Even with a perfectly set table and a menu created to be delicious, just a mark on the table or crockery that is not quite clean enough can ruin a diner's mood.

In this second part looking at ‘potential money pits in hotels,’ hotel expert Bernd Reutemann advises on how you and your employees can save time in the kitchen and what you need to consider when writing your rota.

What does time mean in places designed for spending it: In pubs and restaurants. Places where you meet friends for a drink or some good food. Places where time shouldn't matter and people are just there to savour the goods and the good conversation. In those places, time is business, plain and simple.

"My back hurts, I can hardly move!" Almost 70,000 workers in Germany call in sick each day citing this or similar problems.

If you want to improve, you have to question your set-up all the time. Do all movements in the kitchen, the dishwashing area and table service interlink like clockwork? Why was it that those meals that were ordered turned up cold or late?