Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

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

For the 17th year, Franschhoek will put on its French dress, and Franschhoekers will dust off their berets, celebrating the 14 July storming of La Bastille.  “Again in 2010, Franschhoek’s Bastille Festival, which began as a village fete, will be a celebration of freedom for all!” says the Festival brochure.   The Bastille Festival takes place this weekend.

On Saturday and Sunday the Bastille Festival activities get off to a rolling start at 8h00 with a Boules Tournament on the Dutch Reformed Church grounds on the main road.  From 10h00 onwards there is ”a showcase of artisanal food and fare” in the Town Hall and one can sit down at a Parisian cafe.   Locally made olives and oils, fruit preserves, honey products, tasty take-home treats, Cape cuisine, and fresh vegetables will be sold.

The highlight for regular Bastille Festival supporters is the marquee in the centre of town, that sees almost every Franschhoek winery (Akkerdal, Allee Bleue, Anthonij Rupert, Bellingham, Boekenhoutskloof, Boschendal, Dieu Donne, Glenwood, Graham Beck, Grande Provence, La Bri, La Motte, Lynx, Mont Rochelle, Rickety Bridge, Rupert & Rothschild, Solms-Delta, Topiary and Vrede & Lust) paired with almost every restaurant in town (Allee Bleue, Dieu Donne, French Connection, The Grillroom, The Restaurant at Grande Provence, Haute Cabriere, iCi, La Petite Ferme, Monneaux, Plaisir de Merle, Reuben’s, and Fyndraai).  The food and winetasting marquee is open from 12h00 - 17h00 on Saturday and Sunday, and entrance costs R 100, which entitles one to five tasting coupons.   Tickets can be booked at www.webtickets.co.za

The Porcupine Ridge Barrel Rolling competition starts at 14h00 on each of the two days, and a Waiters’ Race will be contested at the Food & Wine Marquee at 13h00 on Saturday. 

Whale Cottage Franschhoek has a Bastille Festival weekend accommodation package - write to winelands@whalecottage.com.  

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

Whale Cottage Plettenberg Bay is celebrating its second anniversary this month, being the newest Whale Cottage in the Whale Cottage Portfolio, with sister guest houses in Camps Bay, Hermanus and Franschhoek.

The Whale Cottage Portfolio was established 13 years ago, when Whale Cottage Hermanus opened, followed two years later by Whale Cottage Camps Bay.   Whale Cottage Franschhoek opened five years ago.

Whale Cottage Plettenberg Bay has state of the art features, such as flat screen televisions, airconditioning, heated towel rails, and baths and showers in 4 of the 8 guest rooms.   It is located in a quiet cul de sac on the Robberg side of Plettenberg Bay.

Whale Cottage Plettenberg Bay is located at 26 Boston Light Street, Plettenberg Bay, tel 044 533 2544, gardenroute@whalecottage.com, www.whalecottage.com

The Sweet Service Award  goes to Haute Cabriere in Franschhoek, for hosting the guest house owners of Franschhoek for a cellar tour of Cabriere, and a generous lunch, as a way of saying thank you for the support they have received from the accommodation establishments, and to introduce their new menu for summer.  Matthew Gordon is the chef who prepared the lovely meal, and his wife Nicky looked after the guests.  All courses were paired with Cabriere wines, and Huguenot Fine Chocolates gave each guest a gift pack of chocolate footballs. 

The Sour Service Award  goes to Rocketseed and its sales executive Sam.  Sam recently called Whale Cottage Franschhoek to sell the Rocketseed banner advertising.  She started her call by stating that she was calling on behalf of the Franschhoek Tourism Bureau, who had made use of the banner advert of the company.  She then proactively said she was not calling to sell advertising.  However, she launched into a sales call for the company’s banner advertising.  When she was asked how she could say that she was not selling advertising, she stated that she was selling ‘banner advertising’ which differs from ‘advertising’, in her opinion.  The Franschhoek Tourism Bureau confirmed that they had not instructed Rocketseed to call members of the Franschhoek Tourism Bureau.   Later that day Whale Cottage received an e-mail from Johan Huisamen, a Director of Rocketseed. He was told about the interaction with Sam, but had been contacted by the Franschhoek tourism bureau already, and had been asked to desist from implying that the bureau was endorsing the sales calls.   On Twitter Whale Cottage picked up three Tweets sent by Sam about the incident, defaming Protea Hotels and Whale Cottage (she had thought she was speaking to the Franschhoek Inn, now the Protea Hotel Franschhoek).  A half-hearted apology was made by Sam on Twitter under pressure from her bosses, but no further direct apology has been received from Sam nor the company.  Rocketseed in fact refused to take responsibility for the Twitter communication, saying that it was done in Sam’s private capacity - however they were made after her business sales call!    This is the second Sour Service Award Rocketseed has received - previously it was for the rude interaction with a Director of Rocketseed, when Whale Cottage pointed out that the banner advertising is highly spam sensitive, and does not always reach its intended recipients, and that it has a design problem as to where it places the ‘footer’ of the banner advertisement when one replies to enquiries coming from accommodation websites.

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.

To celebrate the success of the Whale Cottage Portfolio, it has bought a penguin house on Dyer Island, to provide a safe haven for the penguins to breed in.   This project is run by the Dyer Island Conservation Trust from Gansbaai (www.dict.org.za).   The African penguins on Dyer Island are vulnerable to extinction, as the guano they used in the past to make their nests has been removed for the production of fertilizer. In 30 years the number of breeding pairs on Dyer island has decreased by 90 %, to about 1 600 pairs.   The fibreglass nests have been designed to mimic guano burrows,  to protect the penguins against predators and the elements, and to assist the Trust in research and monitoring.

Last month Whale Cottage Hermanus celebrated its 13th anniversary.  It was the first Whale Cottage to open. 

The Whale Cottage Portfolio is in celebratory mode again, with Whale Cottage Camps Bay celebrating its 11^thbirthday this month, and Whale Cottage Franschhoek celebrating its 5^th birthday.  

It is also the first anniversary of the WhaleTales  blog, the first step of the Whale Cottage Portfolio into social media marketing.   Blogging, Twittering and Facebooking are very important parts of the daily Whale Cottage marketing communication activities.  

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

The Women’s Day long weekend has been good for business, with Whale Cottage Franschhoek, Whale Cottage Hermanus and Whale Cottage Camps Bay fully booked on most of the weekend nights.

The good bookings could be a signal that the worst of the economic crunch is over, and it is encouraging that the guest mix consisted of Italians (August traditionally is their holiday month, and they seem to favour South Africa as before), British visitors, and of  South Africans.

In Cape Town the Springboks played against the Wallabies at Newlands over the weekend, while in Hermanus the Kalfiefees and the Hermanus Food & Wine Fair took place.

Franschhoek was largely taken over for the long weekend by one of the largest law firms in South Africa, Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs, and Whale Cottage Franschhoek accommodated the band Watershed, which performed at the company’s function.   More than 300 staff and their families spent the weekend in Franschhoek, as the company’s way of thanking its staff for their contribution to its success.

The Whale Cottage guests celebrated the 13 th anniversary of the Whale Cottage Portfolio on Women’s day with the staff.

Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

Whale Cottage Franschhoek hosted the accommodation for Nicci Botha, editor of Wine Tourism News, last week, and received excellent feedback.

She was the guest of the Franschhoek Wine Valley Tourism Association, and spent two days enjoying the best of what Franschhoek has to offer:  gym at the Franschhoek Health Club, dinner at Grande Provence, breakfast at Mont Rochelle, lunch at Bread & Wine, the Franschhoek Motor Museum, winetasting at Vrede & Lust and lunch at Cotage Fromage, and sleeping over at Whale Cottage Franschhoek.

“Nicci raved about jumping into your stunning ball and claw bath! She said she had never seen such a welcoming sight in her life! She raved about Whale Cottage saying that it felt like she was in a real seaside cottage! She loved it!” was the fabulous feedback Whale Cottage Franschhoek received!

Marinda du Plessis of BMW deserves a Sweet Service Award this week, for helping Whale Cottage Franschhoek to receive payment for a large booking from the company for a launch of a new vehicle, which event BMW is hosting in Franschhoek.   The company has very strict payment procedures, and Marinda made it possible for all payment hurdles to be smoothed over.  She even went as far as depositing a cheque for payment at the bank on a Saturday morning, her day-off, as BMW does not pay by bank transfer.

The Sour Service Award goes to Tourvest Travel Services and Metroplitan Life.  A PA of the  insurance company made a booking for a single guest for one night at Whale Cottage Franschhoek, but demanded completion of an 8-page document to be registered as a vendor on the company’s financial system two days before the guest’s arrival, when payment had long been due.   The document states the company’s “business rules”, governing its relationship with its vendors, requests an authorisation from the vendor that it can receive payment by electronic funds transfer, has a difficult questionnaire probing the relationship between the vendor’s staff and Metropolitan, and ends with an indemnity against Metroplitan being held liable for taxes by SARS as a result of the vendor doing business with Metroplitan.   This is the most unusually onerous document ever seen in the hospitality industry, and therefore Whale Cottage Franschhoek declined the booking.  The response from the Metropolitan Life staff member was unkind, probably because they would not find another accommodation establishment willing to go through such a bureaucratic booking and payment procedure long after payment was due already.   Metropolitan has an in-house travel agency, American Express Travel, and they were informed by the insurance company of the booking cancellation, even though they were not involved in the booking at all.   

The Team Leader Natasha Wolfaardt and General Manager: Business Development, Harvey Lines, of Tourvest Travel Services, the corporate entity owning American Express Travel and other related travel agencies, took great exception to Metropolitan being awarded the Sour Award, and sent an e-mail of verbal abuse to Whale Cottage, threatening to communicate to its agency companies and fellow members of the hospitality industry that Whale Cottage had declined a booking!   “On behalf of Tourvest Travel Services, being American Express Travel Services, Seekers, Indojet & Maties, please be advised that our national network of offices will be instructed not to sell your property with immediate effect. Furthermore, I will make sure that our considerable corporate client base, our fellow members at ASATA and all of our other peers within the travel & tourism sector in SA are made aware of our experiences dealing with you. I have been in travel & tourism for over 22 years based throughout the world and have never come across anything as short-sighted as your attitude before. I lie, you remind me of Basil Fawlty.   Clearly your business is immune to the economic crisis that is affecting most people on this planet, which I guess is worthy of some type of accolade so congratulations on that, though it doesn’t quite beat the Sour Service award that you have kindly bestowed upon us.    I notice from you email that “wir sprechen deutsch”. Shame you don’t know how to speak to potential customers in English!” wrote Mr Lines.

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.