The Easter Bunny and the elections have come and
gone, and officially it is autumn in the Cape.
However, the generous public holiday allowance this
month has been a small boost for tourism, with four
public holidays in April and one at the start of
May. Every year the Whale Cottages drop their rates
by close to half during the winter months, starting
in May.
I am grateful to my alma mater, Wits Business School
in Johannesburg, for featuring the Whale Cottage
Portfolio success story in its
January/February issue of the Wits Business School
Journal.
We are grateful to the Governor of the Reserve Bank
for the welcome 1 % drop in the interest rate
last month, and eagerly await another drop this
week. The credit crunch is making its mark, and one
of our stories below reflects what impact it is
having on Cape Town restaurants.
Chris von Ulmenstein
Owner, Whale Cottage Portfolio |
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One&Only Cape Town opens with a splash! |
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The
One&Only
Cape
Town
opened
in the V
& A
Waterfront
earlier
this
month,
four
months
ahead of
schedule,
with a
star-studded
cast of
VIP’s,
but at a
”relatively
low key”
function
of only
400
invited
guests,
compared
to the
$20
million
owner
Sol
Kerzner
splashed
out for
the
re-opening
of his
hotel in
Dubai.
Nelson
Mandela,
Sharon
Stone,
Thandie
Newton,
Morgan
Freeman,
Clint
Eastwood,
Matt
Damon,
Yasmin
le Bon,
Robert
de Niro,
Mariah
Carey
and
Naomi
Campbell
headed
the
star-studded
VIP
list,
reports
The
Times.
Guests
at the
cocktail-like
launch
party
were
spoilt
with a
“moveable
feast”
created
by
Gordon
Ramsay’s
maze and
Nobu
Matsuhisa’s
Nobu
restaurants.
Rates at
the
One&Only
Cape
Town in
the V&A
Waterfront,
with 131
rooms,
will
range
between
R 6 000
- R 50
000 per
night. South
African residents are
being attracted to the hotel
with a
special
offer of
R 3 950
per room
until
August.
Staff
uniforms
have
been
designed
by local
designer Jenni
Button,
and are
made
from
pure
silk.
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Sol Kerzner, who became a renowned hotelier and casino operator when he established Sun City and The Palace of the Lost City outside Johannesburg more than 25 years ago, says of his newest project: “One&Only Cape Town will become a significant landmark in Africa with its bold, contemporary design promising to make it one of the world’s leading luxury resort destinations. I am looking forward to once again contributing to South Africa’s tourism industry, which has seen an incredible growth in recent years. I am very pleased to open a spectacular resort with a fresh and exciting new concept in my home country in what I’ve always believed to be one of the greatest sites in Cape Town. Opening in plenty of time for the 2010 World Cup, the resort will appeal to the international traveller and play a key role in the local community”. |
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Kerzner
is
celebrating
40 years
in
hospitality,
and told
students
of the
University
of
Johannesburg
that
excellent
service
is one
of the
most
important
ways in
which
hospitality
establishments
can
combat
the
credit
crunch,
reports
Business
Day.
He also
recommended
patience,
in
weathering
the
financial
crisis.
Stating
that he
made the
decision
to erect
a
One&Only
in Cape
Town in
2003, he
speculated
that he
may not
have
gone
ahead
had he
known
that the
world
would be
in a
credit
crunch
at the
time of
his
hotel’s
opening,
“….if
I’d
known
that
we’d be
10 to 15
percentage
points
down on
occupancy.”
Some of
the
One&Only
projects
have
been put
on hold
due to
the
world
economic
crisis,
but the
Cape
Town and
Mexico
hotel
projects
went
ahead.
Kerzner
stated
that it
was
vital
that
international
service
standards
be
maintained
at South
African
hotels.
Therefore
well-trained
hotel
staff is
vital
for the
hospitality
industry,
as the
best
planned
and best
designed
hotels
can only
be as
good as
the
staff
that run
them, he
said.
Many of
Kerzner’s
staff
have
been
attracted
from
other
leading
hotels
in Cape
Town,
including
The
Table
Bay, the
Cape
Grace,
the
Mount
Nelson,
the
Grand
Roche,
and
Steenberg
Hotel.
The
three
major
sport
events
taking
place in
the
country
in the
next
three
months
could
inject R
4
billion
into the
economy,
according
to
economist
Mike
Schussler,
reports
the
Cape
Argus.
Some
economists
forecast
that the
effect
of the
three
sport
events
will be
large
enough
to
protect
South
Africa
from the
worst
effects
of the
global
credit
crunch.
The
Indian
Premier
League
cricket
tournament
started
batting
in Cape
Town on
18
April,
and
continues
with 58
matches
in total
around
the
country,
until
May.
England
lost to
South
Africa
in
hosting
the
Indian
Premier
League
tournament,
which
had to
be
shifted
away
from
India
due to
safety
concerns.
The
Indian
government
felt
that it
could
not
guarantee
the
safety
of the
players
due to
elections
being
held in
India
during
April
and May,
given
the
attacks
on the
Sri
Lankan
cricket
team in
Mumbai
in
November.
South
Africa
was
chosen
mainly
due to
concerns
over the
weather
in
England
in
April,
and the
county
cricket
season
being
underway
in the
UK at
the same
time,
reports
Sky
News.
Twelve
South
African
cricketers,
including
Graeme
Smith,
Morne
Morkel,
Tyrone
Henderson,
JP
Duminy,
Ryan
McLaren,
Herschelle
Gibbs
and AB
de
Villiers,
have
been
contracted
to
Indian
teams
for the
2009
Indian
Premier
League
season,
reports
www.southafrica.info.
Cape
Town
Tourism
will be
using
the IPL
matches
as a
marketing
platform
for Cape
Town,
targeting
cricket
fans
from
Durban
and
India.
At the
end of
May the
British
and
Irish
Lions
rugby
tour
kicks
off its
ten-match
series
in
Rustenburg,
continuing
into
June.
Tickets
for the
first
three
matches
are sold
out
already.
On 14
June the
Confederations
Cup gets
the ball
rolling
as a
”warm-up”
to the
2010
World
Cup.
Ticket
sales
have
been
slow,
with
only
half the
tickets
sold.
S A
Tourism
and Cape
Town
Tourism
worked
hard in
marketing
the
country
at the
ITB
travel
and
tourism
expo in
Berlin
last
month.
According
to
TravelHub,
S A
Tourism
launched
the new
‘Voices’
advertising
campaign,
which
sees
Germans
being
asked to
relate
their
positive
experiences
of South
Africa.
It is
planned
to have
over a
million
Germans
talking
positively
about
South
Africa
by June
2010.
FIFA and
the
Local
Organising
Committee
for the
2010
World
Cup used
ITB as a
platform
to
encourage
and
inform
the
German
market
about
the
event,
reassuring
them
about
the
country’s
readiness,
infrastructure
and
sustainability.
Cape
Town
Tourism
too was
active
at ITB,
and its
CEO
Mariette
du
Toit-Helmbold
reported
back on
the
successes
her
association
achieved:
Cape
Town
Tourism
was
invited
to
present
its
visitor
services
and
marketing
innovation
to the
World
Tourism
Organisation
International
Destination
Council;
the 2010
World
Cup
mascot
Zakumi
was used
in a
competition,
in which
ITB
attendees
could be
photographed
with
Zakumi,
post it
on the
Cape
Town
Tourism
website
with a
creative
comment
about
Cape
Town, to
win two
tickets
for the
2010
World
Cup,
resulting
in 200
images
being
received;
via a
German
PR
company,
Cape
Town
Tourism’s
PR and
Communications
Manager
met 15
journalists
individually;
presented
its
marketing
toolkit
to Dr
Michael
Kaiser
from
News
Corporation
Germany,
who will
do a
presentation
on Cape
Town to
the
German
Press
Club;
Suedafrika
magazine
will do
a free
two-page
spread
on Cape
Town;
and a
free
feature
on Cape
Town
will
appear
in the
bi-annual
German 1
Golf
publication.
In
addition,
Cape
Town
Tourism
will be
running
a winter
promotion
on
Expedia;
an
educational
campaign
with FTI,
Germany’s
third
largest
tour
operator,
was
concluded;
joint
marketing
agreements
were
concluded
with
Tripadvisor,
Google,
and BBC
News
on-line;
an
agreement
was
reached
with
Petit
Fute to
develop
a French
guide
book for
Cape
Town;
and
assistance
will be
provided
in the
production
of the
official
2010
FIFA
World
Cup
documentary.
However,
Cape
Town
Routes
Unlimited
Marketing
executive
David
Frandsen,
on his
return
from ITB,
predicted
that
leisure
tourism
from
Germany
will
decline
by 20 %
in the
coming
season.
He based
his
forecast
on the
30 %
drop in
bookings
received
by the
top five
German
tour
operators
making
bookings
in South
Africa
earlier
this
year. He
said
however
that 200
smaller
special
tour
operators
are
making
up for
the
decline
in
bookings
received
from the
big tour
operators.
Namibia
is
attracting
bookings
from the
German
market,
and has
become a
trendy
destination
for
Germans,
and is
therefore
a threat
to local
tourism.
Cape
Town won
the Best
Entertainment
Category
at the
International
Luxury
Travel
Awards
in
Zurich,
Switzerland.
Cape
Town’s
top
quality
restaurants,
to which
recent
additions
are Nobu
and
maze, as
well as
tours,
activities,
shopping,
cultural
offerings
and
sport
made the
city
eligible
for the
nomination.
Cape
Town
Tourism
CEO,
Mariette
du
Toit-Helmbold,
receiving
the
award on
behalf
of the
City,
believes
that it
is Cape
Town’s
“level
of
authenticity”
that
allowed
Cape
Town to
be
nominated.
“The
level of
authenticity
one can
experience
whilst
also
enjoying
a luxury
experience
is a key
part of
Cape
Town’s
allure.
Yachting
at
sunset,
having a
massage
outdoors
amongst
fynbos,
driving
an
exotic
car
through
the
winelands
– these
are all
adventures
that
celebrate
the
simple
things
in life
in the
most
luxurious
way.”
she
said.
The
tenth
Cape
Town
International
Jazz
festival
was a
huge
success,
with a
line-up
of top
jazz
artists
including
Freshlyground,
Kyle
Eastwood
(son of
Clint
Eastwood,
who is
in Cape
Town
shooting
a movie
about
the
Rugby
World
Cup
1995),
Shakatak,
Abigail
Khubeka,
Goldfish,
Hugh
Masekela,
Jonathan
Butler,
and the
Stylistics
entertained
the 32
000 jazz
fans.
Cape
Town
Routes
Unlimited
estimates
that the
Jazz
Festival
generates
R 430
million
for the
economy
of the
Western
Cape.
Wilbur
Smith’s
heaven-on-earth
is
Hermanus,
he says
in an
article
he wrote
in
The
Telegraph
earlier
this
month,
in a
series
of
“Heaven-on-Earth”
articles
written
by
celebrities.
Smith is
an
internationally
recognised
and
prolific
writer,
having
just
published
his 32nd
book
‘Assegai’,
and
lives in
Cape
Town. He
enthused
about
Hermanus
as
follows:
“Hermanus
is
famous
for
whale
watching
during
South
Africa’s
winter
and
spring –
the
whales
can be
seen
from the
town’s
cliffs
as early
as June.
It also
hosts an
annual
whale
festival
during
the
mating
season
at the
end of
September.
The area
has some
beautiful
beaches
while
the
interior
is quite
mountainous
and a
great
place to
cycle
and
hike.
The
hinterland
is
dotted
with
vineyards,
all of
which
are so
good I
find it
hard to
single
out any
one in
particular.
Just be
sure to
drink
some of
South
Africa’s
delicious
wines
before
heading
home. I
invariably
stay at
The
Marine,
a superb
five-star
hotel
perched
on top
of a
cliff
and run
by a
lovely
lady
called
Liz
McGrath.
It
offers
wonderful
views of
the sea
from the
bedrooms.
It also
has a
fantastic
restaurant,
Seafood
at the
Marine,
which I
can
thoroughly
recommend,
though
if you
want to
find out
more
about
the
other
restaurants
I’d
suggest
visiting
the
town’s
website
(www.hermanus.co.za)
“.
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The first Humpback whales were sighted in Hermanus in April, a very early arrival, reported the Hermanus Times.
Humpback whales pass through Hermanus on their way to the Mozambique and St Lucia waters, where they breed. They are usually seen between Vermont and the Beach Club in Hermanus. |
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S A Tourism proudly un-South African |
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S A TOURISM PROUDLY UN-SOUTH AFRICAN!
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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.
Sent by William Price, the
Global Head: eMarketing of S A
Tourism, the e-mail encouraged
co-operation in updating each
tourism player’s information.
The e-mail contained a
verification code, which has to
be requested of the S A Tourism
representative when he/she
calls.
What is most astounding is that
the e-mail says”….and don’t be
alarmed by the Aussie accent
when you get your phone call.”
Whale Cottage received numerous
calls from persons with American
and other accents in the past
month, requesting update
information. No verification
numbers were requested by the
callers! 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 callers
could not explain this.
After e-mails sent to Price
received no response, Whale
Cottage called Price. He
confirmed that S A Tourism is
using an Australian call centre
to update the National Tourism
Product Database. He spoke
openly and honestly about the
problems the tourism marketing
company had in finding a South
African company that could
accurately verify the contact
details of tourism products in
South Africa. S A Tourism wants
to add the details of all
tourism products onto its new
website, which it is launching
at Indaba in May. It then
appointed Yodel, a call centre
company started by South
Africans in Australia and New
Zealand, who are now setting up
a branch office in South Africa.
The call centre company is more
efficient and less expensive in
offering its service than the
South African call centres it
had used previously, Price says.
Since the letter was sent,
product owners have received
numerous calls from persons with
heavy American and other accents
(none from Australia though),
claiming to be from “South
African Tourism in Randburg”. As
they struggle badly with some
brand names ‘ e.g. ‘Whale
Cottage Franschhoek” it is
immediately clear that they are
not from this country. Every
caller that was asked in which
country the call centre was
based, put down the phone
without answering. The most
recent caller was honest enough
to say that it is based in the
Philippines!
Price also explained that his
organisation is looking to
assist small product owners who
do not have a website. In
conjunction with Google, such
product owners will be given a
free website and domain for
three months, and S A Tourism
has set aside a budget of R 500
000 for this. Vodacom is also
looking to offer new product
owners connectivity services. It
will be interesting to see what
level of success the call centre
will have, as the initial
reaction one has to someone
claiming to call from “South
African Tourism” with a heavy
non-South African accent is one
of disbelief. Even harder is
being able to understand the
strongly-accented call centre
staff, something one normally
has a problem with if the calls
come from local call centres!
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Wine Loft opens with largest winelist and collection |
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A
5 000-bottle wine library opened in the
One&Only Cape Town, showcasing the
largest wine collection in the South
African hospitality industry, reports
the Cape Times. The Wine Loft
offers 100 wines by the glass, select
older vintages, as well as wines from
new wineries. Tasting sessions can be
booked, and will be complemented by
tapas dishes from the nearby Gordon
Ramsay maze restaurant. The 35-page wine
list was compiled on the basis of
terroir and regional wine styles, rather
than on brand name or variety, says
One&Only Group Sommelier Stephen Towler.
The Wine Loft stocks 450 local and 150
international wines.
Distell has added a pink lady to its
supreme sparkling wine brand Pongracz,
with the launch of Pongracz Brut Rose, a
Chardonnay Pinot Noir blend, reports
WINEmag.co.za. The Pongracz range is
inspired by Desiderius Pongrácz, a
nobleman and refugee from the Hungarian
uprising, whose vision and wisdom
revitalised viticulture in the Cape.
The second Solms Delta Franschhoek
Oesfees on 4 April was a huge
disappointment. What started as a noble
idea from a wine estate known for its
creativity in marketing its wines, in
celebrating the harvest with staff of
wine farms from all of Franschhoek in
2008, this year’s Oesfees seemed to have
broadened its net to attract Capetonians
to attend in great numbers. Arriving
after dark, there was no lighting, and
no indication where one was to enter the
grounds of the festival. The place to
collect plates and cutlery was also not
visible. There was no lighting in the
food section at all, and much of the
food had run out by 19h00, two hours
before the end of the festival. The
staff manning the food section were very
casual about this, saying that more food
was coming – the food tent was a mere 5
meters away! Then one had to find one’s
way to the drink’s section, quite a
distance away, to find that one’s two
drink ticket allocation bought 2 glasses
of wine, or two plastic cups of tapwater
poured from a wine bottle! R 150 was
charged for 3 tiny pieces of sausages, 2
sweet potatoes, a spoonful of rice and a
‘roosterbrood’, the 2 drinks of tap
water, and the music. Chairs were
already piled up near the stage at 8 pm,
and staff were clearly wanting the
festival to finish ahead of time. Being
really dark at 8.30 pm, it was dangerous
to walk on an unlit gravel road from the
festival area to the cars. The music was
the saving grace, and Hannes Coetzee of
Karoo Kitaar Blues charmed with his
singing and unique guitar playing with a
spoon held in his mouth. The most
irritating MC screeched into the
microphone. It felt as if the owners of
Solms Delta had abdicated responsibility
for the event, thereby losing control
over it. Solms Delta will have to
reconceptualise what it wants to achieve
and what it wants to stand for – an
event for the local farmworkers, of
which some were drunk at the festival,
or to put on a festival that is a much
more sophisticated thanks to a good
harvest completed.
Wines of South Africa (WOSA) is taking South African wines on a bus tour in the United Kingdom during May. The Great South African Wine Trail aims to expose the variety of wines that the Cape has to offer, reports www.offlicencenews.co.uk. The double decker bus that will be used is carbon neutral, and is branded with South African images, to educate British wine drinkers about the conservation initiatives of South African wine farmers. Winetastings will also be done, and winemakers will be introduced to the media. WOSA is expecting to reach a million wine drinkers in the United Kingdom, visiting eight British cities. |
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A
two-day conference on wine tourism will
be held at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape
Town on 21and 22 July, with the theme of
“Share, innovate, inspire”. Trends and
best practices in the $15 billion global
wine tourism industry will form the
spotlight of the 2009 South African Wine
Tourism Conference, with topics
including the proposed new liquor law,
e-marketing and blogs, wine festivals,
an overview of Australia’s wine tourism
strategy, the lessons that the German
wine and tourism industry learnt during
the 2006 World Cup, customer attraction
and retention, responsible tourism, and
creating tourism brands. Speakers will
include representatives of leading wine
farms, tourism industry bodies and
marketing specialists.
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Restaurants bitten by credit crunch
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Much
of what has been heard about the effect
of the global credit crunch has related
to the United Kingdom and the USA. When
well-known South African brands are
affected, the credit crunch is a little
too close to home for comfort.
It
started with Madame Zingara, which
closed two months ago. Then came two
branches of Carlucci, in Bantry Bay and
in Rondebosch, which closed shortly
thereafter. Earlier this month three
Vida e Caffe branches closed down in the
city centre and in the Bayside Mall, and
the Melissa’s in Green Point has also
closed. This month has seen a restaurant
bloodbath, with the sad news that The
Showroom of chef Bruce Robertson,
Riboville in the city centre, and
Summerville in Camps Bay have closed
down. Camps Bay had already seen the
closure of Cafe Delmar and Wangthai in
the past few weeks.
The
one thing that the closures of the
larger restaurants have in common is the
crippling rentals that they have to pay
to greedy landlords. The landlords
should recognise the value that the
restaurants have to tourism, and that
they should come to the party in keeping
the rentals reasonable, to ensure that
their centers remain fully occupied.
A
shock discovery earlier this month was
to see the poor state of the Orchards
farmstall on the N2 highway outside
Grabouw. It has been a landmark on the
trip from Cape Town to Hermanus. Hardly
any fruit was displayed, and the few
bananas on the shelf were black. The
restaurant service was poor, and on
enquiry the customer was told that the
farmstall is in liquidation. It has just
been taken over by a new owner. A few
kilometers further along an auction sign
outside the popular Houw Hoek farmstall,
also on the N2 highway, was visible, but
it has since been removed as it did not
receive anything near the reserve price
that the seller wanted. Customers and
staff are delighted that ownership will
not change.
Chefs Margot Janse of Le Quartier Francais and
Luke Dale-Roberts of La Colombe |
But
all is not bad news for the local
restaurant industry. Last week Le
Quartier Francais in Franschhoek and La
Colombe in Constantia were selected onto
the S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best
Restaurant Awards list, being ranked in
37th and 38th position, respectively,
reports Bloomberg.
Top honours have once
again gone to El Bulli on the Costa
Brava, at which chef Ferran Adria is
renowned for his unusual food
preparation. He has held the top position for three years in a row. He recently visited Cape Town, and spoke about his passion for cooking. |
Surprisingly Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat
Duck retained its second place for the
fourth year running, after having closed
for more than a month earlier this year
when hundreds of its patrons became sick
after eating at the restaurant.
Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants have shown a
steady decline in the ranking on the Top
50 list, having come second in the
inaugural year of the Top 50 list in
2002. Last year it was placed at 13th
position, and this year only maze in
London was on the list, at 91st
position. His PR company’s comment about
his poor performance this year was as
follows: “Gordon takes all these sorts
of surveys with a pinch of salt. As
always, Gordon regards his thousands of
customers as his most valued critics.
They are his judge and jury.” Nobu,
which has also opened in the One&Only
Cape Town, came in at 34th position for
its UK restaurant. Noma in Copenhagen
won third place, having been at tenth
place last year, and its chef Rene
Redzepi won the Chef’s Choice Award. The
restaurants ranked from 51st - 100th
position are also revealed, and the Cape
can be proud to have a further three
restaurants on the top list, being
Jardine at number 79, Aubergine at
number 96 and Rust & Vrede in
Stellenbosh at number 98. Jardine and
Rust & Vrede are on the Eat Out Top Ten
list, while Aubergine is not.
The
restaurants Zuma in China, which made
the 51st position, and the Zuma
restaurant in London, which came in at
number 92, may increase in popularity
when Jacob Zuma becomes the President of
South Africa next month. The full list
of top 100 restaurants, chosen by 837
food writers, critics and commentators,
can be found
here.
Since
the opening of the One&Only Cape Town
last week, Capetonians are coming to
check out the hotel, and are having
dinner at its two branded restaurants,
Nobu and maze. maze in Cape Town is the
first to merge maze tapas and maze
grills, which are separated elsewhere in
the maze world. Sol Kerzner encouraged
Ramsay to add a South African touch to
the menu. The touch is most visible in
the dessert menu. A dinner at maze five
days after opening highlighted the
excellent service of the sommelier
Stephen Towler, but poor service on the
restaurant side. The main course was
boring in its presentation, the portions
small, and the kingklip had bones and
was tasteless. The starters were
beautifully presented as were the
desserts, and here Ramsay seems to excel
creatively. The dessert list is
interesting, with unusual combinations,
and almost overdone-South African
touches (”melktert, pink grapefruit
granite, lemon curd” and ”malva pudding
with poached apricots, gingerbread ice
cream”). The menu prices were
reasonable, on a par with Cape Town’s
top restaurants. For a detailed review
of maze, click
here.
The
‘Taste of Cape Town’ festival earlier
this month was a huge success, if the
traffic jams on Kloofnek Road were
anything to go by, largely due to the
good publicity received. Chefs prepared
fine foods for thousands of visitors to
the festival under trying circumstances,
with extreme heat, limited space and
less than perfect cooking equipment. The
location of the Festival on the Jan van
Riebeeck sportfield was not ideal - the
parking area was too far away, and in
the dark the walk was dangerous on a
very steep, unlit and uneven route. The
shuttle was a great solution to this
problem, but was not communicated to
persons parking at the sport field, and
one such vehicle was not enough.
Tamboerskloof clearly does not offer
enough parking for an event with such a
large following. No traffic police were
visible on or off Kloofnek Road, and it
meant that a trip from the city to Camps
Bay took more than an hour. The staff
selling the food and wine tasting
crowns, wearing soft pink T-shirts, were
hard to find, especially deeper into the
grounds and after dark. Last year’s
‘Taste of Cape Town’ in Camps Bay had a
far more organised and sophisticated
feel to it.
A marriage between Kathy and Gary Jordan
of Jordan wine estate in Stellenbosch
and Neleen Strauss, a South African
restaurateur now based in London, and
previously running Vivat Bacchus, has
created High Timber in London, in High
Timber Street close to St Paul’s
Cathedral, the Tate Modern, and
Shakespeare’s Globe, reports The South
African. High Timber has 40 000 wines in
its cellar, many of them being from
Jordan. The menu has been designed to
complement the wines stocked. It has
South African staples like steak, but
with an international flair.
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City puts Guest Accommodation Policy to bed! |
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After studying
industry input to its Draft Guest
Accommodation Policy for almost a
year, the City of Cape Town adopted
the final Guest Accommodation Policy
on 7 April. The announcement came
via the Cape Times, and the
industry bodies have not yet reacted
to its contentious content. Not much
of the industry feedback and input
appears to have been accepted by the
City.
The need for a unified guest
accommodation policy came about
because the City of Cape Town
consisted of six municipalities
previously, each with their own
rezoning requirements for
accommodation establishments. The
unified City wants to implement one
unified guest accommodation policy,
to apply to all new applications for
temporary departures and rezoning.
The City decided to ignore an
industry request that a Bed &
Breakfast, defined as an
establishment in which the owners
live and is predominantly a
residential building housing the
family, be allowed to have more than
three letable bedrooms. The new
Policy stipulates “no more than 3
rooms and no more than 6 paying
lodgers/guests per land unit”. No
self-catering facilities are allowed
in a B&B at all, a very contentious
rule. B&B’s do not have to apply for
temporary departures or rezoning.
Guest houses are defined as having a
“maximum size of 30 persons or 15
rooms permitted”. This is an above
average large size for a guest
house, but this request came from
the industry. What is completely
contradictory is that both guest
houses and B & B’s are not allowed
to employ more than 3 staff members
“at any given time”! It would be
impossible for 3 staff members, of
whom one would be a manager, to be
able to service 15 rooms every day.
It also means that no shifts could
be set up, as it would increase the
staff requirement. The hospitality
industry is supporting the
initiative to curb unemployment, and
to have a staff restriction placed
upon it is not understandable.
For backpackers, self-catering
apartments and hotels no
restrictions are set for the number
of staff. All establishment types,
even hotels, have to provide on-site
parking, one bay or more for every
guest room, which many do not offer.
All establishments, irrespective of
their definition, may not sell
alcohol without a licence, and may
only sell it at the times of the day
specified in the City's new Draft
Liquor by-law, which is yet to be
redrafted after the criticism it
received from the hospitality
industry.
More details of the new Guest
Accommodation Policy can be found
here .
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Sweet & Sour Service Awards |
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The latest Sweet Service Awards
have been awarded as follows:
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Cape Town Philharmonic
Orchestra, for their hard
work in performing Beethoven’s
7th Symphony and Haendel’s
Messiah over the Easter weekend. -
read more |
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Hermanus police station,
for negotiating a win-win deal
with an ex-Manager of Whale
Cottage Hermanus, who stole
money and beverages from the
guest house -
read more
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One&Only Wine Loft, for
the excellent service by their
sommelier Stephen Towler -
read more |
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Rondevu Limousines, for a
special rate offered to spoil
Whale Cottage Camps Bay staff in
one of their limousines -
read more |
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The Grand Café Camps Bay,
for always being welcoming and
for making a table available,
even if their regular customers
have not made a booking
-
read more |
Sour Service Awards went to
the following in the past five weeks:
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Cape Stay, a website
accommodation company, for its focus on
making money instead of building
relationships with its clients -
read more |
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Sea Point police station,
for intimidating a person wanting to lay
a charge -
read more |
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Vodacom, for having the
joint worst call centre in the country,
and for cutting off customers’ lines
even if they have paid, without
question, and for making the
reconnection a nightmare -
read more |
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Sandown Motors in Cape
Town, for inviting Mercedes Benz clients
to an Easter breakfast, only to charge
them for it when they requested further
information about the event -
read more |
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Fresh Laundry in Sea
Point, for charging a fortune for linen
it could not get the stains out of, and
for being exceptionally rude to the
customer -
read more |
The Sweet & Sour
Service Awards are presented weekly,
every Friday, on the Whale Cottage
Portfolio WhaleTales blog
www.whalecottage.com/blog. To
make a nomination for a Sweet Service or
a Sour Service Award, please send an
e-mail to
info@whalecottage.com.
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