How To Screw Up: Hotels

Here's a case study for you. Assume it's still last year, you own a hotel, a fairly small hotel popular for years with British families and firmly "British" in reputation. You get a bit edgy about the way things are, not just with the British tourism market but also with the competition from all-inclusives (you are, at present, a mix of self-catering and board). What do you do? Do you carry on in the same way or do you change completely?

I'm naming neither the hotel nor the resort, but the case study has panned out as follows. The hotel has switched to being primarily German and primarily all-inclusive. It is still possible for British tourists, of which many have been loyal and regular visitors, to book, but the Britishness has gone. The entertainment has changed. It was never grand, but it was homely, constrained by its budget and the domain of someone who was, in many ways, the "face" of the hotel.

British visitors have faced something of a surprise. In addition to the switch in emphasis to being German, which includes a different emphasis when it comes to the food, if they have booked all-inclusive, this hasn't turned quite as they might have expected.

The hotel, remember, is fairly small. It has a restaurant, but it doesn't have the facility for providing the sort of food, out of set dining hours, that is commonly associated with all-inclusives: pizzas, chips, burgers from a snack bar. Drink there is, on demand, but the guest is obliged to pay a deposit for his or her glass; a deposit for a plastic glass.

Because there are only set dining-times, if guests arrive after ten in the evening, there is nothing for them. The kitchen can't be opened. There is no flexibility, despite the guests being all-inclusive.

Not all guests have booked all-inclusive. Those who have come on a self-catering basis are greeted with the possibility of their upgrading, at a daily rate, to all-inclusive. It's what the hotel wants; it's what it almost expects. The rooms for those who insist on remaining self-catering have to then have equipment re-installed that had been taken away on the expectation that it wouldn't be required. The microwave, for instance, has to be put back.

Though primarily German, other nationalities are booked in. In addition to the British, there are the Russians. They are on their way. If the British and Germans don't always see eye-to-eye, then the Germans and Russians positively detest each other. In a large complex, nationalities are diluted, but in a fairly small hotel, they are not. And they are all-inclusive. Likely to be there, all together, all getting on each other's nerves.

The hotel, and the season has barely started, seems to realise that it has made an error. It is already considering going back to the board and self-catering mix, abandoning all-inclusive and getting the British back. So why did it take the route it has for this summer?

It panicked. It saw that the British market was struggling, and so looked for more secure markets, the German one mainly. But it leapt too quickly. As things have turned out, the British market has recovered. Not totally, certainly not, but sufficiently, and aided by events in north Africa. It also miscalculated. As a smallish hotel, but with a loyal British following and a good reputation, the British market would probably still have been viable, even if Egypt and Tunisia hadn't come along.

This case study is informative in many ways, one being a lesson for hotels which, believing they have to jump to the all-inclusive tune, have to be sure they can deliver. This one can't, not in the way the guest expects it to. It's too small. Even larger hotels in Mallorca have problems, because they were not designed with all-inclusive in mind.

But more than this, it is informative in acting as a cautionary tale for hotels that would ignore their loyal markets. Apart from the nationality mix, many British guests don't want all-inclusive. Not everyone does. The worst aspect for the hotel is that the internet will be alive with the sound of its being criticised. It acted in a supremely short-term manner. It didn't think through the consequences, and now it faces a challenge of recovering a reputation, one that is likely to be damaged more, as we are still only in May.

And more than all this, for guests who have been dissatisfied, it is not just the hotel but also the resort and the island which suffer. "Never again," said one guest. And never again might mean Turkey in the future. The greatest lesson should be that everyone in tourism is in it together, but they are not. They are in it for themselves, and the rest can go hang.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

That Petrol Emotion: Petrol stations and loyalty

Low down the list of tourist must-do's would be a trip to a petrol station. It would be an essential in order to find a way of moving an overpriced hire car from A to B, but as to being a cultural must-do, then hardly. Nevertheless, the petrol station is something, or has become something, of an economic and social metaphor for Mallorca.

Petrol stations are under threat of closure, the consequence of decreased traffic, in particular the heavy vehicles for construction. While car rentals are, in August at any rate, topping out at 100% supply, consumption has generally declined by up to 10% over the last year. To add to the lower revenues from petrol and diesel, the petrol stations have also had to contend with the vagaries of untypical summer weather. More rain around has meant cars being washed naturally and has led to up to 20% loss of business going through the car washes.

Earlier in the season, petrol station owners, in some areas, were complaining about a fall in tourist demand and having to rely on local business. This demand has increased, now that high season is here, but the regular, repeat custom is the bread and butter, one that must sustain the petrol stations during the off-season.

However, there has been a change in the style of many petrol stations, one that threatens the repeat, local business. Petrol stations, some at any rate, were part of social life. One, my own, was a place where, like the supermarkets can still be, you would wait while the customer before you or some old boy who just happened to walk in for no obvious reason, exchanged views as to the state of the local goat market. Not that you could buy a goat, though one suspects one might have, at some in the past, been able to do just that, along with a litre of diesel.

What you got was, yes, frustration at having to spend several minutes listening to something largely indecipherable, but also service that was akin to that during the grand days of motoring in England. Like the barber might ask if anything for the weekend was required, so the pump attendant might ask if anything for the engine was needed, and then provide it.

Well actually, it was never really like that in Mallorca. But the petrol station was friendly. I used to be given a bottle of cava at Christmas. It's not like that now. Change of ownership, a revolving door of staff, the fall in revenue and the prevention of any unnecessary additional loss through "shrinkage" - the use of pre-payment. Along with all this has gone a knowledge as to who the customer is, one who gives regular, repeat business. I don't want to be spoken to in English. I don't want to have to show ID if I use a card. I don't want to pre-pay, even if I understand why. But it feels like an affront, as is the ID. They knew me before. It was never asked for.

Maybe it's a case of being more business-like. Perhaps. But the regular business the petrol stations crave should be a mutual arrangement. My loyalty to my particular petrol station is being undermined by a more distant customer encounter. No attempt, it would seem, has been made to try and understand who the "regulars" are.

There are aspects of business in Mallorca that do service very well and that haven't looked to distance themselves. Banks, despite the growth of remote, internet banking, are a prime example. It is this closeness that, while maybe old-fashioned, counts for much. The petrol stations are counting on their regular business, but they are doing their best to lose it and in the process shift away, ever more, from a natural, albeit quirky service that was once the case.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.