Hotel Operations

🍷 Levan and Bar Levan focus on low intervention wines; half of Levan's wine list is devoted to the Jura region, France. Bar Levan offers a dynamic 'by the glass' list, changing weekly with 12-bottle purchases, a cellar list, and an extensive mezcal selection. Notable wine list recommendations include Brawn in East London, Bokman’s in Bristol, and Planque in East London. Raphael Rodriguez is respected for his wine industry knowledge. The best value wine at Levan is from Stajerska Kollective in Slovenia at £7.50 a glass. A memorable pairing involved a dessert with Westwell's sparkling cuvée Pelegrim, limited to 90 bottles. Andi Mann from Rheinhessen, Germany, is currently favored for producing quality, accessible wines. Alsace, France, is considered an underrated wine region.

🍴 Yannick Alléno, a French chef at Pavyllon in London's Four Seasons Hotel, admires Auguste Escoffier for modernizing cuisine with his brigade system and emphasis on sauces. A transformative moment in Alléno's career was a critique by François Simon in Le Monde, prompting a personal culinary reflection. Alléno's advice to aspiring chefs includes hard work, perseverance, and self-belief. His kitchen essential is a Mauviel frying pan from the M'ELITE collection. He prefers à la carte dining, enjoys chips as a fast-food choice, and would ban eggplant from his hypothetical restaurant dictatorship. Instagram is his social media platform of choice, and his ideal food and drink pairing is a marble-aged wine with wood-fired roasted venison served at his three-star restaurant, Alléno Paris at Pavillon Ledoyen.

🍴 Home restaurant in Leeds, launched August 2017 and relocated to Brewery Wharf in November 2021, is closing due to soaring costs and low consumer confidence. Chef and restaurateur Elizabeth Cottam cited a "perfect storm" for her business with energy bills rising from £2,000 to £10,000 a month and no fixed energy contracts available. The tasting menu started at £65, peaking at £145. Home was shortlisted for National Restaurants Awards Opening of the Year in 2022. Cottam plans to keep her team for future projects, exploring simpler, community-based concepts. Her other restaurant, The Owl, remains open.

💻 Martin Soler, a fractional CMO and co-founder of 10minutes.news, Europe's most-read hotel newsletter, discusses hotel tech priorities from a C-level perspective, underlining the need for cloud-based systems to enhance guest experiences. He notes that non-cloud PMS solutions hinder tech evolution in guest services. Soler also addresses the potential of using travel influencers to boost off-season hotel demand, the growing need for flexible workspaces in hotels, and the importance of creativity in hotel marketing. Additionally, he suggests that buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) models, successful in e-commerce, could benefit the hotel industry. Soler emphasizes the tech battle between Airbnb and hotels, advising hotels to invest in digital transformations and become as convenient as Airbnb to avoid losing customers. He proposes the creation of a new role, Guest Experience Designers, to integrate technology into enhancing guest experiences without losing the human touch.

🎰 Palms Casino Resort utilizes Crestron technology for automation, enhancing guests' experiences with flexible digital content distribution in restaurants and precise environmental controls in suites and villas. The resort features over 40 table games, 1,300 digital games, and diverse dining options with atmosphere settings adjustable by any staff member. Casino lighting shifts with the time of day, while audio is managed through touch screens controlling individual speaker zones. Raul Daniels, VP of Event Sales & Catering, acknowledges Crestron's role in streamlining operations for a consistent guest experience.

🍴 The Texas Restaurant Association Show ended on a Monday in San Antonio, followed by the announcement of Texas receiving its own Michelin Guide covering Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston. Texas becomes the 11th North American location with a Michelin Guide, joining others such as California, New York City, and Washington, D.C. A 2019 Ernst & Young study revealed that 42% of consumers use the guide internationally, and 61% domestically for dining decisions. Michelin has rated restaurants in over 40 countries since its first guide in 1900. The Texas guide will evaluate restaurants on quality, flavor harmony, cooking techniques, chef's personality, and consistency.

🍴 Dave McCarthy, head chef at Scott's in London's Mayfair, began his culinary career at 16 as a weekend kitchen porter. He admires chefs Anton Mossiman and Pierre Koffmann, dislikes whistling in the kitchen, and was once critically reviewed by AA Gill. His cooking style focuses on simple, classic dishes with great ingredients. McCarthy can't live without a tomato knife and favors à la carte over tasting menus. His dream last meal includes Tournedos Rossini, and his go-to fast food is Five Guys.

🍻 Natalie Diaz-Fuentes and Edson Diaz-Fuentes opened Santo Remedio in Shoreditch, London, in 2016; however, it closed after five months. Reopened in London Bridge in 2017, offering tacos and mezcal Margaritas. In 2022, they launched Santo Remedio Café back in Shoreditch, initially planned as Santo Remedio Taqueria. The couple balances business with family life and plots expansion despite pandemic challenges.

💰 Aptech collaborates with BirchStreet Systems to enhance the procure-to-pay (P2P) process, combining cloud-based enterprise accounting and P2P software. This integration aims to streamline purchase orders, invoicing, budgeting, and payments, addressing critical hospitality industry challenges such as staffing and supply management. Southern California's Twenty Four Seven Hotels, utilizing both Aptech's PVNG and BirchStreet's software, reports improved vendor relations and operational efficiency. Key benefits include real-time spend reporting on purchase orders, improved cost control, and increased P&L review efficiency.

💰 Aptech and BirchStreet Systems collaborated to enhance the procure-to-pay (P2P) process for hoteliers, offering cloud-based accounting and P2P software integration. This helps control purchase orders, invoicing, and financial efficiency. Southern California's Twenty Four Seven Hotels, already using Aptech and BirchStreet, improved operations by integrating PVNG for accounting with BirchStreet P2P, eliminating manual data entry and vendor payment delays. Aptech's PVNG software and BirchStreet's tools combined streamline the hotel industry's financial management.