About David McCaskey, a former lecturer at the Colchester Institute

 

David McCaskey [2021]

Photo by Peter Hill

Following hotel school at Portrush in Northern Ireland, David spent some twelve years with Strand Hotels (J.Lyons & Co.) in a number of operational roles. He spent three years as a Front Office Manager at the 1,000-roomed (spread over 8 floors) Cumberland Hotel, Marble Arch, London W1.  On average this involved 350 room arrivals and departures per day (in 1968); 100% occupancy was achieved on c.280 nights per year with (in 1965) an average room rate of £56 per night, which gave a pretty good yield and some decent bonuses. There was a 68% repeat occupancy percentage as a result of people staying there before, a great endorsement! To meet its marketing needs, its brochures and tariffs were published in 7 languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Israeli, Japanese and Mandarin. As part of J Lyons & Co ( of LEO or Lyons’ Electronic Office fame) the hotels were in the forefront of technology employing such systems as BABS – British Airways Booking System and DEBBIE – Direct Electronic Billing.

David went on to become Catering Group Manager for three years in the Coffee Shop group at the Strand Palace Hotel, opposite The Savoy, London WC2. In his last year (1969) turnover was c. £3.3 million. This came from a 120 seat coffee shop – 300 breakfasts and 1,400 rest of day customers – the Coffee Shop was open 10.00 am – 1.00 am. plus the main cocktail bar and the residents lounge with 75 staff overall.

He was also involved for over four years in new hotel openings including, for example the Tower Hotel, Tower Bridge and, the Albany in Glasgow (now the Holiday Inn). Following the Forte takeover of Strand, he managed a small provincial hotel for two years.

After this, David entered teaching at Colchester Institute Centre for Management Studies where David was Programme Manager to the postgraduate Certificate in Management and the Diploma in Management Studies. Along with other Colchester Institute HE courses, these are now validated by the University of Essex.

David holds an MBA from the Central London Polytechnic, was a Chartered Marketer and was a Fellow of both the Institute of Hospitality and of the Higher Education Academy. He has a Cert Ed with Merit.

He retired from the Colchester Institute in 2007.

More information about David

He is a Belfast Old Instonian and a former leader of the Peewit Patrol in the Scouts in Whitehead Co. Antrim.

David’s first wife worked in cargo sales for Japan Airlines. David says: “there is more revenue to be found under the seats than on top“. They enjoyed some great free trips including to Tokyo for ‘orientation’ and, for three glorious summers in a row, to Positano (via Naples) where JAL had a villa for their staff.

He lived at the top of Baker Street for over ten years, Regent’s Park was his garden.

He has been a Wivenhoe resident for many years.  His daughter Sarah has a degree in dance from The Place, and in David’s opinion, is one of Wivenhoe’s best Yoga practitioners.

You can contact David by email at:  davidmccaskey@btinternet.com

Fourth Annual International Yield and Revenue Management Conference in 1999

In September 1999 David chaired the Fourth Annual International Yield and Revenue Management Conference. This took place over 3 days on the Colchester Institute’s Clacton-on-Sea campus. The 34 academics attending from across Europe were greeted by Helen Parr (the then Institute’s principal) ” having read some of the papers, I realise that I am a Yield Manager – I offer a wide range of courses and events with differing financial returns which I accommodate in a veritable plethora of types of rooms, halls etc.,”

David edited the published outcome.

‘A profitable partnership between industry and academia’ proceedings of the fourth international yield and revenue management conference ‘ ISBN 0 9536589 0 2

Reader please think of a 300 seat aeroplane with between 20 and 40 different fares on offer for the same flight or, as here, as one of the team of Front office Managers at the 1,000 roomed 4 Star Cumberland Hotel at Marble Arch with up to 30 different tariffs for the same one night – this demonstrates the complexity of yield management.

He then gave a paper, with his ex-colleague Bryn Parry, at the 5th conference held at the University of Perugia at Assissi Italy.  This paper ‘How to value yield‘ may be found in the list of publications below.

Memories of Joe Lyons

Dear Reader, you may have been a customer of Joe Lyons and if so, for most this will have been a professional and a pleasurable experience. This is down to the customer-facing methods they used. For example, as they sold boxes of tea and bags of ground coffee in the retail market, they then had inspectors to test the quality of these beverages when served in their hotels and restaurants. In an industry not known for its cleanliness, their internal hygiene inspections were much more stringent than those provided by any local authority. Their hotels were entirely centres of catering excellence e.g. Cumberland Hotel 1,000 rooms and Strand Palace 820 rooms both having 200-seat J Lyons Original Carveries, a French Restaurant, 120-seat coffee shops, cocktail bar and substantial banqueting – what a collection of expertise in one location.
Traffic may be illustrated – my cocktail bar sold 1-2 x 40 Fl Oz bottles of Gordon’s per day, in season, my coffee shop sold 250 to 350 portions of strawberries and cream per day ( we were right next to the old Covent Garden).

Economic Profile of Wivenhoe in 2013

To read David’s paper ‘The Economic Profile of Lower Wivenhoe‘ prepared in 2013 click here 

Review in 2021

David, in reviewing this entry in December 2021, added:  “I would like to empathise with and offer sympathiy to those in hospitality who are experiencing a truly dreadful time“.  _{DM December 2021}