Coming up in this column: A David Walliams sound-a-like, a stuck record, a stained sofa, straws for teaspoons and why the words “book now for Christmas” are wrong. 

 

On 13 January, a Sunday, I was listening to Trisha Goddard on Talk Radio. As always, it was an interesting show, and it was just about to get even more interesting as Trisha introduced UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls. Kate spoke in her usual professional and informed manner, flying the hospitality industry flag high. Later that same Sunday, I had switched stations to LBC, and so too had Kate! There she was again, working hard for our industry, championing the sector while weaving in messages to government on the macro industry “must haves”. Brilliant. Articulate. Focused. Sharp. Dedicated. 

 

It reinforced my perception that UKHospitality is firing on all cylinders. But is it the same for hospitality in the UK? Is hospitality in the UK firing on all cylinders? It isn’t, is it? On that same Sunday that Kate was grafting away on our behalf, I cycled past a managed pub in Liverpool Street. “Book now for Christmas” was the message in their external poster frame. Hello? It’s 13 January, Christmas has been and gone. That is hospitality not firing on all cylinders. 

 

I have another one. I walked in to a pub where I very cheerily enquired of the chap behind the bar: “Hi there, do you sell coffee?” His single word reply of “no” was delivered in the same emotionless, dreary, monotone voice David Walliams adopts for his “computer says no” character in Little Britain. That’s hospitality not firing on all cylinders. 

 

In a very recent visit to another pub, another managed house, I was served the worst burger I have ever had. I suspect the chef cooked the chips and triple cooked the burger when it should have been the other way round. That’s hospitality not firing on all cylinders. And then there was the pub owned by one of the normally really good pub retailers that for more than two weeks served its coffee with straws for spoons. Yep, that’s hospitality not firing on all cylinders.

 

And I have another coffee story. In November last year, I sent Costa a “tweet” congratulating it on its recently posted excellent numbers. In the tweet, I also suggested it could use some of its new found profits to sort out the sofa at its Spitalfields branch, attaching a photo of the truly disgusting, manky, stained piece of furniture. It is now 2024 and that manky stained sofa is still there, and just as disgusting. That’s hospitality not firing on all cylinders. 

 

Oh yes, and stuck records. I used to love going to the lobby of this super cool hotel in Shoreditch, spending an hour or two tapping away on my phone. It’s a place to sink in to one of its super comfy sofas, sip a coffee or beer, think, and just let the atmosphere of the brilliantly curated music wash over you. I particularly like going on a Sunday afternoon to plan my week. However, recently, the music has gone a bit skew-whiff, being either too loud or too many beats per minute, or both, for that lazy Sunday afternoon occasion, and as a result, I stopped going.

However, last Sunday, I thought I would give it another go. I arrived, found a comfy spot, ordered a drink, sat back and then crossed my fingers hoping its current choice of music – You Make Me Feel Mighty Real by the high-energy falsetto-voiced 70s disco artist Sylvester – would end and some lovely cool lazy Sunday afternoon musical vibes would kick in. They didn’t. In fact, things became worse. The song was on repeat, and over and over again we heard how Sylvester’s disco dancing companion made him feel “mighty real”.

 

By now, others were noticing, and we were giving each other furrowed-browed quizzical glances as we collectively grew mightily fed-up. I stepped in to sort things out, politely informing one of the waiting team that the song appeared to be on repeat. He said (emphasising the word you): “You think it’s bad? Try working here.” But he agreed to investigate and get back to us. He returned circa three plays later, only to inform us that unfortunately he couldn’t sort out the problem. Yes, it’s vaguely amusing, but it’s hospitality not firing on all cylinders. 

 

If UKHospitality’s lobbying for the important macro issues succeed – and hospitality operators consider the micro matters such as “book now for Christmas” in January, computer-says-no service style, Sylvester on repeat and straws for spoons as one single vitally important macro issue – the sector’s slow recovery could get that little faster. UKHospitality and hospitality in the UK both firing on all cylinders could be a real force to reckoned with. Mighty real.

The popularity and use of the word “sustainability” has exploded over the past few decades. But just because it’s well circulated, doesn’t mean it’s understood. And we had a hunch that the definition was more than a bit woolly. 

 

That insight led to an interesting discussion between Fleet Street and leading research company, Trajectory. We both wanted to get a more solid understanding of what consumers really thought about the term sustainability, and some of the other terms used to describe the climate crisis. 

 

As communicators, it’s (obviously) essential that we tell stories to inspire and motivate our audiences, using words that resonate. But with the increased awareness of “greenwashing” (plus “greenshifting”, “greenlighting”, “greencrowding” and others) – and the lawsuits to match – we weren’t entirely convinced that a thoughtful, well understood narrative really existed. 

 

We set out to gather a better understanding of the terms that consumers really use when they talk about the climate crisis. We hosted four focus groups, simply prompting people to tell us which are their go-to terms when they speak about climate change. 

 

Using that insight, we ran a quantitative piece of research among 1,000 people to provide data about which terms people loved, and which they loathed. Here’s what we found: 

 

1. What you’re doing matters: People really do want to hear what businesses are doing to tackle climate change. They care, and they want to hear about the progress businesses are making to address the threat of constantly changing climates. 

 

2. Business has the most responsibility to act: People want to hear about business’ progress, because people believe that brands and businesses have the most responsibility to behave sustainably – more so than governments, or consumers themselves. 

 

3. Consumer cynicism is rife: However, consumers are often cynical. Especially when it comes to climate change initiatives, consumers display widespread cynicism. There is a lack of trust. 

 

4. Poor understanding of climate change terms is an issue: And the research highlights this may well be because consumers have a limited understanding of what many climate change terms really mean. 

 

5. Carbon related terms are especially problematic: Especially terms including “offsetting”, “net zero” and “carbon neutral”. These terms are particularly poorly understood among the general public. This is concerning when, right now, the climate change debate is centred on decarbonisation and how we can drive a reduction in carbon emissions across our societies and economies. 

 

6. Terms need to be functional and actionable over conceptual: But there is hope, because the terms that consumers do resonate with are instructional and pragmatic. Terms like “recyclable” and “reduce energy use”, which are much more functional, were better received by consumers than conceptual terms like “circular economy”.

 

7. One size does not fit all: Finally, the research highlighted very different responses across socio-economic groups. Age and stage at which consumers leave education both have a big impact (with younger and more highly educated consumers having a better understanding of the language and issues). So, the approach brands take needs to be tailored to specific target audiences and segments.

 

In summary, the research showed us that consumers do have an appetite for learning about brands’ sustainability efforts. Where we need to focus our attention now is on using language that helps to explain some of the more complicated concepts (like circularity), while also being inspirational and practical and building trust along the way. 

 

Fleet Street is a strategic communications agency, specialising in food and drink culture. We help build brands that people want to buy from, work with and invest in. Drop us a line to find out how we can help you with your strategy and comms. Trajectory is an insight and foresight consultancy. We help brands understand how consumer behaviour is changing and what is driving that change. Please get in touch to see how we can help you understand your consumers better.

This year, there’s been a 11.5% surge in the annual minimum wage – once the increases for lower age workers are added into the mix. It’s left the industry shocked and, understandably, raising even more concerns about the hefty financial load weighing on our sector, with the associated risk for the industry.

 

For those of us, me included, still grappling with the aftermath of our coronavirus loans, life just got tougher. As I’ve been sharing with many, we took out loans of £150,000 per pub during the pandemic. Initially, a base 5% interest rate seemed manageable with such low base rates, but now our rate has doubled to 10% and the burden has significantly intensified. We’re still in the process of paying off the loan, and now each pub requires an extra £40,000 before we even begin to make headway.

 

Even with payroll at 30% of sales for a business generating £1.5m in turnover, the minimum wage hike is tacking on an additional £50,000 to our expenses, and our profit, if we don’t act. What used to be a substantial but manageable variable cost for labour is increasingly becoming the toughest and most challenging line on the P&L.

 

My job as a restaurant owner and software supplier is to figure out the best way to manage my business going forward. Really, there are only two options: put up prices or drive further efficiencies. The reality is we will have to do both. As we see month-on-month food prices dropping and the price of electricity seemingly stabilising, we might hope that we can slightly raise prices and convert most of that increase to our bottom line. The question is, how much do we dare increase prices when already the customer has a degree of cheque shock?

 

The remainder of the cost savings will have to come through further efficiencies. For us, the biggest debate will be how we can drive food efficiencies. We aren’t big enough to have a central kitchen, a smart efficiency that other businesses have enacted very well, but we can start to make dishes for both businesses and buy in where we can find a good enough quality product. I think over the next year, many businesses will need to look much more seriously at this.

 

We really don’t like restricting opening hours. For us, availability is key, and we will lose business overall if we shut early in the week or in the afternoons. We have worked hard to get our team numbers down on those very quiet days, so we just about scrape through to zero profit on the day. 

 

After these kinds of measures, it does come back to labour efficiency, and I still think there is a lot that, as an industry, we can do. The real challenge is how much effort and energy we can, and should, put into labour efficiency. 

 

Giving someone a budget and telling them to deliver is not really management, just as the blunt instrument of a labour percentage is no longer acceptable. We are going to have to embrace several things we have chosen to avoid – proper slack-based budgets, good shift planning and identification of slack tasks are just a few. The hard yards in labour management are upon us again!

 

Tipping is like a hospitality game of “show your appreciation”. Staff go above and beyond, and customers show their gratitude with a little bit extra. It plays a vital role in the hospitality industry, but how do you accurately report and distribute tips while keeping your financial records organised? There are two common mistakes to avoid when it comes to tipping and accounting.

Keeping financial reports in order is crucial for a hospitality business. Messy records can lead to tax compliance issues, penalties, legal problems and even audits from regulatory authorities. To make matters worse, manual data entry and outdated accounting processes often contribute to data entry errors and higher administration costs, which can negatively affect serving staff.

At Outmin, we see the consequences of inaccurate record-keeping first-hand – ill-informed decisions, owner overwork or missed investment opportunities. To ensure efficient tip reporting, it is essential to have a clear written tipping policy and an independent tronc operator to manage the distribution. In the UK and Ireland, documented tipping policies are now required by law.

According to audit, tax and advisory network KPMG, “a tronc is an arrangement for collating and distributing tips and discretionary service charges run by a ‘troncmaster’, who must be independent of the leadership/ownership of the business (e.g., a site general manager or a head waiter) and is responsible for deciding how tronc funds are allocated to participants”.

Modern hospitality businesses are embracing innovative technologies like tap-and-go payments, delivery platforms and digital point-of-sale systems. However, these advancements don’t align well with outdated practices like manual reporting. 

Automated solutions are useful in situations like this – they integrate various financial aspects into a single system, virtually eliminating human errors. Plus, weekly reports help you understand your finances faster, make informed decisions and comply with regulations, including reporting on tips.

Fairly distributing tips among staff members is no longer a nice gesture. Now, it’s the law. New legislation changes (both draft and passed) aim to make the system fairer and ensure employees receive a fair share of tips. A qualifying tip is a voluntary payment given by customers to show appreciation for good service. It can be in the form of cash, check, credit/debit card or digital payment services.

For hospitality brands in the UK, the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 prohibits employers from keeping tips and requires them to ensure that all staff members receive their fair share. In Ireland, the Payment of Wages (Amendment) (Tips and Gratuities) Act 2022 provides similar guarantees for contract and part-time hospitality workers.

According to global legal intelligence platform Lexology, “the code sets out the key principles of fairness for the purposes of allocating and distributing tips and states that employers should apply these when developing and implementing their tipping policy”.

Even though the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 is still in draft form, it clearly aims to guarantee that tips intended by customers to recognise service is passed on to workers rather than being kept by the employer.

For instance, the UK draft Code of Practice (implementation July 2024) states that there should be a written policy regarding tip handling accessible to all employees and agency workers. Engaging in discussions with employees to ensure consensus on the fairness and transparency of tip allocation is also encouraged.

Finding success for a hospitality business in 2024 will be underpinned by a dedication to accurate records. For tipping, it’s vital to keep accurate records and distribute them fairly. 

Automated accounting solutions help reduce errors and make tip reporting more efficient. Following tipping regulations and promoting transparent tip-sharing policies creates a positive work environment and builds staff trust. Recognising and rewarding your employees’ hard work prevents conflicts and improves efficiency. 

Supporting fair wages for your service staff and staying up to date with new regulations are two of the best ways to avoid accounting and record keeping errors in your business.