Category Archives: Blog

Finding a bargain

Bargain! Finding a bargain is discovering excellent value for money. You can spend £100 on something that disappoints you and could even adversely affect your business. Or you can spend £1000 on something that justifies itself by a factor of ten. The first, though cheap, is no bargain.

Take a case in point: The very latest Vitrifrigo Next Series minibar. It is a real beauty to look at and complements the chic of any luxury hotel bedroom (see our blog of October 2014). It is not the cheapest on the market but with an EEC energy rating of A+++, it is the most economical to run, virtually silent and eco-friendly. So you win in the longer term. That’s not all, its elegance wins the hearts of guests and that’s hard to dismiss as a valuable benefit.

If you need more convincing, we are happy to install a Vitrifrigo Next Series minibar in your hotel free of charge for a month. We deliver or collect free of charge within a 50 miles radius of Charing Cross (give or take).

Please give Andrew Cadell a call for details – 020 7199 8210

Looking for the unusual

A is for

A3 Solutions is a sourcing company for products required by hotels, bars and restaurants. Sure, you can find most things on the web but there are times when you want something out of the way, something eye-catching, something extraordinary that makes people tell their friends, or something that turns an ordinary event into a dazzling extravaganza.

The hospitality sector is part of a highly competitive world where even excellence is perceived as the norm. So you have to think way beyond the ordinary. A3 Solutions scours the world for items that may be spectacular in their own right like a chandelier or a hidden gizmo that turns your walls and ceilings into a phantasmagoria of light. You may want to buy it or rent it for a particular event. Whatever it is, we will find it.

On a more practical level, as you will see on this website, we are UK representatives for Vitrifrigo minibars, the most elegant, economic and eco-friendly in the world. Find out more here.

Arc comp logos

We also represent Arc International, manufacturers of beautiful glassware, tableware and cutlery; proud owners of such brands as Luminarc, Arcoroc, Chef & Sommellier and Pyrex. Products can even be customised. Find out more here.

So, if you are looking for the unusual or the extraordinary, put us to the test

Featured Hotel – The Old Parsonage

A rising star amongst the dreaming spires

Back in 1866 Matthew Arnold described Oxford more beautifully than the paraphrased cliché of today; he wrote: And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, she needs not June for beauty’s heightening. Despite the traffic and the tourists, Oxford, almost surprisingly, has retained is perennial bloom where other cities have given way to the careless tread of progress.

In the heart of the city, just minutes from world famous sites: The Bodlian Library, The Ashmolean Library and the Sir Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre, is a secluded gem called The Old Parsonage.

Tucked behind a Cotswold stone wall, the hotel is easy to miss which would be pity as it effortlessly lives up to its reputation as the ‘best hotel in Oxford’. And that is as true about the sumptuous interiors designed by Sally Conran as it is about the food and wine. It is a joy to experience the maze of ancient passages and stairs in the middle of which is a small library with its own secluded courtyard. Interesting pictures not only delight but, through familiarity, guide you to you room.

The old, Old Parsonage was given new life and opened in March 2014. The owner Jeremy Mogford spared no expense to create this rising star of excellence. His team have cleverly kept the old world charm and authentic look of the place but discretely added the colours and fabrics to complement the old whilst creating a cocoon of contemporary luxury.

The true measure of luxury lies in the detail and, in this respect, The Old Parsonage is something of a masterpiece. Leather-topped writing desks, Egyptian Cotton bed linen, spacious marble bathrooms and the latest Italian minibars about which Rebecca Mofford, the General Manager, had this to say: “They look great which is another huge advantage and the reason we were drawn to the NEXT DM compressor minibar in the first place”.

How green are you?

You see it everywhere but do you take any notice of it? It says something important but do you know what it means?
The European Union introduced a rating system for all electrical goods to tell the buyer how energy efficient the item is to run. Here is what WHICH? Magazine says about fridges and fridge freezers:

Fridge and freezer energy labels

Under EU legislation, every new fridge, freezer and fridge freezer sold in the UK must have an energy label that gives its energy rating. Since 1 July 2012, all new models must have a rating of A+, A++ or A+++. Retailers can still sell stocks of older models so you may still see A or B rated fridges or freezers in the shops.

This means that items rated A (the yellow band) to D (the red band) were rated before 2012. You can take it that this means that the older style of label does NOT comply with today’s energy rating which are much stricter.

Does this matter? Well, if you are concerned about the effect or the cost of wasted energy, it does. It also tells you about the contribution the appliance does to the environment.

So when you buy a Vitrifrigo Compressor minibar, A+++ or A++, you are not only going to save money but play your part in saving the environment.

Compressor vs Absorption

Compressor minibars or Absorption minibars; what’s the difference?

There’s a world of difference in performance, cost and economy of operation between Absorption and Compressor minibars. Briefly, absorption minibars cost less to buy but a lot more to run.

The reasons for the difference is very technical so let’s not dig down too far! Refrigeration is a process of exchanging heat by evaporating a refrigerant. By the mid-20th century, most refrigerators were of the compressor type and used a chlorine-based refrigerant, CFC, which was banned because of its destructive effects on the Earth’s Ozone layer. So the absorption process became more commonplace in domestic refrigerators although the cooling process takes longer and is more expensive to run.

The space age, however, demanded greater efficiency in a more compact form. This gave a new lease of life to the compressor refrigerator, one that had no toxicityand was far faster in reaching the desired temperature of around 4ºC. Vitrifrigo, through its parent company, Rivacold, commercially developed this innovation for their minibars which are over 85% more economical to run and reduce the temperature from ambient to cold four times faster than the absorption method.

The new compressor minibars belong to the NEXT DM series, which haS been awarded the highest possible EU Energy rating: A+++ for the solid door version and A++ for the glass door version.

Vitrifrigo’s absorption minibars are nevertheless an excellent choice for the budget conscious hotel. They are rated A+ and employ Low Power Consumption (LPC) technology and are virtually silent in operation.