Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

I visited Khayelitsha for the first time in about 15 years yesterday, to attend the opening and launch of the Indlovu Project, a community development project aimed at addressing the high unemployment, large numbers of teenage pregnancies, lack of sanitation, and prevalence of TB and HIV, in Monwabisi Park in the township.  The invitation came for SAfm presenter Nancy Richards, and I am delighted to have made the time to attend the opening of this fantastic project.

I had not heard of the project prior to the invitation, so went to the ceremony with an open mind.  I had no fear of driving through Khayelitsha, and felt that little had changed.  When I first moved to Cape Town twenty years ago I ran a Market Research and PR company called Relationship Marketing, and we were the first company to take clients into the townships, to show them the fantastic entrepreneurial spirit of the township residents, and the diversity of retailing in these suburbs.   I drove past Coca Cola branded spaza shops (miniature supermarkets), shebeens, braaiers of meat for “take aways”, sellers of sanitaryware, beds and building materials, all displayed along Mew Way, the main road through Khayelitsha.  I wondered where these items are stored in case of rain and flooding. 

The Indlovu Project is a collective Youth Centre, guest house, daycare centre, clinic, soup kitchen, and creche, which was established in 2008.  Earlier this year the entire project burnt down in a shack fire.  Bishop’s School came to the assistance immediately, helping to clear the site, and monies were raised to rebuild all the facilities, but on a larger scale and following eco-friendly principles, given the donations received from actor Sir Ian McLellan (who is currently in Cape Town, acting in Samuel Becket’s ‘Waiting for Godot’), The Rotary Club of Claremont, actor Ralph Brown (who is busy filming ”Dark Tide” with Halle Berry and brought her to the Project a week ago), the 476 Trust, Enzyme, and Investec Bank.   It is planned to market the Indlovu Project as a Tourism Centre, by offering traditional African meals in the community hall, so that the work of the project may be seen and supported.

But what impressed me the most was the work by and dedication of the Bishop’s Grade 10 boys, who worked in two teams of two on a World Bank project called Evoke - over a ten-week period the boys researched the needs at Indlovu, found solutions, and wrote a blog about their work.   Of the 19 000 scholars that signed up around the world for the World Bank’s Global Giving on-line project, the four Bishop’s scholars came first, and were given $1000 in seed money to grow their projects.   The Ecovillage project of Reid Falconer and Martin Dyer investigated self-sustainability in terms of fruit and vegetable supply, and analysed the soil type in the township, to choose the most suitable type of vegetables and fruit to grow.  The other Bishop’s pair, Emile Nauta and Kishan Chagan, tackled the township problem of shack fires, and developed a fire-resistant paint that costs less than one-tenth of the commercial cost of such paint, by simply adding two ingredients obtainable at pharmacies to the paint.   The boys will be flown to Washington to receive their prize, and are pushing themselves to raise funds to continue their work - one goal being to raise money to paint 1000 shacks by 2012.  The project was demonstrated, by lighting a newspaper painted with their paint, but it did not burn.   What impressed me was that the Bishops children come from well-to-do backgrounds, but it was very obvious that they are very proud participants in this project. 

The Makaze guest house is colourful and homely.  There is no TV, but the kitchen is spacious.  The Bishops’ moms assisted with the interior decor, Lucia Brain being the decorator.  I loved the Lion Match papered wardrobe door, and the recycled items dotted around the guest house, as well as the lamp shades made from buckets in the lounge.  Two bedrooms have bunk beds in them, while the third is the “Presidential Suite”, with a king bed.   Dinner is served to guests, being traditional African food.   The monies made from the guest house operation is used to fund the community soup kitchen.  What makes the guest house fascinating is that it is “green”, in that it was built by the community from sandbags and eco-beams; it is powered by solar energy and gas; and it has earthworm sanitation.

I felt enriched in having spent two hours in Khayelitsha, in experiencing a project opening which was blessed by a sangoma, entertained by proud township dancers and musicians, performing traditional music, that I could see a part of Cape Town that we do not acknowledge being on our doorstep, and experiencing the friendliness of the locals towards us as visitors, with so much goodwill to each other.  I will contribute to the Bishops’ Ecovillage and Fire Retard projects.  I encourage you to do so too. 

Indlovu Project, off Mew Way, Monwabisi Park, Khayelitsha.  Tel (021) 657-1026. http://www.shaster.org.za/index.php/projects/6-indlovu-project/6-indlovu-project.html

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Sante means health in Italian.  While it may be built in the Tuscan style, Sante is anything but healthy, and has a long way to go to reach the level it once had when it opened six or so years ago.   It is badly maintained and managed, and should not have opened so early, a mere two months ago, before achieving its 5-star grading it once had.

Let me start at the beginning.  Sante was the dream of Eduard du Plessis and his then partner in a design agency KSDP Pentagraph.  They sold their agency to the largest London-based design agency, and it was the money they made that led to the development of the “160 hectare working wine estate”, consisting of a 10-bedroom Manor House, 39 Spa Suites (different buildings with suites in each), and privately-owned homes, which were to be rented out to give the owners rental income.  Southern Sun was awarded the contract to run the hotel at that time, and it was professionally run, and its Walter Battiss collection, the private property of Du Plessis, lent it class and modernity.  It had an outstanding Spa, which Conde Nast voted as one of the Top 3 in the world in 2006.

Du Plessis and his partners sold Sante to Fidentia, whose Arthur Brown is facing fraud charges.  When he was arrested, the Hotel was closed down, as there was no money for its upkeep.  In the past two years numerous rumours circulated as to hotel groups buying the property, said to be valued at around R 300 - R 400 million.   I had stayed at Sante in both the Southern Sun and the Fidentia eras, the former a good, the latter a bad, experience.

In May this year, after a two year silence, the first media reports announced the re-opening of the Hotel and Spa on 1 June, it having been leased by Carlos Vilela from the liquidators for a 10 year period, with the option to buy it during this period, according to a media report.  It was a Cape Times feature on Sante, as well as a glowing review in the August edition of The Franschhoek Month, that made me pick up the phone and make a booking.   I wanted to stay after the Women’s Day long weekend, thinking the hotel would be full over the weekend, but the reverse was true.  A large contingent of police persons was to take over the hotel for a conference this week, and therefore I chose to spoil myself for the weekend. (After my stay, a staff member confirmed that the police party had cancelled).

I did the reservation with Ilse Bock, who quoted R 1500 per room, but R1000 for single occupancy.  She nagged me to book, but I received nothing from her.  In frustration I spoke to Janet Samuel, the Deputy GM, who had an attitude which should have served as a warning.   She told me that the server was down, which was not allowing e-mails to go through. They resorted to faxing the reservation details and credit card authorisation form (plus a string of most off-putting terms and conditions), barely legible because the type size was so small.   Lo and behold, a second warning I should have heeded, was that the rate was confirmed as R 1500, but Ilse quickly changed it, saying she had quoted me an incorrect rate but that she would honour it.

I asked Ilse what star grading the hotel has, and Ilse could not answer initially, but then said 5-stars.   She sounded so hesitant about this, that I asked her to ask the General Manager to call me.  Despite the GM Kristien De Kinder being off-duty, she did call, and confirmed that they are not 5-star graded yet.  She told me that she would not accept a lesser grading, and that they are working on achieving the 5-star requirements.  In the same breath, without asking her, she shared with me how difficult it is to manage staff, and told me that she had “fired” (her words) 20 staff in the previous week.  This should have been the strongest warning of all, but I was optimistic that the staff remaining would be efficient in running the Hotel and Spa.

I was chased by Spa Manager Anja Liebenberg to make the Spa bookings, as she said they book up very quickly, especially over weekends.  I understood later why she was pressurising me to book, as she was off for the first two days of my stay, and wanted to make the bookings personally, on request of her GM.  Second, I discovered that they have many treament rooms but only six therapists, which means that they cannot take many clients.  I checked with Anja whether I would be eligible for the 25 % Spa treatment discount, which Ilse had sent with all the documentation (8 pages of Spa prices alone) - she was shocked, saying it was only 10 % off, but if I had been sent this offer (an opening special for June), she would honour it!

The dreadful dirt-road to the hotel, off the R45 from Klapmuts to Franschhoek, is still as bad as ever, and no grader has been sent there recently to scrape the road.   When I came to what I thought were the gates of the estate, there was no branding for the Hotel - just a brown tourism sign and the name of a farm on the walls.  It took the security person five minutes to get up to move the cones, without checking who I was from the board he had in his hand - a worrying introduction to the hotel security!  I was greeted by name by receptionist Michelle, and I asked her how she knew who I was - it transpired that I was the only guest staying in the hotel on the first night.   I was assisted with my luggage, had a room with a view onto the Paarl mountains and a dam, and on the surface nothing had changed, the original furniture still being in place.  Towels are new.   Michelle sweetly helped me get the internet going, always a concern, and it worked perfectly.  I asked her which TV channels they have, and she told me 11!   She could not tell me which they were, and they were not in the room book (they are SABC 1,2, 3, e-tv, M-Net, two SuperSport channels, Movie Magic1 and CNN).  After dinner I discovered that SABC3, which had the only decent movie, had no volume, and it took 45 minutes for the staff on duty to fix this.

Much later that evening I discovered that there were no drinks in the room bar fridge, the bath towels were not bath sheets, which one would expect for a 5 star-to-be hotel.  There were no spare rolls of toilet paper.  The glass shelf in the shower tilts, so the products tend to slide off it when it gets wet.  I froze that evening, discovering that there was only a thin artificial duvet on the bed, and no blankets in the cupboards - I was told that the CEO does not want to allow down duvet inners (a cost issue?) .   I could not get the underfloor heating to work, even though the setting was at 30 C.  In the end I had to switch on the airconditioner, to be able to sleep.  I had to call Reception to check how to switch off all the room lights, in a central control panel hidden behind the bedside table, but too far from the bed to switch them off!

The next morning I rushed to breakfast to meet the 11h00 deadline (not how I like to spend my precious time off). I stepped into the Breakfast Room, only to find the tables laid but no buffet table laid out at all!  I was told by the waitress that they don’t do it when they have so few guests.   The Restaurant Manager Sofia reiterated this, and I told her that I did not find this acceptable, and she laid out a tiny set of bowls with cereals, fruit and yoghurt, on the corner of the buffet table furthest away from me.   There was miscommunication between the waitress and Sofia, as I had ordered two slices of toast with my eggs, and the waitress only brought one slice.  I was told that I had only ordered one slice, and therefore I did not receive another!  I had to beg for a second slice.   I had to ask Sofia to not serve me any further food, as she smelt so strongly of smoking when she brought the eggs.  Kristien the GM came to chat and asked if all was in order, but when I told her of my experiences since my arrival, she looked at me as if it was completely normal that I should have experienced all these problems.  She seemed particularly sensitive about my reaction to their restaurant winelist (see my review tomorrow of Sommelier Restaurant), which she had received from her staff.   I must commend her presence at the hotel on each weekend day - a first for a GM in any hotel I have ever visited!

The Housekeeping Manager Anja had come to chat at dinner on the first night, even though she had nothing to do with the restaurant, and gave me some valuable background.  She herself runs a guest house in Wellington, while the GM Kristien runs her 5-bedroom guest house Perle-du-Cap in Paarl alongside her GM job at Sante.  It transpired that the new CEO Carlos Vilela runs a restaurant called Asia in Paarl, and closed down another two weeks ago, called Perola Restaurant (could be first signs of cashflow problems, in conjunction with the staff firing, especially as some of the more forthcoming staff told me that the fired staff  - with one exception who is working out a month - left with immediate effect, due to cost cutting).  Anja met Carlos at the latter restaurant, and this led to her appointment, and seemed the route of the GM’s appointment too - these two managers were not mentioned in media reports covering the opening function on 1 June (at which Western Cape MEC for Finance, Economic Development and Tourism Alan Winde spoke and over-optimistically praised the hotel for helping to boost the economy of the Western Cape, creating “150 employment opportunities”).   Most staff working in the Hotel come from Paarl, not known as being the centre of service excellence.  Both Anja and Kristien are Belgian and friends.  Anja was willing to please, and she organised extra blankets (very thin summer throws) but brought to the room by equally heavy smoking-smelling housekeeping staff, and got electric blankets from the Spa when I asked her if this was possible.   The bar fridge was stocked the following day, but was not switched on, so no drinks were cold.    After this I was ready to settle in and enjoy myself, after the bad start, or so I thought.  An enjoyable facial by a most friendly and obliging Charlene confirmed that all was on track, except that an error had been made for a massage booking for the following day, but was quickly fixed.   I was surprised that the GM and her Managers wear “civvies”, a most unusual dress code for a 5-star-to-be hotel.

In a paid-for advertorial in a Wellness supplement in the Cape Times of 30 July the hotel writes:”We are not here to re-invent the wheel, but to bring Sante back to life and provide our guests with the ultimate in service excellence and bestow upon them the luxury spa experience that one would expect from an establishment as ours”.  It goes on to state:  “All staff was hand-chosen and appointed for their distinctive customer-service ethics (sic) and their outstanding achievements in their professional fields.  Our mission is to offer you a place where you forget all your worries and trust us as professionals of beauty, rejuvenation, wellness, relaxation, tranquillity and peace to bring you back to life”.   It concludes with Vilela being quoted: “We are aiming high to exceed previous standards and guest expectations.  Every member of my team has the same vision and is committed to making this a reality”!  Promises I discovered that they are nowhere near achieving.

I was woken by the “Niagra Falls” outside my room on the second (rainy) day of my stay - the hotel building does not appear to have gutters, and all the rainwater came down in one section outside my room.   I saw some buckets in the passage to the Breakfast room too, to catch water from the leaks inside the hotel. The occupancy of the hotel had improved to full house in the Manor House, and so a Breakfast Buffet was set up in the Restaurant, and not in the breakfast room.  I was not told this, so once again I saw the bare buffet table, and sat waiting for service, but there was none!  When I went looking for staff, I was told that the breakfast was served in the restaurant.   Most dishes were three-quarter empty, and there was no fresh fruit at all.  There was no one to ask for some for about 15 minutes.  When I saw Sofia and asked her about the fruit, she said that they were busy cutting it, and stated that she had been checking the mini-bars in the rooms, explaining aggressively that she cannot be expected to be in the restaurant all the time, and that breakfast finishes at 11h00.  She had a list she was ticking off in terms of hotel guests who had come for breakfast, and she would have seen that three further rooms’ guests had not yet come for breakfast, arriving even later than I did.   Kristien the GM came to greet and chat to guests at a table close by, and ignored me completely, not a good sign.

I went to the Spa, to enjoy the facilities, or so I had hoped.  The first step was to sign an indemnity, requested by Anja the Spa Manager.   I went upstairs, and was shocked to see that most of the lovely innovative original features of the Spa were not working - the Experiential showers were in near-darkness, riddled with wet used towels lying on the floor, and the lovely fragrances of the showers of days gone by - e.g. rainforest, mint - have gone, and the water was ice cold, not attractive on a cold and wet winter’s day.   The Laconium door was open, and its light on, but it was not working - there was no sign on the door to tell one that it was out of order!   An open door intrigued me, but I soon discovered that it was the geyser room, and not a treatment room, so I retreated out of that quickly!   All that was left to enjoy then was the pool, but it had two babies and very loud foreigners dominating it, whom the Spa Manager was unable to get to leave, as children under 16 are not allowed in the Spa section of the property at all.  Some downlighters in the pool area do not work.   I wanted to shower after being in the pool, but all the showers in the Ladies cloakroom had no hot water.  I was now close to having had enough.  The Spa Manager Anja apologised, saying that it was a day in which everything was going wrong (it was only lunchtime then).   There was no notification on the cloakroom to warn one of the lack of hot water.

I saw Kristien the GM in Reception, and reported the Spa cold water problem to her - once again, she had the “I know all about it, and we are working on it” air about her, and then lashed out at me, in close distance of hotel guests who heard her, about how I had done nothing but complain since I had arrived.  I reminded her of all the problems I had experienced, and she did the “my staff are perfect” routine, adding insult to injury by asking why I had not left if I was not happy.  I told her it was because the hotel had taken a 50 % deposit, and would be taking the balance on my departure.  The way she said it, it sounded as if she would absolve me from the second 50 % payment, and this made me decide to leave, given everything that I had experienced.  When I went to the Reception, the Duty Manager Mannie asked me to sit down to pay - the second 50 % of the accommodation cost being on the bill, even though I was leaving one day early, at the “invitation” of the GM.  I “invited” Mannie to ask Mr Vilela, the hotel CEO, who once worked at Sun City, the only background that I could find about him on Google, to call me to discuss the bill.  I am still waiting for him to call, and to react to my review, which I sent to him for comment, offering to post his reply with it.

The Sante website is full of exaggerations and dishonesty: it describes the 10 Manor House rooms as “gorgeous suites”.  They have a massive bed (although 5 of them have two double beds, which cannot be made up as king beds, as they are stand-alone, annoying Larry and Heather Katz, one of the couples staying there).  It quotes UK Elle as it being “One of the Top 16 Spa’s on Earth” - yes, about 4 years ago, with working, state-of-the-art facilities at that time!  It provides the menu for Cadeaux, a restaurant meant to be in the Spa section, but the restaurant has not been in operation since the hotel opened!  The Sommelier restaurant is mentioned, but there is no menu for it!  Chef Neil Rogers is mentioned as being in charge of “both” restaurants, but he was one of the 20 staff to be fired!  (I heard that a chef from Grootbos is starting in September).  The food photographs on the website are nothing like the food that was served at Sommelier.  The “Terms and Conditions” state that children are welcomed in the Spa Suites only, but two children were in the Manor House, and were not kept quiet by their parents or the hotel staff.  The hotel brochures are more than two years old, reflecting the paintings on the walls at that time, and not what has replaced them now, and also refer to its “5-stars”, an absolute no-no!  The room folder had the “Happy Anniversary” card to Mr & Mrs Nothnagel still in it!

What can I praise? The location and its view, but far more attractive in summer - my room was in shade all day, making it cold and dark.  The “captiveness” of it, as the gravel road is so bad that one is not encouraged to leave the property to take a drive to Paarl, Franschhoek or Stellenbosch.   The Sunday Times and Weekend Argus being available.   The wonderful therapist Charlene, who did the facial.   The use of the innovative grape-based TheraVine product range in the Spa (but not carried through into the hotel rooms, where the Rooibos range is stocked).

I was most relieved to leave the Sante “zoo” after enduring two days of stress whilst staying there, the exact opposite to what I had come for!   The Hotel’s marketing is dishonest and its website misleading and out of date.  Sante is still a “sleeping beauty” and has not yet woken up to the real world of accommodation hospitality and Spa excellence it so proudly boasts about!

Sante Winelands Hotel & Wellness Centre, on R45, between Klapmuts and Franschhoek.  tel (021) 875-8100  www.santewellness.co.za

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Today we celebrate the opening in Hermanus of the first Whale Cottage 14 years ago.   Having an all-women team of staff, it is even more special that our anniversary co-incides with Women’s Day today - I salute my ladies, and thank them for all they do for our guests.   Whale Cottage Hermanus has been heavily booked for the long weekend, and all Whale Cottage guests have been served sparkling wine with their breakfast this weekend, to celebrate our milestone.

Filled with nostalgia, I look back at the early days of running our Whale Cottage Hermanus, then located on Main Road - a great location initially in terms of visibility (we had a blue-and-white striped roof in those days, similar to our Whale Cottage Franschhoek).   Our inspiration for the name came from the Victorian cottage in which we set up our first Whale Cottage in 1996, and in honour of the Southern Right whales that became so popular, and put Hermanus on the map, in offering the best land-based whale watching in the world.

There was no internet in our world of guest housing in those days, and we all only advertised in Portfolio’s Bed & Breakfast Collection, which cost us around R 12000 for a third of a page in those days.  We all hated Portfolio, largely due to its dictatorial and unapproachable owner Liz Westby-Nunn.  Their power was tremendous, as they introduced the first attempt at “grading” our establishments, giving them a yellow, purple or red shield, implying different levels of luxury.   The annual visits for their inspections filled us with fear, and we were not allowed to question their instructions as to what had to be changed.  One dared not speak against the company (even though we were paying advertisers) nor argue their directives, and we parted ways with Portfolio when their greed extended to charging commission for bookings on their website, in addition to the ever-increasing cost of their advertisements.

The internet opened up to us at the same time, and it was a huge relief to see how well we did advertising on the accommodation websites SA Venues and Cape Stay, and the former still holds.  Networking with fellow guest house owners became an important source of business, especially in Camps Bay, where we run the Camps Bay Accommodation Association, and we pass all overflow enquiries to our 24 members.  We also share industry information with each other.

After we opened the seafacing Whale Cottage Camps Bay in 1998, we received feedback from our guests that they were missing a seaview in Hermanus, so we set upon the search for a new property to be set up as a guest house, with a seaview.   We found such a property on Westcliff Drive, on the way to the new Harbour, with a magnificent view of Walker Bay, and opened it in 2002, selling the Main Road property.   Barry Lewis was our long-standing manager, and we are delighted that we have his sister Carole Cessano working with us now, with the faithful Juliette at her side.

From June - December the whales attract visitors to Hermanus, who have not found a place in the world where they can see whales as they can do from the well-developed cliff path, running from the new Harbour to beyond Voelklip, all along the ocean.   But Hermanus has wonderful beaches too, that are warmer than those on the Atlantic Ocean of Cape Town, and also has outstanding wine farms in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley area, including Hamilton Russell Vineyards, Bouchard Finlayson, Creation, Hermanuspietersfontein, and more.

Whale Cottage Franschhoek opened five years ago, and Whale Cottage Plettenberg Bay two and a half years ago.   With Whale Cottage Hermanus and Whale Cottage Camps Bay, they make up the unique Whale Cottage Portfolio, welcoming our guests to “a whale of a stay!”.  One of its unique features is the Whale Cottage Loyalty Card, which was introduced from the start in 1996, offering our Whale Cottage guests one night free for every 10 nights that they stay at a Whale Cottage, and this has become a very popular incentive to return to our Whale Cottages.  Nine years ago we introduced our WhaleTales newsletter, which is sent to our Address Book of 25000 every 6 weeks or so, and is written as a tourism newsletter, described by many as the only newsletter which summarises what is happening in the tourism and hospitality industry.  We have never been afraid of being controversial, and of writing the truth.   This policy of independent tourism reporting is also the foundation of this WhaleTales Blog.

We thank our Whale Cottage guests, suppliers, colleagues and friends for their loyal support of our guest houses, and of our WhaleTales newsletters and Blog.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Never in the history of World Cup soccer has a “player” made world TV and newspaper headlines as has Paul the psychic octopus.   We nominate him for the Golden Ball Award for being the most on-the-ball player of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, having correctly predicted Germany’s four wins and two losses.  

Paul lives in an aquarium in Oberhausen in Germany, but is British-born.  He started duty in the UEFA Cup final in 2008, but made an error when he predicted that Germany would win against Spain.   He was a little known player then, especially due to his incorrect prediction.  But since the start of the 2010 World Cup he has been spot-on with the results of each match, predicting Germany’s wins over Australia, Ghana, England and Argentina, and its losses against Serbia and Spain.  

All eyes will be on Paul as he predicts Germany to take 3rd place against Uruguay in Port Elizabeth today.   He has also bravely stepped out of his league in predicting the winner of the World Cup Final to be Spain, in its match against Netherlands tomorrow.

Poor Paul is being heavily taxed, in that he is now being asked to predict all sorts of other things, such as whether German coach Joachim Loew will renew his contract.

Paul has become such a talked-about VIP that he has his own Twitter page now (@PPsychicOctopus), and boy can he Tweet non-stop, usually putting some “biped” down when he/she make comments he does not like, and just in general, when he feels like it.  He is a cheeky opinionated chap!   He attracted 422 followers in just 2 days, and is hoping for 1000 by tomorrow.  He picks up almost every mention about himself on Twitter, and then replies to it. He has been featured on CNN, ZDF, BBC and SkyNews, and made the front page of the Cape Times and Germany’s Bild, and no doubt many more international and local newspapers.

While I am having fun, I am awarding some other unofficial 2010 World Cup awards:

Goldie Locks Award: goes to Diego Forlan of Uruguay, who has beautiful blond hair kept in place with a blue aliceband, and has the most beautiful blue eyes, for sure the most beautiful soccer player in the World Cup (on the other hand, Wayne Rooney has already been selected by the media as the ‘ugliest’ player of the soccer tournament)

Golden Trend Award:  Cristiano Ronaldo receives this award, for his black nailpolished toes, as seen on German TV station ZDF yesterday

Golden Coach Award:  superstitious German coach Joachim Loew wearing his beautiful blue jersey at every match in which Germany played, and refusing to wash it to not break the luck of his team, that is until it lost against Spain this week.    He was by far the best looking coach of all teams.

Golden Moneybags Award without a doubt goes to FIFA and its President Sepp Blatter, for taking all its money out of South Africa, untaxed as per its contract with the South African government, especially all the MATCH booking monies.  Ticket sales will have largely been received by credit card in Switzerland anyway.

Golden Service Award goes to the 25 000 or so volunteers at 10 stadiums and at the Fan Parks in Host Cities, as well as at airports and FIFA-designated hotels, who worked for a pittance of R 100 per day, irrespective of how long their working hours were.   Volunteers were specifically forced to sign away their rights to protection under South Africa’s labour legislation, such is the power of FIFA!   Volunteers were not even allowed to receive a copy of their 4-page contract.  Volunteers were the machine that made the running of the World Cup smooth and largely incident-free, in offering Spectator Services, Language Support, Transportation, Accreditation, Hospitality, IT and Telecommunications, and many more services to make the World Cup happen.   The ridiculously low “stipend” has to be taxed, at least 30 % being deducted, even for the meal allowance when it was first paid into the bank, while FIFA patted itself on the back for its 25 % increase in its media and marketing income for this World Cup, and announcing that millions of dollars will be paid to Football Associations and its executive.

Golden Aches Award goes to the World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC), for forcing its 25 000 volunteers around the country to spend half of their R 120 daily meal allowance at a McDonald’s close by, for the past 40 days.  The Green Point branch, which is right at the Stadium, made a fortune from the Cape Town LOC for daily vouchers to the value of R 60 - it could easily be R2 million - out of a blind loyalty to the fast food company’s sponsorship of the World Cup.

Golden Handcuff Award goes to the S A Police Services for safeguarding South Africa and the soccer fans, and for taking over the security services when Stallion Security staff striked in Cape Town and in Durban at the start of the World Cup.   They were patient, dedicated and worked in the pouring rain in Cape Town at three of the matches, and in cold winter conditions for the other five matches, as well as on non-match days, checking bags and other belongings, keeping everyone inside the Stadium safe.

Golden Key Award goes to FIFA and the LOC, for forbidding its volunteers to criticise the two bodies whilst they were on duty, as per the volunteer contract.   What they did not understand was the power of word-of-mouth, aggrieved volunteers talking to each other and posting comments on the Cape Town Volunteers blog  www.ctvolunteers2010.wordpress.com.    E-mails were sent to other volunteers, and one even approached the Weekend Argus about the McDonald’s forced-diet, that uniforms were not supplied to all volunteers in the 5 weeks of them doing duty, prejudicing some in not working inside the stadiums and therefore not seeing all the matches, and that transport problems meant that volunteers stood in the rain and cold waiting for transportation to take them home after matches.

Golden “Gees” Award goes to all South Africans, who become ‘Proudly South African’ in the past month, becoming soccer fans (who was it that said that ‘White’ South Africans do not support soccer and do not watch local matches?) in addition to loving rugby; who went to watch the Stormers and the Blue Bulls play at Orlando Stadium in Soweto (I mean, have you ever?!) and loved the “gees” there just a short while prior to the start of the World Cup; for walking the Fan Walk  (153 000 in Cape Town last Saturday alone) and calling for the Fan Walk to become a permanent feature, locals requesting Capetonians to walk it once a month; for the loyal support for Bafana Bafana, a team we scorned and mocked prior to the World Cup, but who did us proud; and made us proud Africans, supporting BaGhana BaGhana when this was the last African team left in the tournament.

Golden Liquid Award goes to the beer producers and all the staff at pubs and restaurants around the country who made sure that soccer fans remained liquid, either to celebrate or commiserate their teams’ performance!   Vaughn Johnson’s Wine Shop sold 10 000 beer cans in the 4 hours prior to the England versus Algeria match in Cape Town, he says.

Golden Balls-Up Award goes to ACSA Durban for damaging the image of the country when flights bringing German and Spain fans to Durban on Tuesday after the match had finished, due to a congestion of aeroplanes at the new King Shaka airport in the city, reportedly due to private jets clogging up the parking bays and refusing to move their planes, the FIFA one being one of them!  Not surprisingly FIFA and the LOC have distanced themselves from any responsibility for this mess-up.     

Golden Fans Award goes to all the wonderful soccer fans, both local and international, that became infected with the “gees” of the World Cup, who got to endure the vuvuzelas and even bought their own, for dressing up in wigs, painting their faces, and proudly wearing their country’s flags - I can see a whole new fashion trend in proudly-South African colours.   They brought their dollars, pounds and Euros, and bought beers, ate at restaurants (manly pizzas, burgers and steaks), stayed at good value guest houses and did some sightseeing locally.    They showed up FIFA’s MATCH by making their own accommodation bookings (at non-MATCH guest houses) and by buying their own match tickets, instead of falling for MATCH packages.

Golden Rip-Off Award goes to MATCH, the hospitality and ticketing agency of FIFA, which conned the accommodation industry for a second World Cup, promising good accommodation returns, forcing establishments to give 80 % of their rooms, promising not to cancel rooms as it did in Germany four years before, and for adding an unjustified 30 % commission to accommodation rates, giving South Africa an unfortunate image of “rip-off pricing” in the European and English media, thereby keeping soccer fans away from the country.   As if this was not bad enough, the unfortunate accommodation establishments that signed with MATCH received the majority of their rooms back, just a few weeks before the start of the World Cup.

Golden City Award goes to Cape Town, which to date has had the highest number of goals scored (22) of all stadiums, and has achieved the highest occupancy of stadium seats, said Cape Town Stadium Venue Manager Terral Cullen at a Volunteer Farewell Lunch earlier this week.  The Stadium was moved a few meters and a new one built, for the benefit of the view from it onto Table Mountain.   Ironically it was not the mountain that became the focus of the world media, but it was the Stadium itself that formed the backdrop for report after report about our beautiful city and the matches that were taking place.  Even the sport commentators would refer to the beauty of the city during their match commentary.   President Zuma claimed it as the best World Cup city, and FIFA Secretary-General Jerome Valcke said the Cape Town Stadium had the best pitch and was the most perfect stadium, so much so that the Olympic Committee has requested Cape Town to bid for the 2020 Olympic Games.  What an accolade!   Sepp Blatter has taken IOC President Rogge around Cape Town, and personally has recommended the city.  We know that what President Blatter wants, he gets!

Golden Card Award goes to the World Cup referees who loved the red and yellow ones, waving them at players at great regularity, and influencing outcomes of matches as a result - Klose and Mueller’s red and yellow cards were examples for the German team.

Golden Flop Award goes to all soccer players who collapsed every time another player bumped into them - from a distance many of them looked like primadonnas, hoping for a free kick whenever they flopped onto the grass

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

The Department of Labour has announced the new Minimum Wages for the Hospitality Industry, for the period 1 July 2010 - 30 June 2011, a 7,5 % increase over the previous twelve month period.

The new Minimum Wage for employers with 10 or less employees is R1981,48, the weekly minimum rate is R457,30,  and the minimum hourly rate is R10,17.

Employers that have more than 10 employees must pay a minimum wage of R2209 per month, R509,83 per week and R11,33 per hour.

The minimum wage rates are calculated by adding 1 percentage point to the current inflation rate of 6,5 %, and is therefore the lowest wage increase since the Sectoral Determination for the Hospitality Industry was promulgated in 2007, setting minimum wage rates for the first time for this sector.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Cape Town Tourism issued a media release “A Mid-Way 2010 FIFA World Cup Report from Cape Town Tourism” on Friday, which has (frighteningly) been picked up by news agencies and reported upon immediately.

My problem with surveys conducted by companies that do not have the faintest idea of market research is that the answers received will only be as good or as bad as the questions asked.  I knew immediately that the results would be used for publicity purposes when I received a survey participation request as an accommodation establishment from Cape Town Tourism two weeks ago.

The first questionnaire was embarrassingly bad, with poor grammar, poor time scales provided as answer options, leading questions asked, and a 5-day timeline referred to when they meant 7 days!   I wrote to Cape Town Tourism CEO Mariette du Toit-Helmbold immediately, telling her that it would be irresponsible if the results were to be used for PR purposes.  I offered my help, having been a market researcher for 20 years, and was sent the second accommodation survey for input a week later.   I had to correct almost every question, and hoped that it would be used as it had been corrected.  But no, many questions were altered, new ones introduced relative to the draft questionnaire, making comparison between week 1 and week 2 impossible, more grammatical errors were made in that my corrections were “corrected” nonsensically, so much so that I wrote to Du Toit-Helmbold again, withdrawing my offer to assist in future, in not wanting to be associated with such unprofessional work and by implication condone its irresponsible use for publicity purposes.

And so two days after the last “survey” went out, the results of the two weeks’ “surveys” were neatly packaged and presented as a valid “survey” and findings presented as the gospel in a press release for all the world to read!

The first problem is that the sample size is not specified - i.e. the number of respondents relative to the universe of accommodation establishments.  Second, the “survey” only would reflect Cape Town Tourism members, and not all accommodation establishments in Cape Town (in Camps Bay, for example, most guest houses do not belong to Cape Town Tourism) - this is not mentioned in the press release, which is irresponsible in itself.  Third, the geographic definition that was used in the press release was the “Cape Town Metropole” - in my definition that would be the inner city of Cape Town, but in the definition of the City of Cape Town, it would be the municipal area of the whole area of Cape Town (e.g. Southern Suburbs, Atlantic Seaboard, Northern Suburbs, and even Somerset West and Strand).   Incorporating all of these areas of greater Cape Town would certainly skew the findings - whilst the press release referred to such areas as Green Point and City Bowl, the suburb of the respondents was not asked in the questionnaires, which makes one wonder how they got to this information!

And so if one were to waste one’s time in evaluating the results of the accommodation “survey”, the finding of a 40 % average occupancy would reflect the geographic bias in the “survey” design, as low occupancy of guest houses in Somerset West or Durbanville would reduce the higher occupancies in the city and Atlantic Seaboard areas on average.   The press release reports an average occupancy of 71 % for the City Bowl, Waterfront and Green Point areas.  Once again, this finding is questioned as the geographic question was not asked, and the respondents were anonymous!   Where the press release states that the “survey” found that business had improved in the second week of the World Cup, our experience in Camps Bay is the opposite, it having become very quiet since the departure of the England fans last Monday. The majority of the 25000 Dutch fans (unfortunately for Cape Town) camped at the Berg River Resort in Paarl.

Even worse is the predictions that are made by the writer of the release, sent out by the Cape Town Tourism’s PR company Rabbit in a Hat Communications, the authors of the “survey” questionnaire.  It finds that the average length of stay is only 3 - 4 days (we would disagree), and predicts that the “length of stay in Cape Town will increase as the tournament progresses.  Cape Town hosts a Quarter Final on Saturday, 3 July and the Semi Final on Tuesday, 6 July 2010 and expects visitor numbers will peak during these times”.  Anyone observing the movement of soccer fans will know that this is a dangerous prediction to make, and that soccer fans follow their teams, not cities!  The teams playing the Round of 16 in Cape Town tomorrow are Portugal and Spain, and Germany faces Argentina in the Quarter Final on Saturday, but no additional bookings have been received from their fans.  The teams for the Semi Final are not yet known, and therefore bookings are not being made for these dates yet.  However, it may be impossible to still buy tickets for these last three Cape Town matches, as they were the first to be ’sold out’, according to media reports.

More reliable information is contained in the press release as far as other tourism World Cup indicators are concerned:

*   Cape Town International airport reports that its number of international arrivals is up by 44 %, the busiest day to date being 20 June, when 25 000 passengers were “processed”.   Bookings for flights to South Africa were being made while England was playing Slovenia last Wednesday, the release says.

*   Luxury coach company Springbok Atlas reports fully booked coaches, with two trips per day per coach on average

*   Car rental companies “are reporting mixed results, many saying that figures have been disappointing but that business increases around match days”, say the press release.

*   The 18 branch offices of Cape Town Tourism report a 16 % increase in “international visitors” and a 3 % decline in “domestic visitors”, compared to the same period as last year.  One wonders how this is recorded, as the country of origin has never been seen to be recorded when visiting such a branch.

*   The V&A Waterfront reports that its tenants are enjoying trading as in the summer season, with 150 000 - 160 000 persons per day (not all tenants would agree).

*   The Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company reports increased business of 50 % higher than in 2009

*   The Cape Quarter reports good results for its restaurants, and less so for the retail tenants

*   Tour operator business has increased by 20 % (this comes from another Cape Town Tourism “survey”, so the result should be treated with caution, as the sample size was not revealed)

*   Restaurants must be trading very poorly, as their business levels compared to 2009 are not reported

*   Probably the most valuable measurement of success of the World Cup to date is the media coverage for Cape Town.   Cape Town Tourism reports that it has hosted 205 international journalists since January until 10 June, mainly focusing on the readiness of the city to host the World Cup.   Since 11 June 85 international journalists were hosted on sightseeing tours of the city, and information was provided to 93 media channels.  The Media Centre at the Cape Town Stadium, as well as at the Fan Park at the Grand Parade, is staffed by Cape Town Tourism, and the brochures and information packs provided to the media are commendable.

(An irony is that FIFA President Sepp Blatter wanted a new stadium in Cape Town for media purposes, because Table Mountain could not be seen from the old Green Point Stadium.  The few meters that the Stadium had to be moved meant a spectacularly beautiful new building for the city, which in fact is the backdrop for much international media reporting, taking away from the beautiful landmarks Cape Town has.  The new Stadium therefore is an important landmark in its own right, a surprise outcome).

*   VIP visitors to Cape Town have been an accolade for the city (not reported upon by Cape Town Tourism), and the stay in Cape Town last week by Princes William and Harry, London Mayor Boris Johnson and David Beckham have already been documented on this blog.  Now Bill Clinton is visiting the city, staying at one of the Penthouses of the One&Only Hotel in the Waterfront.   Prince Harry has also returned to Cape Town after last week’s match, and was seen having lunch at the Grand on the Beach on Thursday.

*   One should not forget how good Cape Town is looking, and the World Cup has done the city proud in its upgraded and largely smooth-flowing N1 and N2 highways, its beautiful new airport building and recently renovated train station, its modern buses, upgrade of Green Point, upgrade of the Grand Parade, the great walkability of the Fan Mile, the greening of Green Point, and upgrade of the Metropolitan Golf Club, new modern street lighting around Green Point, the lit-up Table Mountain - all combining to make Cape Town feel like a world-class city, even to its residents!

*  If media reports are to be believed, Cape Town has been approached to host the Olympic Games in 2020 - what an amazing compliment for the city.

To fill the tourism gaps in Cape Town (having been left out of much of the action in only having eight matches played at the Cape Town Stadium, and no teams based in the city), Cape Town Tourism has embarked on a “Come to Cape Town” marketing campaign, to attract Johannesburg-based soccer fans to come to Cape Town in-between matches.  Airline partners are offering flights at R 700 one-way, while accommodation establishments are offering their rooms at R 500 per person.

*   Cape Town Tourism’s funder, the City of Cape Town, simultaneously reported on the status of Cape Town, but this was not incorporated in the Cape Town Tourism press release.   Mansoor Mohamed, the Executive Director of Economic and Social Development and Tourism of the City, indicated that informal traders were doing well,  more expensive hotels were experiencing low occupancy (20 - 40 %), and that restaurants “are also doing better than expected trade, with some even beating their actual Christmas figures”, reports South Africa.info.  We disagree with the restaurant finding, having experienced empty restaurants, and observing soccer fans mainly ordering beer and very little food when they sit in pubs and restaurants.    Mohamed has admitted that his observations are based on “initial surveys”, and stated that the economic impact of the World Cup will be established by means of comprehensive research at the end of the tournament.  “The World Cup is the single most important event for South Africa and the African continent in recent time.  It is positively changing the world’s perceptions about Africa” Mohamed said.

*   A very low-key but most high profile event taking place in Cape Town until today (not reported upon by Cape Town Tourism in their media release) is the Fortune, TIME and CNN Global Forum.  About 140 heads of global and local companies such a Royal Dutch Shell, China Mobile, Deutsche Bank, The Coca Cola Company, DuPont, Rio Tinto Group, McKinsey & Company, Trilogy, Merck Vaccines, Kissinger Associates, Inc, De Beers Group, Richemont SA, One&Only, Naspers Limited, De Beers Group, SEACOM Limited, ABSA Group Limited, Standard Bank Group, Symantec, First Rand Limited, Sanlam Limited, Pioneer Foods, Investec Asset Management, and Daimler, paying $5000 each to attend, will meet influential persons from TIME magazine’s top 100 list, reports the Weekend Argus.  Bill Clinton, Ex-President FW de Klerk, Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel, Minister of Trade & Industry Rob Davies, Francois Pienaar, and World Cup Local Organising Committee Danny Jordaan and others will be addressing the Forum, while President Zuma will be addressing the delegates via satellite from the G20 summit in Canada. High level journalists and news anchors from Time, Fortune, CNN, and CBS News will also attend the Forum at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.  Delegates are staying at the Mount Nelson Hotel and the Cullinan Hotel.

There can be no doubt that Cape Town is busier than it would have been in any other June.  The reality is that May was the worst month ever experienced, the World Cup having created a vacuum of bookings.  One hopes the same is not true for the rest of July.  It is disturbing to see the low number of bookings made for Christmas and New Year, traditionally the most popular period in Cape Town, and a period that would have been booked up by now already.  If Whale Cottage Camps Bay is anything to go by, it is going to be a lean summer, despite the World Cup hype - the British travellers are the largest source of bookings for Cape Town, and they are under severe financial pressure with the new Conservative/Lib-Dem government having imposed stringent financial measures in their budget earlier this week, including an increase in VAT of 2,5 percentage points to 20%.  Many countries in Europe are also facing tight economic measures imposed by their governments (e.g. Greece, Italy, Spain) and even Germany is affected by Europe’s economic woes.

An interesting issue is the effect of the World Cup on travel aspirations to South Africa of Americans.  The American soccer fans were the largest ticket-buying nation of all, beating England and Germany, and were the first to book, more than a year ago.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

For the first time the hospitality industry of Cape Town has had a taste of the power of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with about 25 000 England supporters streaming into the city on Friday, to see their team play Algeria, in what many described as a most disappointing match, with a goal-less draw.  The visitors to Cape Town are loving the city and its fantastic “winter” weather, today in particular, and it will be sure to have a good tourism spin-off for future visits.

Accommodation establishments are booked out, restaurants and pubs are filled with patrons, and the V&A Waterfront was reported on Twitter to be “swarming with tourists”, with a warning issued to locals to ”do not go”!  The most popular pub in the Waterfront for the English fans is Ferryman’s Tavern, its special ale suiting the British taste, reports The Times.   A pod of whales even came close to the Cape Town Stadium in Table Bay, in honour of the British visitors!

The accommodation bookings were extremely last minute, with the last available four of the 11 rooms at Whale Cottage Camps Bay, for example, being sold out in the last 24 hours prior to the start of the match.  The average length of stay is just three days, until the England fans head off elsewhere tomorrow.   Camps Bay’s beachfront was spilling over with fans packing pavement cafes and restaurants, as on a summer’s day, despite the overcast day yesterday.

The city is looking festive, with the red-and-white England flag adorning many an accommodation establishment, and restaurants and pubs.   The feared soccer hooligans did not travel to Cape Town, it would appear, the cost of the ticket prices being a deterrent.

A highlight for Cape Town is the VIP presence at the match on Friday of the Princes William and Harry, looking very uncomfortable in their suits; Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London; and David Beckham, sitting at the edge of the pitch.   Johnson said: “I’ve been to Cape Town for just two days and the atmosphere is mind-blowing.  The nation is united in enthusiasm and the tournament is progressing nicely”, according to the Cape Argus.

It appears that the number of visitors to South Africa has increased since the earlier depressing news that the number of international visitors had reduced, with so many last minute bookings.  It appears that many charter flights have entered Cape Town, with groups of 20 - 30 soccer fans on board each, all seemingly last minute bookings.  The England fans have been followed by the British media, and it is heartening to note how the reporting  by the British media, SkyNews in particular, has changed to reporting far more positively about our country.  Last night the TV station showed an interview with its correspondent in Cape Town, filmed on Signal Hill with a beautiful backdrop of the Stadium and Table Bay.   The reporter referred to England needing the Cape of Good Hope for its next match!

South African Customs have reported that 456 000 international visitors had entered South Africa between 1 - 13 June, compared to 345 000 visitors in the same period in 2009, reports The Times.   Obviously not all visitors are attending the World Cup, especially as many of them flew in as late as 11 June, so they may include the regular cross-border visitors from neighbouring African countries, coming to shop in South Africa.  

Next week looks more depressing, the Portugal versus North Korea, and Cameroon versus Netherlands matches not having as much appeal, if accommodation bookings are anything to go by.  All fingers are crossed for strong teams making the round of 16, the quarter final and semi-final in Cape Town, as this will fill up Cape Town again.  

Good performances by England, Germany, the USA, and the Netherlands in their next matches will have an important influence on last minute fans coming to South Africa, says FEDHASA, reports Fin24.  This effect will not be felt if Brazil and Portugal progress to the final stages of the tournament, it is speculated.   Only 10 000 German visitors came to South Africa for the World Cup, after national soccer hero and FIFA executive member Franz Beckenbauer expressed his concerns in earlier days about the World Cup having been awarded to South Africa.   He bravely changed his tune when he briefly spoke at the World Cup Kick-Off Concert.    

No matter who plays whom in the next 20 days of the World Cup, the accommodation bookings are far better in Host Cities than they would have been in any other June and July ever.  Whale Cottage Camps Bay now has an occupancy of 65  % for the World Cup, having improved its occupancy by 5 percentage points in the first ten days of the World Cup.   Given last minute bookings for the Quarter and Semi Finals, occupancy could end off at around 70 % for Whale Cottage Camps Bay.  The reality, however, is that May had the worst occupancy ever, thus balancing the gain with the loss.  The Whale Cottages in Hermanus, Plettenberg Bay and Franschhoek have barely gained from the World Cup.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

The Sweet Service Award goes to Donovan Dreyer, the new Food & Beverage Manager of Grand Provence in Franschhoek, who came over to introduce himself when a colleague and I popped in to see the latest exhibition at the art gallery and had a cappuccino and a dessert each.  We were served the most beautiful desserts I have ever seen, and they matched their visual attractiveness with exquisite taste as well.    My colleague had an apple and mango tart with a tiny toffee apple on top, as well as the greenest scoop of apple ice cream on a chocolate biscuit base.  My dessert was a mini chocolate-filled croissant-like pastry, served with a thick vodka cream.  Executive Chef Darren Roberts is a talent to be watched. Donovan refused to let us pay, and we left Grand Provence impressed with their friendliness and professionalism. 

The Sour Service Award goes to Lime Media Marketing/Media Mountain, a company that has changed its name a number of times since calling in the past six months or so.  In heavy recognisable (almost trademark) Manchester accents the staff introduce themselves as a “Google certified company” and promise immediately to put one at number one position “on the first page of Google”.  I was offered a special for the Plettenberg Bay accommodation page, at a discounted rate of R 1 300 per month, down from R 4 600.   When I asked where it would be located on the Google page - as an ad on the right hand side, as an ad at the top, or as a normal Google listing, tele-sales caller Matthew could not reply, passing me on to Ben.   Normally Google ads are charged on a pay-per-click basis.    It is obvious that the company is a call centre, as one hears the buzz of numerous other callers (I heard the same salescall go out to an accommodation establishment in Hout Bay whilst speaking to Matthew).  No written communication is sent, the transaction being done electronically, so that one cannot see the paperwork at all, which makes one suspicious already.   A guest house colleague in Camps Bay, Sally from Atlantic Suites, has also experienced the pushy nature of the company, having been intimidated by them when she did not pay immediately on what the company had felt had been a done deal.

The WhaleTales Sweet & Sour Service Awards are presented every Friday on the WhaleTales blog.  Nominations for the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be sent to Chris von Ulmenstein at info@whalecottage.com.   Past winners of the Sweet and Sour Service Awards can be read on the Friday posts of this blog, and in the WhaleTales newsletters on the www.whalecottage.com website.

Cape Town has a surplus of hotel beds, mainly at the 5-star level, and it is expected that there will be a major shake-out in this sector after the completion of the World Cup, and “only the fittest will survive”, reports Travel News Now.

Ten new hotels have opened their doors in Cape Town since last year, and include the newest, the Strand Towers, The Pepper Club, Taj Hotel Cape Town (the international monies have been well-spent on this building) , 15 on Orange (which has had money thrown at it by Protea Hotel’s African Pride Hotels), Crystal Towers Hotel, Coral International Cape Town (the first ‘dry’ hotel in the city), One&Only Cape Town (Sol Kerzner is the owner), Cape Royale Luxury Hotel, Harbour Bridge Hotel and Suites, and the Upper East Side Hotel.  Four further hotels are in the pipeline for the city.

If the new hotels were the only ones in town, other accommodation establishments would not feel the current accommodation demand decline and room oversupply so badly.  But a recent statistic shows that Cape Town currently has 84 hotels with 11 584 rooms in total, compared to the national totals of 596 hotels and 65 872 rooms. 

The oversupply of accommodation has led to price-cutting, as the hotels compete to attract declining numbers of visitors to the city.   On average, it is said that most accommodation establishments in Cape Town are 50 % full for the World Cup.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

A new book by British “investigative sports reporter” Andrew Jennings, called “FOUL! The Secret World of FIFA: Bribes, Vote Rigging and Ticket Scandals”, has kicked up a fuss just days ahead of the start of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, reports The Times.  The book is critical of FIFA, and its “corruption and greed”.  

Jennings is one of few, if not the only, journalist to be banned from FIFA media conferences, having focused on sport corruption reporting for the last thirty years.  He started his “stirring” with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Chairman Juan Antonio Samaranch, having discovered his political past during the Second World War, leading to three books on the subject, and 5 days in a Swiss jail.

The IOC and FIFA shared the same marketing company, International Sport and Leisure, and this led Jennings to investigate FIFA, amid allegations of bribery by the marketing company to secure marketing contracts and television broadcast rights, with kickbacks to FIFA, before it went into liquidation.  

As far as the South African bid for the 2010 World Cup goes, Jennings alleges that Jack Warner, a FIFA executive from Trinidad and Tobago, wanted one thing above all - access to Nelson Mandela, and he was only prepared to vote for our country if his wish came true!   Jennings is disparaging of Warner, and his debt to the 2006 World Cup team from these two countries, who still have not been paid, it is alleged, despite a British court order to this effect. 

The FIFA ticketing and accommodation agency MATCH has not escaped Jennings’ eagle eye, and he blames MATCH for “… has milked the fans”, particlarly given the world’s economic recession, which meant they could not afford the excessive cost of the hospitality packages MATCH was selling.  FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s nephew Philippe Blatter is a director of MATCH.   “Not even the American wholesaler could sell the overpriced hospitality packages.  For Match it was just greed, greed, greed”, he writes.  “What matters is the percentage of the commissions they make.  So they push the prices higher to make it a bigger commission.  But the corporates won’t spend money in this economic climate”.

Jennings cynically states that there was never a shortage of tickets to the matches as we were led to believe at one stage, and that South African municipalities are buying tickets “because we have to believe there is a scarcity value; there has been a political move to cover up the scandal. Blatter is dishing out tickets to the unemployed - you are going to get screwed” he added.  He goes on to allege that any profits that FIFA makes will go to the FIFA official headquarters in Zurich.   The Local Organising Committee receives a lashing as well :”Officials and the government have sold South Africa down the river”.  His final parting shot: “..after the final whistle blows, South Africans have nothing to look forward to but a mountain of scandal, debt and  - in our shiny new, expensive stadiums - some rather large white elephants”!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com