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2017: General Discussion

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It just stinks and is one more reason not to stay there I know premier Inn or holiday Inn probably use same agency but at least they pass on savings to customers and don't charge extortionate prices!

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Outsourcing also allows you to not worry about persky things like income tax, pensions, national insurance and general HR administration, as pointed out above it also gives you the flexibility to say 'sorry you're not needed today' and not have to pay that person to do nothing.
 
Hence should be illegal as affects the economy as government tax take falls so government cuts go further people have less disposable income to spend at places at alton towers. So great short term measure with massive long term effects

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That all depends if people can afford to book rooms in first place because they ain't got the money. Just look at how Cbeebies hotel is booked up with long wait for vacancies. ...........not

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I'm pretty sure that one of the regular more financially technical guys will explain it more clearly, but I expect that they are making a good enough amount from the rooms that they are selling at the moment. I have no actual idea though, so I could be wrong.
 
It's not what I heard from staff member yesterday. Bank holiday been busy but not as much interest as expected on the whole hence all the adverts in park, Internet,road entrance, monorail etc.... so these cuts just bridge the gap. Where do they go next year? Where do they cut next? ?

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Unless the staff member works in the finance dept. I wouldn't place a lot of faith in their opinion being totally accurate, as has been discussed before, just because a hotel isn't booked solid, doesn't mean it's not raking it in.
 
Well I guess they can pull all the adverts as a further cut can't they. That will save a few quid

Thinking on let's outsource marketing that will cut wages I bet some of those guys are paid too much any way and that will add some more to the profit column

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themeparkfan said:
Thinking on let's outsource marketing that will cut wages I bet some of those guys are paid too much any way and that will add some more to the profit column

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Didn't think hey announced that they'd done just that a few weeks ago?

And thanks @Dave, that makes a lot more sense. So Merlin not owning anything else locally or a business based Hotel benefits by being able to pass staff around. That explains how a saving can be made.
 
themeparkfan said:
Thinking on let's outsource marketing that will cut wages I bet some of those guys are paid too much any way and that will add some more to the profit column

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Most marketing is outsourced, you have a few people in the business to deal with strategy but ultimately there isn't a department in Merlin making adverts.

The whole Smiler fallout was coordinated by a PR agency, alongside the team at Towers.

The use of agencies though does fall in and out of vogue as what you lose when you farm things out is control, short term that seems fine, but it sometimes bites you on the arse.
 
I know another business (who shall remain nameless) that has done this contract out thing recently, in this case cleaning. It is indeed a very short term gain strategy.

Money was taken from each business unit's wage budget to pay for the new cleaning contact. The amount removed was far more than was originally spent on cleaning hours so each unit had to find the savings in staffing hours elsewhere. Instead of simply getting someone to clean something now, we have to audit the contractors on their performance with fines for the company if they're not performing. Out comes a 100 page plus "spec" every week and so ensues a massive debate about who should be cleaning what, at what times, what acceptable looks like, loads of "we followed the spec, it's just you're opinion that it's not clean enough" blah blah.

The directors are all patting themselves on the back as they think each unit is cleaner now and it hasn't cost the business a penny more!

They may think differently when they find it hard to get another contract or renewal in the future for the same low price. Or when they realise all we've done is a bit of window dressing and corners are being cut elsewhere to look good on the surface. Or when the cleaning contractors run out of cheap foreign labour to exploit after we leave the EU.

Or those directors will be be sat on a beach somewhere, having sold all their shares and leave the problem for the incoming lot to sort.
 
They won't learn, our local council went down this avenue 20 years ago for cleaning and security, I was one of those made redundant then offered my old job back at the contractor for half the wage, who in turn charged the council twice the daily rate they used to pay me, I told them to go forth and used my redundancy to start a business, but the council still operate this, just about the only thing that hasn't been outsourced is finance and legal.

It has cost them millions but you try and get someone there to admit the original decision was a mistake, you've got more chance of getting blood from a stone.
 
I would love to have the small mind your head sign. I could stick it above the door on my home workshop.

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Had our sunreader visit to the Towers yesterday, right on our Pearl wedding, ah.
First time we have ever had tickets for a weekend... a sign of the recent fall in attendances.
Blessed with an early front seat walk on on Nemesis, and a five minute single rider queue for The Smiler, but rode little else due to queues and the Dark Forest box office being closed, the entrance one was heaving all day, didn't want to queue for an hour for a bronze fasttrack...that would defeat the purpose of buying the ticket, wouldn't it.
A bit like the twenty minute wait for "Express" parking. At least they have fixed the potholes.
Only things to note, the new ride looks very nice and fits the location well, but the new path is lethal for coaster geeks, staring up at the new ride while falling off the path edge. Come on Merlin, for the millions being spent on the ride, spend a couple of grand and make the path safe for the punters eh.
Will be lethal during dark hours of scarefest if they leave it as it is.
Glad we took a picnic, the queues for food weren't bad, but were so slow moving.
The garden walk was as sad as ever, lots of weed plants and trees growing in the beds and borders, but a nice suprise was seeing that the stepping stones at the top of the gardens have been cleared at last, a bit of a hatchet job, but a great improvement.
 
In a battle of, "the stepping stones are dangerous" vs "the stepping stones are historically important", I wonder who would win.
 
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