Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

The Sweet Service Award goes to Jannie from Franschhoek Motors, for replacing the clutch of a Chrysler PT Cruiser, which he had replaced eight months before.  Not only did Jannie collect the car from Cape Town, and tow it to Franschhoek, but he also demanded that the clutch supplier Luc Repco replace the clutch at no cost. 

The Sour Service Award goes to Value Car Hire, a supplier of good value cars for Whale Cottage clients for the last twelve years and previously a Sweet Service Award recipient.  Due to the clutch repair of the Chrysler PT Cruiser, we had to rent a car for five days, and chose to support our supplier.  Being neurotic about a blanket authorisation hold on my credit card, I called our contact over all the years and senior manager of the company, Munier Abrahams, and agreed that no such authorisation would be held over my credit card, as I would pay by EFT once the car was returned.  I told him that I had not signed the form, and in fact had scratched out the card payment authorisation on the form.  When the car was driven, it was badly aligned, the steering wheel wobbling badly.  We called Munier, and a replacement car was brought to Stellenbosch.  We were surprised that the Value Car Hire driver Bradley had not picked this up when he delivered the car.  Later that day I noticed from my bank statement that the company had put an authorisation hold of R1500 on my credit card after all, despite our agreement.  This was reversed three days later, after I expressed my dissatisfaction to Munier.  On the day of the return of the car, R1181 was booked off my credit card without permission, for the rental as well as a petrol fee, despite the car having been refueled prior to handover and our agreement that I would pay by EFT.   I called Munier, and he promised to sort out the problem, even though he was on leave.  I noticed that the credit card reversal had not come through, so called Munier again, and reminded him about his promise.  He apologised for not having been there, but said he was on the way to the office, and would sort it out.  I called at the end of the day, and we had a war of words on the phone, Munier denying any of the terms of our telephonic agreement.   I gave him until midnight of that day to reverse the payment.  The payment has still not been reversed, and therefore we have approached our bank for a chargeback of the payment, and have found a new car rental company for our guests. It would appear that a take-over of Value Car Hire by i-Drive has changed the attitude to doing business with their customers.

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.

The Sweet Service Award goes to the England supporters, who so bravely and in a sportsman-like manner accepted the outcome of their Round of 16 match against Germany just less than 2 weeks ago.   Despite the loss, they partied and no reports of hooliganism were received, something which has been associated with English soccer fans in the past.

The Sour Service Award goes to Enver of African Eagle, for the poor service a group of Whale Cottage World Cup guests, who had booked the company to do a day-tour to Aquilla, received.   The company’s guide called the Whale Cottage Camps Bay Manager Marianna at 5h45 to obtain directions!   They called again, to say they could not find the house, and were given the correct address again.   It took a further 30 minutes for them to reach the guest house.   An hour later the guests returned, saying that they had asked to be returned to Whale Cottage Camps Bay, as the driver was still looking for other clients at 8h00, when they should have reached Aquilla already and had breakfast there!   It took Enver 24 hours to return Marianna’s call of complaint, due to a message that had not been passed on to him by his staff.  When he took ownership of the problem, Enver immediately apologised and explained that he had used a new Portuguese-speaking guide, who had been requested by other booked clients, but who did not know Cape Town well.   Enver promised to drop off bottles of wine for the Whale Cottage guests and chocolates for Marianna, to apologise for the poor service.   The guests have long since checked out and the promised wine and chocolates have not been received! 

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.

A unique community project has seen the residents of Franschhoek club together to ensure that the gourmet village retains the grand piano which was brought into the village on loan six years ago, and can continue to be used for concerts in the NG Church.

Talented and passionate classical music performer Christopher Duigan brought the grand piano to Franschhoek, when he started putting on two Music Festivals per year.   The Kawai originally cost  R 270 000.  To retain the grand piano in the village, individual keys are being sold at R 1750 each.  Donors receive free tickets to 10 concerts over a two year period. 

A benefit of keeping the piano in Franschhoek is that one can look forward to the outstanding concerts by Duigan, who was named a Steinway Artist earlier this year, keeping company with Diana Krall, Lang Lang, Abdullah Ibrahim, Keith Jarret, and also Arthur Rubinstein, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner, amongst others.

Whale Cottage has supported the wonderful concerts that Duigan has organised for and played in Franschhoek, and this project, and therefore bought the Middle C key. 

There are only a handful of keys on the Franschhoek Grand Piano left for sale.  Contact Karen Minnaar, tel (021) 876-2431.

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

As a small operator, it has often felt like David versus Goliath when WhaleTales has criticised MATCH, FIFA’s accommodation agency, in its terms and conditions of wanting to do business with small accommodation establishments for the 2010 World Cup.

Whale Cottage has been vindicated for its brave public stand against the MATCH terms, which it first wrote about in a WhaleTales newsletter dated June 2007, soon after MATCH did its first presentation to the Cape Town hospitality industry at the Cape Sun.  

An in-depth article in the Sunday Times of 13 September says what Whale Cottage has been saying for the past two years - that MATCH is a rip-off as far as accommodation for visitors to South Africa is concerned in 2010, and that many other accommodation establishments are saying so too, and are not contracting with MATCH.

Initially MATCH set very stringent criteria for hotels, and for small accommodation establishments, the latter being an accommodation category not previously utilised by MATCH, but necessary due to the 55 000 beds required for the FIFA officials, the media, VIP visitors, and package purchasers.

The major complaints from small accommodation establishments related to the setting of the rate, initially dictated by MATCH as being the 2007 rate + 16 %, of which MATCH would take 30 % commission.   There was to be one uniform cancellation policy, despite the poor track record MATCH has in cancelling hotel rooms in Germany in 2006, without compensating the establishments.  MATCH dictated that 80 % of an establishment’s rooms were to be made available to MATCH.   Payment would only be received on the day of arrival of the guest, by means of a sealed cheque, which the accommodation establishment could only bank the following day.   No deposits were to be payable upfront.   Whale Cottage tried to reason with the MATCH authorities whilst it was a member of the FEDHASA Cape Board, but little attention was paid to the needs of and feedback from the small accommodation sector, given that FEDHASA is an hotel association looking after its large hotel member needs first and foremost.

Regular criticism of MATCH and its terms, and the company’s inability to sign up the required number of beds - it is still about 15 000 beds short of its target - led MATCH to relax its conditions, in that the cancellation policy has been relaxed somewhat, in that establishments may set their own “fair” accommodation rates, and that MATCH will take 30 % on top of this rate as its commission.   From the outset MATCH, and FIFA’s PR machine, has stated that 30 % is an average rate of commission paid by the accommodation industry, which is blatantly untrue, given that the norm is 10 %, and at most 20 % for operators with whom one has done business for a long time.

Accommodation establishments in Cape Town, especially along the Atlantic Seaboard, are receiving a steady flow of 2010 bookings, and therefore do not need MATCH to sell their rooms.   The accommodation rate norm is to use the summer rate for 2009/2010 and to add 10 % to set the 2010 World Cup rate.   These establishments are receiving the cashflow benefit of 50 % deposits at a time when the credit crunch is still making itself felt.

What is most interesting about the Sunday Times article is that it stated that one of the directors of MATCH Hospitality shareholder Infront Sports and Media is Philippe Blatter, nephew of FIFA President Sepp Blatter. MATCH Hospitality was contracted in 2007 to sell tickets and suites for FIFA matches, for the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.  MATCH Hospitality is said to have paid $ 120 million for the rights to provide hospitality services at the FIFA events.

MATCH Event Services belongs to Byrom PLC, a British company, says the Sunday Times, selling 55 000 rooms, transportation and tickets as all-in-one packages, which will make it far more difficult for soccer fans to see how badly they are being ripped off.   In the Sunday Times article, for example, angry Kruger National Park regulars state that they cannot book the Kruger Park accommodation, as it has all been contracted to MATCH, at prices 400 % above the normal rates.

The Sunday Times article contains quotes from the CEO’s of Southern Sun, City Lodge and Protea Hotels, all praising and supporting MATCH, and downplaying the size of the MATCH commission.   Given that these are the largest hotel groups in the country, which will benefit greatly from its MATCH bookings, they cannot but sing the praises of MATCH. 

What has also been confirmed by the Sunday Times article, and is something Whale Cottage has been concerned about, is that the bulk of the commission which MATCH will be making, plus FIFA’s profits generated from the Word Cup, will leave South Africa.    On the accommodation side alone this could easily amount to R 330 million at a most conservative estimate.

Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com

The Whale Cottage Portfolio has embraced new technology and social media, by posting tweets on Twitter, mainly to publicise new blog posts on its WhaleTales blog.

Twitter is one of the fastest growing social media networks, and allows its users to communicate in a maximum of 140 characters. More than 5 million persons Twitter around the world. The communication is driven by the answer to the question: What are you doing now?” Most Twitterers do not reply to the question, rather sending their information proactively about any topic they wish. The Tweets can also be used to gain information from other Twitterers, by posing questions.

Twitter has developed its own terminology, and the following are some new additions to the dictionary, according to David White, a Twitter consultant: “monitter” = monitoring what people are saying linked to specific keywords; “Tweetbeeps” are tweets that mentions one’s name or brand, with regular updates; “Twiveaway” = competition designed to build more followers; and “Twtqpon” = a coupon offered to followers. See www.howtotweet.co.uk for guidelines on how to tweet on Twitter.

Whale Cottage can be found on Twitter at http://twitter.com/whalecottage, and invites readers of the WhaleTales blog to follow whalecottage.

S A Tourism is re-developing its website www.southafrica.net, and the government tourism promotion agency, together with Google, is doing a “complete clean-up of the National Tourism Product Database” says an e-mail sent to tourism players yesterday.

Sent by William Price, the Global Head: eMarketing of S A Tourism, the letter encourages co-operation to help to update each tourism player’s information, particularly in the interest of 2010.   The e-mail contains an 8-digit verification code, which must be requested of the S A Tourism representative when he/she calls.  

What is most astounding is that the letter says”….and don’t be alarmed by the Aussie accent when you get your phone call.”    Whale Cottage was called by a man with an American accent earlier this week, requesting update information.    The immediate question to the caller was to understand why a South African tourism agency would use a non-South African company to update the S A Tourism website.  The caller could not explain this.  This reply, plus the poor ability to understand his American-accented questions, made Whale Cottage decline the rest of the call.

The e-mail promises that the website will showcase the tourism products as follows:

It will be interesting to see what degree of co-operation S A Tourism will receive for the tourism information update, given that the e-mail with the verification code has to kept until the call is received.  No date for the call is specified.   

Whale Cottage has written to S A Tourism, to check why a South African company cannot update the tourism product database.

The Sweet Service Award goes to the citizens of Hermanus, who enthusiastically sent votes by SMS, for the town to be named the Rapport Town of the Year.   Special recognition should go to Storm Kreusch of the Hermanus Tourism Bureau and Maxie Lerm of the Overstrand DMO.  

This year saw the fourth Rapport Town of the Year Competition. The publication’s almost 586 000 readers were asked to vote for their favourite town in the Western, Southern and Northern Cape by SMS or mail. Oudtshoorn, Hermanus and Robertson were the three finalists and were judged by a panel consisting of representatives of Kaap-Rapport and co-sponsors, Cape Town Routes Unlimited and Van Loveren Winery.    

                                                                                                                                                                   The Sour Service Award goes to last week’s Sweet Service Award winner, TELKOM.  Being such a large corporation, staff in one division may excel, whilst those in another may give the telephone company a bad name as far as service levels go.   A number of requests were made in person at the TELKOM branch in Sea Point a week ago, and only one of these was efficiently executed.  A reminder visit had to be made a week later, to question why the requested changes, including a vital ADSL line move, had not been made.   The Manager of the Sea Point branch did not wish to take responsibility for his staff member’s poor service, saying it had nothing to do with him!

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.

Whale Cottage Plettenberg Bay is celebrating its first birthday this month, with a sold out festive season.   The newest of the four Whale Cottages, it is receiving good reviews from its guests for its location, decor, and service.

The Sweet Service Award goes to Aneesah Botterill from On The Dot, a mail order company in the Media 24 group.   In a most amazing service recovery, Aneesah prevented her company from receiving this week’s Sour Award.   Attempts to order wine writer Neil Pendock’s new book ‘Sour Grapes’, which was advertised in the Sunday Times last week, were met with tremendous inefficiency initially.   The ad had an immediate call to action, encouraging readers to buy “NOW” - however, the company’s order line is not open on Sundays, when the Sunday Times is published!   The following day it became impossible to get around the company’s bureaucracy, e.g. receiving a Tax Invoice to pay for the book, when it can only be issued once it has been paid!   An attempt to reach the MD of the company led to a customer call being made by On The Dot Supply Chain Manager Trade Aneesah Botterill, who listened to the customer, apologised profusely for the administrative red tape experienced, and offered to send the book for free by speed post within two days, a promise she fulfilled perfectly.

The Sour Service Award goes to Five Flies restaurant in the Cape Town city centre.   An e-mail request to the restaurant, to allow guest houses in Camps Bay to jointly share a meal at the restaurant, utilising the vouchers the restaurant had issued to the guest houses, received no response.  When the telephonic follow-up was done, the owner Alex van Nes said “No” to the request immediately, saying that he wanted to do this “his way”.   He was disparaging to the caller, swore, and then put down the phone.  A follow-up e-mail to Five Flies and a call to its PRO have not received a reaction yet.

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.