Whale Cottage Portfolio Blog

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.

The third Sweet Service Award goes to S A Tourism, and Its CEO Moeketsi Mosola specifically, for taking a  brave stand against FIFA accommodation and ticketing agency MATCH on behalf of the local accommodation industry, by resigning from the MATCH Advisory Board.   Mosola expressed his dissatisfaction with the “bullying tactics” that MATCH is using to set unrealistic accommodation rates for 2010, and to pressurise establishments to sign up.    

The third Sour Service Award goes to HBR Human Resources, for supplying a fraudulent CV for a candidate, who had been fired by her previous employer but did not state this in the CV, and inflated the income of the candidate by 55% above her last salary.  When the candidate was confronted with the information,  she blamed HBR for the deceit, saying that she had been advised to be deceitful so that she could get the job, and so that the agency could earn its commission.   When the unethical action of the HBR staff member was revealed, Tracey Hibbert, its Operations Manager, called to beg for forgiveness, saying that disciplinary action would be taken against her employee.  She said that she would not charge for the placement fee as an apology, and would find a replacement for the candidate.    When the candidate left after a month,  Ms Hibbert was contacted, and her offer taken up for a replacement.  In the two months to date, the agency sent only two CV’s for the replacement, one candidate deciding to stay with her current employer, and the other accepting a position before she could be invited for an interview.     As a replacement was urgently required, Ms Hibbert was contacted again.  Her response was that there are no suitable candidates available now as it is the busy season, and if she had to search for a suitable replacement, she would have to charge, which was contrary to her initial promise.   HBR Human Resources has breached the Codes of Conduct of APSO and of FEDHASA Cape, the logos of both associations featuring prominently on its website.   In its response, the company has admitted its staff member’s unprofessional conduct, and has offered to find a replacement within the next four months after all!

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.

Dieu Donne in Franschhoek, which celebrates its first birthday in December, deserves the first WhaleTales Sweet Service Award for hosting the accommodation industry of Franschhoek and Paarl earlier this week at their restaurant with a most stunning scenic view, and for saying “thank you” for the bookings received from the industry.  These two words are not often heard from the restaurant industry, which seems to take it for granted that guest houses will send them business.   Restaurants are the only sector of the tourism industry that do not pay commission for business received.    

The first WhaleTales Sour Service Award goes to Melissa’s Food Shop, the deli store with various branches in Cape Town and Stellenbosch.   The cashier at Melissa’s on Dorp Street in Stellenbosch cheekily asked for a tip when payment was made for a bill at the counter. This was addressed with the Customer Service person at Melissa’s Head Office (Melissa is too busy to interact with her customers about complaints), when she returned the customer’s call five days after the message was left.  She stated that it is Melissa’s policy for the staff to ask about a tip when none is left!    Asking for a tip could reflect to customers that the staff are not paid enough!    The nomination for the Sour Award was sent to Melissa van Hoogstraten, owner of Melissa’s, but she declined to comment.

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.

The Whale Cottage Portfolio is in celebratory mood, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Whale Cottage Camps Bay and the 4th anniversary of Whale Cottage Franschhoek in September. The Whale Cottage Portfolio was established by Chris von Ulmenstein 12 years ago, when Whale Cottage Hermanus opened. Late last year Whale Cottage Plettenberg Bay was added to the portfolio.

Whale Cottage Franschhoek opened in the heart of the Gourmet Capital four years ago

Whale Cottage Camps Bay has undergone a major upgrade, including flatscreen TV’s, new landscaping, new airconditioners, new heated towel rails, and new soft furnishings.