HOTELS Beatles-themed hotel on market for £11m


Liverpool’s Beatles-themed Hard Days Night Hotel is on the market for £11m. Te luxury 110-bed hotel


opened in 2008 when Liverpool was named the Capital of Culture and has proved popular with fans from all over the world. Property consultancy


CBRE has been tasked with finding a buyer. Director Shaun Skidmore expects there to be keen interest as this is the only Beatles- inspired hotel in the world and features exclusive Beatles artwork by world-renowned artists, as well as photographs from the early 1960s. He said: “Bringing the Hard Days Night Hotel to market, we’re offering a unique opportunity to acquire not only a culturally significant property, but a hugely successful, luxury hotel with an inter- national client base in the best location in one of the UK’s most popular cities.” General manager, Mike Dewey, said: “Te


hotel was created as a unique blend of high quality hotel facilities with a subtle twist to


Te Fab Four-theme has proved popular with Beatles fans


cleverly portray Te Beatles’ incredible story.” With four bars and restaurants and confer-


ence facilities, the hotel is a popular wedding and conference venue. Te flagship restau- rant, Blakes, is named aſter the pop artist who created the iconic artwork for the Sargeant Pepper album cover and features wall to wall original artwork. Owner, Merseyside entre- preneur Tony Criss, is selling it as he believes the time is right and he has no plans to run another hotel. Details: http://lei.sr?a=w4z3H


Tourism boom bolsters room rates


VisitBritain is predict- ing another year of record inbound tourism numbers this year, forecasting a 2.5 per cent growth in visitors. According to the Hotel Price


Index, published by Hotels. com, home grown consumer confidence and more inbound visitors has led to a 2 per cent increase in room rates across the country in 2014, pushing revpar up to £104. Bristol made the biggest


gains, with room rates rising 13 per cent to £87. Scotland performed well, with Dundee, Perth and Edinburgh all reporting increases and the Commonwealth Games helped Glasgow improve rates by 12 per cent to £86. Leeds was also given an 8 per cent liſt, thanks in part to its hosting of the opening leg of last summer’s Tour de France. All but five of the 46 destinations reported


their figures had increased. Tose who didn’t include some traditional favourite destinations: the Cotswolds, Jersey and the Lake District. Bradford, Scarborough and Blackpool were reported to offer the best value, with a room in


© CYBERTREK 2015 Te 2014 Tour de France helped to liſt hotel room rates in Leeds


Bradford costing around £51 a night, including a 5 per cent rise. Vice president of Hotels.com, Matt Walls, said: “Te UK clearly displayed the ability to attract a record number of visitors in 2014. Europe continues to provide the bulk of the inbound travellers, with rises in both the leisure and business sector, yet there is no doubt that global events such as the Commonwealth Games, Ryder Cup and Tour de France last year helped boost the average hotel prices paid.” Details: http://lei.sr?a=t5B2R


Twitter: @leisureopps W


Fighting back against false reviews


PETER DUCKER is chief executive of the Institute of Hospitality


hen trade suffers as the result of false or malicious online reviews, business owners usually feel


powerless. Tis may now change thanks to a landmark High Court ruling. When you read a negative online review


of your business that you know is fake or malicious, your options are limited. You can ask to have the review removed, but anyone who has tried this will tell you it is no easy task. Receiving prompt and effective co-operation from faceless global organisa- tions is not common. Another option is to ignore the review completely and hope that the positive outweighs the negative. A third option is to take legal action


against the individual responsible for posting the defamatory and false review. To date, successes in this area have been extremely rare, but now a landmark ruling in London’s High Court will set a precedent for future cases. Te High Court awarded £50,000 damages to a law firm, finding that a false posting online was defamatory. The defendant Jason ‘Jay’ Page is a


young man in his twenties who lives with his parents in Telford. Page had report- edly advertised on Twitter as being willing to post ‘feedback’ or ‘testimonial’ for US$5 via Fiverr.com. Tis would, the judge noted, provide a possible motive for his targeting Te Bussey Law Firm, of which he had no personal knowledge or experience. Te case shows that it is possible to pursue


the authors of false or malicious reviews through the courts. It is unlikely that he and his firm will have recovered all their damages and costs (the false review reportedly remained on the website for nearly one year). Tey can, however, point to the verdict as vindication. The case also highlights the growing


and worrying evidence that some com- panies are resorting to paying for reviews, whether to enhance their own reputations, or to disparage their competitors. At least now leisure operators that find themselves in a similar position have a successful case to refer to. Te hope must be that this case will make those tempted to post false or malicious reviews think twice in the future.


Read Leisure Opportunities online: www.leisureopportunities.co.uk/digital 13


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