Congratulations
…To Matthew Croxford, [pic top left] winner of the WLP Simply the Best award for December 2007 and to Claire Johnston [pic top middle], winner of the WLP Simply the Best award for January 2008. Wonderful and fantastic members of the team and well deserved awards to both!
…To Claire Markham who moves from Head Receptionist BH to Reservations Manager BH. A well deserved appointment and congratulations to Claire! [pic top right]
…To Daniel Healy [pic bottom left] and to John Keane [pic bottom middle], promoted to Deputy General Manager (BH) and Meetings and Events Operations Manager (BH) respectively.
… To Wayne Turner, Dave Seward and the WLP team for the re-appearance of WLP in the 2008 Michelin Guide after a few years break – sadly those three Michelin stars remain elusive but to appear in the guide at all means that the Michelin inspectors have been in and recommended us for inclusion.
Awards update
Beales Hotels have reached the shortlist of two prestigious awards :
Finalists in the Sustainable City Awards 2008 run by the Lord Mayor of London – with over 120 entries, we are in the final 5!
Finalists in the Coutts Bank 2007 Family business of the year award – again in the final 5 for this award. We will know the results of both shortly.
Website news
have a look at www.bealeshotels.co.uk for lots of changes and innovations ! The staff pages are bigger ever and are password protected. For shareholders there is a new shareholders site which is also password protected. There is a new home page that reflects the fact that Beales Caterers has launched now. 11157 visitors came to our website in January 08, 1773 downloads of the WLP Christmas 07 brochure took place in the past 6 months while 1461 downloads
Christmas 07 brochure took place in the same period, and 76 people entered the latest website competition. Meanwhile HotelRez continues to impress with over £200k of revenue to BH in the last 10 months and over £100k to WLP.
Estates News
WLP Rooms 16 [pic left] and 71 [pic right] are now complete and we are now finishing off 45 and 12 before starting work on 15. Meanwhile, at BH, plans continue for the top floor of 19 rooms with a final decision expected this month on whether to proceed this summer or to delay until next year. Much depends on the readiness of the architects and builders. At WLP the refurbishment of the Terrace Bar and Cedar Restaurant will move forward in 2008/9 with all the brickwork being plastered over, the ceilings plasterboarded, and new furniture, curtains, carpets, and a remodelled bar area.
Marketing News
following the successful launch of the WLP 2008 Special Events and Weekend Breaks brochure in December, the equivalent BH 2008 Special Events and Weekend Breaks brochure is now out, [pic left] featuring all inclusive concert dinners with the University of Hertfordshire Philharmonic Orchestra, Taittinger and Hertfordshire evenings and a Simcha Showcase to target the Sunday jewish function market.
Training and development news
a packed programme of events for our staff is planned over the next few months with ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) continuing successfully, company inductions, licensing courses, management development courses, tree felling, appraisal training and Rationale self-cooking centre training to name but a few. All in the capable hands of Aimie Chatfield [pic right] and Carolyn Mills [pic left].
Andrew Beale
Managing Director
