK by a very strong period in London with occupancy rates at near record levels for the French company.
As the countdown to the London 2012 Olympics reaches the last 100 days hospitality businesses are being urged by VisitBritain and People 1st to 'warm up their welcome' and improve customer service to make the most of the Games.
In the ten years since the World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards was launched a wide variety of gastronomic and dining styles have been represented in the top 50 so as excitement builds for the 2012 list BigHospitality asked chefs and experts what makes...
