What Can Awards Really Do for Your Hospitality Business?

Jason Gale00:00:00

I had a meeting with Bill Clinton. He was trying to raise money for his foundation.And at the end of the meeting, he said, jason, I shouldn't really say this, but London is the greatest city in the world. And I left. And I couldn't sleep that night.A, because for the one and only time in my life, I was completely starstruck because he was such an impressive character, and B, because this was going around in my head about London is the greatest city in the world and I wanted to celebrate it. And what makes it the greatest city in the world? Well, for me, hospitality was central to that.We like to celebrate everything you do outside of work, everything that people enjoy. That's why people have come to London.You know, I know we say we come for the jobs and everything, but if you don't have great hospitality, who's going to want to be here?

Timothy R Andrews00:00:54

Hello, Jason Gale. Welcome to Talking Hospitality.

Jason Gale00:00:58

Hi, guys.

Timothy R Andrews00:00:58

It's been, I think, three years in the making trying to get you on here.

Jason Gale00:01:02

Yes. It's been a bit difficult, has it? Which I do apologize for, but it's great to be here. This is a lovely little setup you've got.

Timothy R Andrews00:01:08

Thank you very much.

Jason Gale00:01:09

Yeah, excellent.

Timothy R Andrews00:01:10

Yeah, we've made. We're doing studios now, aren't we?

Joe McDonnell00:01:12

Made it all ourselves.

Jason Gale00:01:13

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:01:14

This morning. Bit of balsa wood paint.

Jason Gale00:01:17

It's great. It's great.

Joe McDonnell00:01:18

I missed a bit up there, but it's fine.

Timothy R Andrews00:01:20

But thank you so much and welcome to the show. Because I. We've been. I've been watching you since the beginning. Really.

Jason Gale00:01:26

Absolutely.

Timothy R Andrews00:01:27

And seeing how London Lifestyle Awards has grown and grown and grown, it's become much bigger than I think even you anticipated, really. So I want. I want you to tell our listeners what is London Lifestyle Awards? What's it about? What does it represent? And how did you get there?Because I think your story is really interesting.

Jason Gale00:01:46

Yeah. Well, thank you. Thanks, Tim. We started in 2010.As you know, I was traditionally a PR man side a PR company mainly dealing with hospitality, but a bit of beauty in her and bit of celebrity on the side as well. And I was a bit of an awards geek.I used to go to all the awards and some people didn't like them and I used to love them and wait for the invites to come or buy the tickets.And this was back in the 2008, 2009, and to be honest with you, I got a little bit frustrated with them because a lot of the awards that I was seeing, that was. That was representing the industries that we all Love, they're either a bit political or some of them were pay to play.You buy a table, you win an award or, or you, if you know the critic or you know, friends and everything. And it just seemed, it just said. I felt as though hospitality in particular deserved public's input more.And I wanted to develop a consumer facing awards because that's who we're all trying to please, that's who we're trying to be hospitable to. So yeah, I had my PR company and big name drop here. I had a meeting with Bill Clinton.

Timothy R Andrews00:03:00

He was no way this is going.

Jason Gale00:03:03

He was trying to, he was trying to raise money for his foundation. And at that time I had some influential wealthy people around me. So I had this meeting at the Dorchester of Bill Clinton.It was only 20 minutes, half an hour meeting but of course I was so excited. And at the end of the meeting he said, jason, I don't know if you know this story, but I mean uses your name all the time.He's talking and he's just so impressive. He said, jason. The last thing he said, he said, jason, I shouldn't really say this but London is the greatest city in the world.And I left and this was before the Olympics, before lots of people were talking about it was and I went home. Yes, it is. He said, you know, I'm a Darwin northerner and since I've come to London, I've loved, loved it.And I couldn't sleep that night a because for the one and only time in my life I was completely starstruck because he was such an impressive character and baby sisters going around in my head about London is the greatest city in the world and I wanted to celebrate it and what makes it the greatest city in the world. Well, for me, hospitality was central to that. So for two days I went and wrote the treatment, the plan for the London Lifestyle Awards.And I wouldn't say I forgot about it, but I had a busy PR company and I wrote this treatment. And then back to Monday morning. I was back at work in the PR office and doing all stuff and it was in the back of my mind.And then about a month later there was a knock at the office door. And I opened the door and it was my old friend Emily.And Emily had worked for me previously and she'd gone off traveling for a year and she said, jason, when I come back, will you have a job for me? I said, emily, always, I'll always have a job for you.And I didn't, so I didn't The PR company was our max and we'd, you know, I couldn't really take anybody and I'm there. And I said to her, I have this idea. Can you do a feasibility study on it?And I can give you a month's worth of work looking into this, see if it is a real possibility. And of course after a month she came back and said, of course it can work and you need me to, to do it with you.So, so we basically said the Data was off and running and we, we went out when the, the idea was, is that we celebrate the best of London. But instead of the critics choosing the public choosing.So we devised this thing where the public or businesses can nominate themselves, anybody can nominate anybody, and then we bring a short list which we now call the top 10. And then the public vote and nobody knows who's wins until the night of the awards, etc.And we've done it for 15 years and it's been, it's, it's been a journey. It's. Anything in this arena, any event as we know is tough and it's difficult, but we built a platform that's.We do about 30 events a year in London leading up to the awards, small little events in different places and we do some publishing and everything around it. Just celebrating the best of the best really. And I love it, I still love it. It's aging me, but I love it.

Timothy R Andrews00:05:57

Might be the 15 years that.

Jason Gale00:05:58

Yeah, yeah, maybe, maybe, yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:06:09

But like. Because obviously luxury lifestyle is a specific sector within a sector kind of thing.And it's not just, it isn't just hospitality though, is it, that you do?

Jason Gale00:06:19

So we, yeah, so we, we try not to just celebrate luxury. The real top end. We obviously do.We obviously that, that is a, you know, the, the hotels that won in the past and everything are ultimate luxury and we love that. And we love out the bars and everything, but we also celebrate pubs and we celebrate coffee shops and hairdressers and beauty salons.We, this year for the first time we have wellness facility because wellness is a big thing that we should all be thinking about. And we've got some great wellness facilities. And then we, we, we've celebrated cultural attractions.We always celebrate theater every year, best theater show. So it is varied. It's basically we like to celebrate everything you do outside of work, everything that people enjoy.That's why people have come to London. You know, I know we say we come for the jobs and everything, but if you don't have great hospitality, who's going to want to be here.

Timothy R Andrews00:07:07

Absolutely.

Jason Gale00:07:08

So, so this is, this is what we're trying to celebrate and, and give that maximum profile. And I think that that is becoming more and more important as hospitality gets harder and harder and harder to do well.Gets harder and harder and harder because of macro reasons, really. I think it's more important than ever that we, we, the awards exist and we celebrate them.

Joe McDonnell00:07:30

Yeah, it's super important as well to have those little moments of celebration because it is such a. We don't have those typically, we don't have those traditional, you know, periods where everybody is simultaneously not busy.

Jason Gale00:07:42

Yeah, right.

Joe McDonnell00:07:43

For one, for the events industry, that might be the busy time in the summer, but then that's the time when non students at ease die.

Jason Gale00:07:49

Yeah.

Joe McDonnell00:07:49

I'm from Sheffield.You know, summer's the quietest time for bars and restaurants and, you know, and cafes there because there's no students there anymore, you know, and so we don't have that, that here's the time of the calendar year where we say, right, we're all got time to pause and stop. So you sort of forging that path with what you do. You know, it's important to mark those moments, right?

Jason Gale00:08:08

It really is. And some of these, some of the businesses that attend, you know, our, our awards culminates on.It's usually about November 3rd, 4th, 5th around there, usually around there. This year it's November 3rd.And the businesses that enjoy it so much, win or lose, because nobody knows to the night, are the ones that bring their teams with them.And I've said so many times, when you know somebody's gone on stage because they're in the top 10 or they're a winner and it's just been them as the owner or the senior manager and they didn't bring the team.They said, I regret it so much not bringing my team to this because you don't often be able to be in that sort of environment altogether and enjoy it and also see lots of other people from bars that you used to work in or hotels or that you're going to work in next thing that happens. So sorry, Mandrake, but, but you know, I really enjoy that element of it. I'm really enjoying seeing the industry get celebrated from the public.But celebrating together, maybe you should move.

Joe McDonnell00:09:12

To a paid, a pay to win model. You know, more people bring that to you.

Jason Gale00:09:16

Well, that's, but that's how it happens. You know, I go, I still go to a lot of other awards and I'm not gonna, I went to one a couple of months ago. And it was. It was a great night.It was a great night. Not in our industry, a different industry. And it was a pay to win situation.And everybody knew and they said, well, we're willing to pay because we can now use this to say we're great. And they were all good businesses. It wasn't as though somebody was paying in the rubbish. They're good businesses, but it was transactional.But there's a thousand people in the room. There's a thousand people all paying a thousand pounds ahead. So, you know, it's a good business model, but it's just not what I want to do.

Timothy R Andrews00:09:52

It's a little bit cynical, though. I mean, I get it. I understand why people do it.

Jason Gale00:09:56

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:09:57

You know, when I had my business once, we paid to be in a magazine to get some award for something.

Jason Gale00:10:03

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:10:04

It just doesn't. It doesn't. You just know as well when you're presenting, going, hey, we've, we're number one, whatever it was, it's just.

Jason Gale00:10:11

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:10:14

But you're absolutely right in terms of employers getting to him, you know, to support the teams as well. Teams.Because an employer which I worked for, which will not be named, we had people going to an event, they won and there was no one there to support them.

Jason Gale00:10:32

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:10:32

I mean, that is embarrassing. Yeah, yeah, that is embarrassing. It's not that there isn't money in the pot, it's just, oh, no, we're not going to. We're not investing that.And then they won.

Jason Gale00:10:43

It is. It is a real shame in some businesses that just don't, you know, we get 2,000, about 2,000 nominations a year across all our categories.And you talk to the businesses, you talk to them and you go on a journey with them throughout the year. And. And some of the businesses, they, unfortunately, they don't get the mechanic of it and how it can benefit them. And it's.There's no cost to enter and, you know, the night, the night to go to the night with your team. It's, you know, it's a fair few pounds.It's, you know, two and a half grand a table, three grand the table, whatever table you want, but you should make money back on it because of the marketing collateral that it gives. And also this camaraderie that you get when you take your team out to an expensive night. They know you've spent money on them. That is so rewarding.And I've known. I've known people that have decided to stay in their jobs because of Being at not just my awards, but by being looked after properly on a night out.Yeah, by doing something nice instead of just, you know, giving them McDonald's vouchers or whatever it is, they've actually gone, let's get dressed up, let's go, let's be out together.Because you've worked really hard and one of the reasons we do November is because at the beginning of November, you know, you've got to get the best out of your team for the next six, seven, eight weeks. They're going to be working very hard. Money, you know, so, you know, here we go, let's get together, go out tonight, have a great time and then.

Joe McDonnell00:12:07

Don'T go out again for the next 7 weeks

Timothy R Andrews00:12:10

You can have your party in February.

Jason Gale00:12:13

Yes.

Timothy R Andrews00:12:14

Just not on Valentine's because you're busy that night.

Jason Gale00:12:17

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:12:25

Actually I want to go before because obviously tickets about to go on sale.

Jason Gale00:12:28

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:12:28

We want to talk about how people can either enter or be involved.Now before we do that, one of the questions that keeps going around in my mind is that because you've been going for 15 years, you've seen the industry change, some of the sort of values are changing. Can you talk a little bit about, like your observation from when, when you first started to some of the shifts that have gone on.We're going to talk in hospitality terms, obviously hospitality to where we are now. What's improved, what's got. Needs improvement, shall we say? It's gone backwards maybe.

Jason Gale00:12:59

Well, I think anybody who's come on, on your podcast will have said they've seen massive changes over the last. Of the last period and, and certainly over the last 15 years.And I sit in a quite a nice position because what I can see, I can see who the public are nominating and who the public are voting for and how that changes and how that changes over the, over the years. And for instance, we've, we've created some new categories because of what the public are demanding.So a few years ago we had, we brought in activity venue of the year, you know, competitive socializing, you know, the put shacks of the world and everything. And we got a great category for that and I was celebrating that.And it's one of our most voted for categories because we saw that like everybody's seen that people go out now that don't just want great food or a nice drink or good service. They want to be entertained, you know, with Leah and London Cabaret Club and everything. These, these places that are putting in our entertainment.We've seen a rise in them Doing better and better and better and better. Where the. At the beginning you could, you know, the pubs that did well, for instance, some of them didn't even serve foods that doing well.Now the pub, all the pubs that get voted for, they've all got a great menu selection. Brilliant. I've seen. So I see that's happening a lot.And also this, this big movement where people like to go to a venue and start and finish at the venue now where when I was out seven nights a week instead of the five that I'm currently doing when I first met.Yeah, I know when I first met you, Tim, I was hopping about, you'd go to five, six bars, maybe have a bit to eat and then you might do two or three clubs in a night.

Timothy R Andrews00:14:36

Probably passed each other in the street.

Jason Gale00:14:39

Well, exactly.

Timothy R Andrews00:14:40

All seven nights.

Jason Gale00:14:41

Yes. But that doesn't seem to happen quite as much. I think it's a much more destination experience now. And you know, we see this.We've just recently launched on the back of the. The awards, a concierge service. And because we've been requested over the years, where should I go? What restaurants?And I usually send them the top 10 and say choose. They're all brilliant. But we wanted to, we wanted to complete that circle.But what we found is that people, with the concierge, what people want to do, they want to say we want to go there, but we want drinks before dinner and will they play music later so we can have a little boogie around the table. Yeah. And there's lots of places doing that. So that's been a big development over the last 15 years. Because it was very different 15 years ago.It wasn't like that.

Timothy R Andrews00:15:25

Do you think that's to do with the trend with alcohol not being quite so important on people's genders? You know, a third of Gen Z don't drink, for example.

Jason Gale00:15:32

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:15:33

So it's more. Because let's face it, if you're going out for a drink, it doesn't matter too much where the venue is by a certain period of time, realistically.Right.So because people are not drinking so much and a bit more health conscious and maybe do you think that's had an impact on the experience that people want?

Jason Gale00:15:52

Yeah, I think it. I think it has. And that's been. That's. I've seen that more in the last four or five years.You know, just, just a bit before COVID I really noticing that.But I think what, I think what happened with just one destination place, which is places like, you know, the Late night restaurant, Novikoff and places like that 10, 15 years ago, you know, I saw that's they were, they entered that market and then we had monkey house in places where you could just go and dance.And that hurt the clubs, that hurt the high end clubs at the time because people were going into the club, they were thinking, well we can dance here and, and there's some hot people over there so you know, hopefully we'll dance together eventually.And so the people stayed in the restaurants and then everybody else, you know, sort of cottoned onto that and thought, right, so we've got to be better entertainment later on. And the late night bars and late night restaurants ate into that nightlife. So I think that's how you could stay in one place.I wouldn't have dreamt about being in a restaurant at one in the morning 15 years ago, but I think on.

Timothy R Andrews00:16:52

The way back I might have been Compton Street.

Jason Gale00:16:56

Yes, well, yeah, well an institution that was. Yeah, you know, is. Yeah, brilliant. But yeah, I think, I think we've gradually seen that change and I, I like it.I like going to a place and being able to stay there all evening and becomes different things. And also if you're going out with a group of people, this is a challenge in hospitality.If you're going out with a group of people, you will have two that doesn't drink, you will have some vegans, you will have the peanut allergy, you know, and that's got a lot more difficult.

Joe McDonnell00:17:32

I don't invite my peanut allergy friends out anymore.

Jason Gale00:17:35

I'm not even friends with them. Sorry, Phil.

Timothy R Andrews00:17:40

Oh, you know Phil.

Jason Gale00:17:42

Peanut Phil.

Timothy R Andrews00:17:43

Peanut Phil.

Jason Gale00:17:45

Shame about that choking. Awful.

Timothy R Andrews00:17:48

Whatever happened to him after that.

Joe McDonnell00:17:51

So, Jason, So British Lifestyle Awards. Bread and butter's been London for the over a decade.

Jason Gale00:17:57

Right? Yeah.

Joe McDonnell00:17:57

We're moving further afield now.

Jason Gale00:17:59

In 2000, 2016, 2017, we did go to five of the cities around the UK and we did that with the TV company.It was a local TV companies and they had Bristol and Leeds and Newcastle and they licensed the brand from us and we went and it was, it was a bit of a joint venture but based on a license thing and we, we had great times in Bristol, Hull, Newcastle, Birmingham. It's great, it's brilliant.So we did the awards for a couple of years but unfortunately that local TV model went and so did the awards went and we've always missed it.And it was interesting because there's lots of things going in London but no offense to us northerners, when you turn up at Leeds or Hull, where I'm from. And you're doing something as great as the awards. It's. It's a. It's a moment for the city. They get excited about it and so we've missed those.So we've missed those. So we're bringing those back.And also with licensing, further field, we've been running a party in Monaco for the last few years around the Grand Prix time. So there's. The Monaco Lifestyle Awards is in fruition and Dubai is coming along and so all these places.So, yeah, we're delighted to spread the message, really, and celebrate. The great things are in other cities. I won't be standing on those stages because London's my thing.I'm passionate about London, but I'm finding people that want to license the brand or JV with me, that passionate about their. Their city. Like in. In 23rd of September this year, there's the Estonian Lifestyle Awards in talent, because they're passionate about talent.So, yeah, go do your Lifestyle Awards. We'll support you, we'll support you. But you've got to stand on the stage and celebrate talent.Because I can't be truthful and go, yeah, talent is the best city in the world. It is the talent people. But. But I'm. I'm a Londoner, you know, I'm celebrating London.

Joe McDonnell00:19:42

Although it didn't stop Bill Clinton.

Jason Gale00:19:44

It didn't. I know. Bit naughty. Yeah. He knows how to please people.

Timothy R Andrews00:19:52

We'll take your words on that anyway. All right, Monica. Right, now, let's go back. Going to the awards. So let's say, let's. You're a business.

Jason Gale00:20:10

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:20:10

That is quite keen on saying that. This sounds like the kind of thing I want to be involved in.

Jason Gale00:20:14

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:20:14

I don't want to be paying for my. I want to actually be. I want to see where we are.

Jason Gale00:20:21

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:20:21

How we compete against other people. How can we get. How can they get part of that?

Jason Gale00:20:25

So we. We open nominations on February 14, which is Love London Day. Not. You're not Valentine's Day, it's Love London Day, we call it. So nomination. So any.Anybody can nominate anybody. So we don't have any rules about that. If you're a member of the public and you love a restaurant, a coffee shop or a hotel, you can nominate them.If you're a business owner, business manager, working the business, and you think, I want recognition for the great work we're doing here, you can nominate.So all the nominations come in and then at the beginning of June, we close for nominations and we sit around and we look at a lot of customer reviews and to decide on our top tens in each category, for instance, we'll get about 250 restaurants nominated that we need to get down to 10. And truthfully, you could pick 50, 60 of them because they're amazing. They're amazing. You know, I still love our restaurants in here.So we look at customer reviews and look.And often because I do go out too much, I know the restaurant nine times out ten if I don't, we'll send some of our team down or Acacia, a good friend of ours at Caches, goes and checks them out and we'll get down to that top 10 and then we give it back to the public and say, right, we've curated this list. Who do you love? Who do you really love?And the votes come in and we vote till September, middle of September, and then we go quiet and we announce the winners at the beginning of November. So that, so it's really easy to get involved. You just go to our website, which is lifestyle awards.com. nominate, nominate who you like.You can nominate, you know, as many times at different places as you like. And then you, then you vote if you make the top 10.

Timothy R Andrews00:22:05

So, so if I want to go to the awards, how do I get tickets?

Jason Gale00:22:09

Well, you can get tickets directly from us through this, through the site. We, we, you know, most of our ticket sales are. It's an interesting night, actually.70% of the people that come to the awards, they're involved in a business that wants to win an award, although in the top 10 and they just want to celebrate. So 70% of the attendees. And then we have about 20% of people are sponsors, influences.And then we have about 10 of people, which is growing year on year.It was 10 last year, which is just discerning Londoners that just like the night out, they enjoy it, they got to know about it, so they just, they come back and that, and that's growing and I really like that because that's putting the people that voted in the same room for the, for the businesses and they love being in that. And we, we pride ourselves that we have good entertainment on the night and good food. You can't serve rubbish food at a hospitality event.So it's a great night. So that's how it's broken down. But it just. People come and contact us through the site.The guy who works for me called John Andrews gets in and date with.

Timothy R Andrews00:23:16

All these things and no relation.

Jason Gale00:23:17

No relation, no. And he'll sort you out.

Joe McDonnell00:23:22

Yeah, I really like the idea of having the public there as well. Yeah, it's a real peek behind the curtain, isn't it?

Jason Gale00:23:27

Well, what I eventually want to do, where I want to take this, I want us to do the Albert hall puts a. A flooring for two weeks of the year, and they have tables downstairs and then they have public upstairs.And that's eventually where I want the London Lifestyle Awards to be. And I'm putting.Now this is going to happen where we have a thousand people having dinner, but the entertainment is so good that the customers can come and see Gary Barlow play on stage at the end of the awards and we can all celebrate hospitality in London together. That's the, that's where we're going. We're gonna get there.

Joe McDonnell00:23:59

It's like event inception. It's like watching the people watching.

Jason Gale00:24:02

Yeah, absolutely.

Timothy R Andrews00:24:04

Yeah.

Joe McDonnell00:24:05

And then live stream, people watching, people watching.

Timothy R Andrews00:24:16

Actually, I do want to ask you something before you go, actually. What. I understand why you've done it, why you've gone ahead, and it's great. And I love the concept.Were there, were there any sort of hurdles along the way that you, what were your biggest learning curves that you.

Jason Gale00:24:29

Say, Would you say, oh, every year, you know, I think, I think after I've done the awards, I have two days where I'm sort of doing the press and doing all the rest of it, and then I go into a week where I think, okay, what have I learned this year? What have I learned? How can we improve this year?And by the end of that week, I think, right, next year is going to be perfect because I've learned my lessons now. I finally learned. And it never is completely perfect. There's always things that you want to improve on. I think the.At the beginning, there was some other awards around that were very happy with me because I was pulling the curtain back on them a little bit. And that was, that was challenging for the first year or two. So that. So that was a big challenge.But I think, I think the biggest, the biggest challenge has been the changing face of the businesses, really. And the changing.You know, sorry to keep going back to the old days, but, Tim, when we met, you would have a, you would have a general manager that would stay a venue for 10, 15, 20 years, and you build a relationship with them or the owner, be there forever. This moves around so much now. So relationships, maintaining relationships with the, the, the restaurants and the bars and the clubs has got harder.And that's why we have these 30 events of the year now, inviting people to them to keep up to date, keep working out how we can help them. Because people move around such a lot.

Timothy R Andrews00:25:56

Good point, actually. Because back in the.When people were more regular, you'd like a venue, but actually you'd go back because the manager that you built a relationship or the staff that were staying there that knew me, always drink. Right.

Jason Gale00:26:08

Yeah.

Joe McDonnell00:26:09

And it's lesser. You know them, it's more venue. Right?

Jason Gale00:26:12

Yeah, yeah, it is.

Timothy R Andrews00:26:13

That's what. That was the feeling, right? Exactly. But now when people move, when people move from the venue, like the managers move or whatever, that it's.That sometimes it's the venue they're moving into that controls the narrative that they can give their support or whatever. So it's a very different situation.

Jason Gale00:26:29

It is really different. I. I didn't experience recently. I'm sorry I'm going on, but we had experience recently and I.I won't mention the pub's name, but I drink in a pub, not every week, but every 10 days at least. So, you know, I'm known and I'm six foot six, so they remember who I am. And when I go there, I love it. It's one of my favorite pubs.It's just in Mayfair and I invite people. So I, I usually start off and I'm there and then by the end of it, there's five or six of us and we spend quite a bit of money.But every time, this barman that used to look after us, he'd buy around on, on the bar for us. He'd run the pub. He said, ah, this is on me. And, you know, first time I did it, I said, oh, you don't need to. Why? He said, oh, we really apprec.Custom. We really appreciate it. And I went in 10 days ago, it wasn't there. And I said, where's the. And it's gone, it's gone. I've got no, no, no, no way.And do you know what? The, the energy for the pub, it's not about him buying around, it's about that he wanted to buy around. But some.It's a big loss to the pub, that I think. So I'm sure he wasn't just doing it for me. It was a big loss. And that, that's one of the reasons.

Timothy R Andrews00:27:39

You go, isn't it? It's not like it's that recognized. You just said, it's that recognition. You're recognized. He knows, hey, you spend a lot of money here.There's a little gift to you. So you come back and spend more money there.

Jason Gale00:27:50

We both Like Kafir Behem. And I've been going to cafe for. For 20 odd years. I used to have my breakfast there every morning. I've been going there for 20 odd years.And one of the reasons I still love going there is because this member staff that will still say, hello, Jason, how are you doing? You know, and I don't know if that's ego or whatever, but it's great in there.

Timothy R Andrews00:28:13

Yeah, there's a harm in that.

Jason Gale00:28:14

No, there isn't.

Timothy R Andrews00:28:15

And it's. And that is.

Joe McDonnell00:28:16

And it's free.

Timothy R Andrews00:28:17

And it's free. Why not to the bar, maybe, but we used to do that when I used to work in Freedom Bar in Soho.And we'd recognize people, we'd give them a bottle of champagne sometimes, not all the time, occasionally put them in the VIP area, give them. What did get bottle of champagne cost in those days? Five quid, ten quid. But they'd buy four or five more bottles.

Jason Gale00:28:38

Yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:28:38

So that pays for itself immediately the second time.

Jason Gale00:28:40

There's another that they had. Yeah, yeah.

Timothy R Andrews00:28:43

But they always valued that. From that moment on they came back week after week and what. That was the best 10 quid that we spent.

Jason Gale00:28:50

There was another bar. Sorry, I know we've been good at.There was another bar that I worked at as PR for a long time and a new general manager came in and the general manager was all about cutting costs and they did need to cut some costs. But one of the costs that cut was bar staff couldn't give away shots.And the bar had built a reputation that the bar staff would drink with you, they'd have a shot and everything and it built up and he cut costs and gradually, gradually, gradually, he cut the audience and the crowd went. The crowd left because he. And you know, maybe they were spending a couple of hundred quid on shots night. Maybe that's what it was.But wow, they lost it in custom. They really lost it. So it's a shame. I think we've got to keep remembering that it's hospitality, you know, that's. That's the word.

Timothy R Andrews00:29:37

On that note, thank you very much, Jason.

Jason Gale00:29:40

I really enjoyed that. Thank you, guys. Really good.