Nobody Told Us

August is of course the month when the hotels can pretty much all expect to be full. It is 100% month. Not this year. "Catastrophic," is the word, the prediction being that there will be a decline of 10%. And then there is September. Up to 20% down at present. There are likely to be hotels closing in September. From a report in "The Diario", the president of JS Hotels - that runs, for instance, the Sol Alcúdia Hotel - says that September closure is a prospect. JS also has four hotels in Can Picafort, one in Playa de Muro and a nice new office building at the Eroski roundabout in Can Pic - that might not have been the greatest bit of timing. The report does actually refer specifically to Alcúdia, so the Sol, given that it is the only JS hotel in Alcúdia, would presumably be the one that is being alluded to.


I am grateful to Ben for sending a selection of tourist complaints received by ABTA and Thomas Cook. They are truly priceless, and so here are some of them (I'm assuming they are for real; even if not, they are unfortunately extremely plausible):

"It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time - siesta should be banned."
"We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels."
"We bought 'Ray-Ban' sunglasses for five euros from a street trader, only to find out they were fake."
"No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were startled."
"I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends' three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller."
"I was bitten by a mosquito - no-one said they could bite."
"I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."
"There are too many Spanish people. The receptionist speaks Spanish. The food is Spanish. Too many foreigners."

And as a footnote to the prices and everything expensive carry-on, thanks to Sheila for pointing out that "the sun is free and so is the general friendliness and laidback way of life in Spain. As for money, well you cut your cloth ... as the old saying goes". Amen to that.

QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Roxette, "Sleeping In My Car", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDjdMxHHmF4. Today's title - well, the song was "me" and not "us", but who was it?

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