Taxi Driver Online

Just a brief note about Edinburgh Hotels and how one member of Edinburgh council believes there is a boom in the hospitality industry.

5/5/05

Edinburgh in hotels boom

COLIN DONALD

DONALD Anderson, leader of Edinburgh Council, issued an urgent call for more private investment in the city’s hotel industry last night, after new statistics showed the capital’s hospitality sector is enjoying its biggest boom on record.

The report, published yesterday by market researchers PKF, showed Edinburgh’s average daily hotel yield - the figure gained by multiplying occupancy rate by price point - to be £60.2 in 2004, an increase of 7.4 per cent on the previous year. The equivalent figure in Glasgow was £40.88, and £38.45 in Aberdeen.

Commenting on the figures, Anderson repeated his call to the Executive to provide more resources to speed up the planning restrictions governing hotel developments to counteract what he now says is "Edinburgh’s problem of success".

He added: "Apart from the amount of time it takes to get a hotel planning application through, I see no limits on the expansion of the sector. We need more hotels. There has never been a better time to invest."

Anderson also underlined that this increase in occupancy rates - more marked in the winter season - has been achieved against a 20 per cent rise in the bed stock since 2001.

Council sources have privately expressed disappointment that some "prime sites" for hotel development, such as Morrison Street in the new financial district, and the site of the former Royal Infirmary, have so far remained undeveloped as hotel sites.

Martin Gill, a hotel analyst for PKF, said: "Provided you can get the price right and the location right, the figures show that Edinburgh is still one of the best places in the UK to open a hotel."

Confirmation of the capital’s success in attracting hotel customers comes after a March report by accountants DeLoitte Touche, which saw Edinburgh debut in the global top 20 in terms of hotel revenue and occupancy rates.

Analysts have ascribed much of the success of Edinburgh to the city’s strategic mix of accommodation types, the rise of the so-called "Easyjet Set", budget travellers who have fed a boom in lower-end hotels with rates in the £40-£60 bracket. This sector has outperformed other levels of the market.
But Gill warned that hotel expansion could still be threatened by infrastructural inadequacies.

"You have all of these extra people coming in, but there comes a point when you have to do something about traffic bottle necks. Airport connections are vastly inferior to those offered by the Heathrow Express or Manchester’s trams".
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realcabforce wrote

basing findings on errors! well i think everyone should question a report based on errors and flawed data dont you
does he or any one else need a special right to question this or anything else ?
we can all make suppositions or guesses ,but jacobs were paid a lot of money not to make suppositions, but to gather the facts.
guess what they failed miserably
how do you think this report and the previuose report by halcrow compare?
it does not make good reading for the jacobs report

I think it is quite understandable that "cabforceforum" is upset, there are far to many people interfering in the Edinburgh cab trade, with neither any knowledge of the trade or just generally mischeif making and worse.

I did a bit research myself this morning "JD" and none of the hotels you mentioned you contacted have heard of you, or, remember being contacted in the last few days, now that suggests to me that either you are fibbing or you are not talking to the right people.

I find it difficult to spend hours of time on this, but I stand by what I said earlier, the report "overall" provides a realistic picture of what is going on at the moment, but it is fairly clear that (indeed has happened) the figures can be manipulated to suggest a flaw in the report. Nothing clever about it, just a desperate attempt to claw some credibility.

It is hardly surprising these eight hotels gave you a blank stare when you asked about JD. If you did phone up you will know the procedure each hotel uses, perhaps you might have had better luck if you had asked the switchboard if she new Donald Duck?

Regards

JD

If you are not man enough to admit Jacobs figures are wrong then by all means do what suits you best. This report consists of three elements only, an Armchair, a Telephone and several video cameras. Oh! and a lot of Bullchit.

Whats more, even though I don't really have the time, "I shall prove it".

So anytime you want the truth Mr Cabforce you know where to find it.

Regards

JD

There you go again. You have the temerity to use a quote from a survey/report WITHOUT checking its accuracy just because it fits in with your beliefs. Why not get hold of the report by PKF and explore its findings - they might well be "flawed."
At the end of the day, your dissection of Jacobs is also flawed because it is based on your interpretation of the report, your selective use of figures (sometimes out of context) and information you have from a biased source who also has his own agenda.
Do not think that I am worried by your statements, threats (implied) or the puerile ramblings of Ali T, Skull et al. I have been in this trade long enough to know that those who make the most noise and complain about things they don't really understand tend to vanish as quick as they came, once they are exposed for what they really are.
Would you not be better concentrating on your own area rather than interfering elsewhere? At least you may have some knowledge of it.

I posted an article on the thriving hotel business in Edinburgh. Why do you get your nickers in a twist?

Sit tight and enjoy the weekend I'm sure your cabby colleagues up there in Edinburgh will be out making plenty of money while your sat behind your computer blowing a gasket.

Regards

JD

Well, as no one else seems to be asking, then I suppose I 'd better.

Ali T - where are you quoting from when you state that all the applicants will receive a "sympathetic response" ?

And what exactly does this mean? A free plate ? Or a place on the interested parties list ? Or something else entirely ?

I hope it's a free plate !!!!!!

nothing in this world is free mike, i bought some brown envelopes today cost me plenty

"Coward, when are we going to meet? Seems JD has got you worried and rightly so."

Skull

Skull (is your second name duggery?)

I suggest you give Mr Greenhalgh, erstwhile Dragon dodger of Cab-ti-vate a wee ring.

I've seen this illiterate vitriol, and reeking vested interest before. Seems familiar. As does the invective.

Meanwhile, I could make a guess at the number of taxi jobs in the Edinburgh area.

Try this & tell me if I'm wrong.

1260 taxis x 2 shifts = 2520
X 150 jobs per shift per week = 378,000
X 48 weeks per year (allowing for four weeks holiday) = 18,144,000

This is a conservative estimate. While not all taxis are double shifted, it also doesn't allow for double shifted vehicles with part time weekend workers.

It's based on street car experience and doesn't account for increased volumes from radio work, particular in the outskirts when a street car may return to the town centre at busy periods unengaged or early morning when streets are empty and street cars head off to beddy byes.

It doesn't take into account that during busy periods the average number of fares per week may reach 200 or more.

It doesn't account for zealous effort from new entrants to the trade, or desperate effort from those chasing expensive on-going costs of new vehicles, radio dues etc.

It assumes 4 weeks annual leave per driver, but doesn't account for owners filling holiday periods with part time drivers.

It doesn't account for extra specially busy periods, such as Edinburgh Festivals etc where fare numbers would apreciate significantly and drivers/owners would work harder in the feast.

It makes no account of the trips taken by private hire.

All in all, it is a fairly conservative estimate. But it's based on practical experience, and still comes up with a figure approaching 20,000,000 taxi trips in Edinburgh per annum, excluding the aspects mentioned which would increase the figure dramatically.

And, significantly, it dwarfs the figure suggested by Jacob and calls into question its statistics and, consequently, the validity of the whole report.

Finally can I say a wee message to Mark Greenhalgh, under whatever guise he's pretending to be - even the foul mouthed version which I recognise from another, less accessible, source?

Markie baby, there's a Tsunami coming in your direction. Trust me boy. And, remember, you heard it here first.

Jim Taylor

Well, well if it isn’t Toulouse Greenhalgh I thought it was you right at the start of all this then I thought na, must be one of the Queens from the sewing bee.

How’s it going Mark nice to see you’ve got your finger on the pulse? I take it things are not looking to rosy in the garden now that Jacob’s is being exposed for the sham that it is.

So come on tell us who bought off Jacob’s, or was it “just give us the information we need” take your money and run.

I’m guessing that your wee pals up at the Council are hanging you out to dry, never mind you can always get a free plate.

Just in case anyone is wondering Independent Taxi Services alias Cabtivate is the reason the Edinburgh plate value was being talked up. Mr. Greenhalgh is the broker for the buyer and the seller of Edinburgh Licence Plates.


Looks like you’ve got a lot to lose Toulouse, na luck.


www.cabtivate.com

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.
George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

I realise nothing is free, Ali T.
But I did pay £700, so not exactly free!!
Just wondered what you knew that I didn't - I certainly have not heard any good news from anywhere re my application - care to share where or who intimated we will get a " sympathetic response " and, again, what does this mean?

Yeah,You said "truth and justice" , you are starting to sound like some sort of comic book character and you can take it as read that this "site" would be the last place I would be looking for the truth.

What you moaning about so jacobs was a fix except it . Jacobs found no sud in Liverpool . Yet we have over 100s of cars from sefton working in the city . Jacobs did a cutomer survey one in the city centre by a Taxi rank an other by the asda by a taxi Rank. asking people if they have trouble getting a taxi . I wonder what the answer was . So much for the survey being independent . It not even clever . streetcar