GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

for the last two BGCMs, so I feel about weird not welcoming you there, but

welcome to the Stratford Manor Hotel. Hopefully in two years’ time we will be

back at the Quorn Grange Hotel, because at this moment in time we cannot

accommodate everybody successfully, so I am just keeping my fingers crossed

for the decision that is held on Tuesday.

2017 has started very well with an occupancy budget for the first quarter

January to April of 59%. We have actually achieved 65% this year, an increase

on last year of the same quarter when we did 54%. The average room rate is

as budgeted of £63 for the first quarter. Occupancy forecast for the next

quarter is a budget of 70% and we are forecasting to achieve a minimum of

74% for the next quarter. Food and beverage continues very strong. May to

September are our strongest months of the year with a wedding every

weekend from now on until the end of October with a total of 71 confirmed

weddings in total for the year. In July, which was our busiest month, we had 13

weddings in the one month and currently for 2018 we have 45 weddings

booked. We continue to serve 80% of our inhouse residents and have recently

launched a platinum lunch club which has now 280 signed up members with an

average of 10 to 15 covers every day.

Following the refurbishment of the bar and the lounge area, which I think you

have all seen, the bar continues to attract local customers with the live sports

matches and a promotional beer at £2 a pint and we are looking forward to

selling the GFTU beer which is coming online very soon. Guest feedback has

become a large part of our business with TripAdvisor becoming more and more

important and responding to and taking note of the feedback. We remain fifth

in the Loughborough area TripAdvisor and in our current reviews, and anybody

can see them online, in our past 30 reviews we mainly now have five star with

the occasional four star thrown in. A lot of staff are being mentioned in the

reviews and our competitor, Quorn Country, which I know some of you have experienced, has now dropped to 10 th so they are busy marketing our hotel for

us all the time by doing what they are doing.

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