Tag Archives: Franschhoek Wine Valley Tourism Association

Franschhoek parle francais

Franschhoek is to turn French on 30 May, when the Alliance Francaise and the Franschhoek Wine Valley Tourism Association turn the town back to its French Huguenot roots for the day.   

While Franschhoek has many French farm, restaurant and accommodation names, only a handful of its residents are able to speak French.    It is known for its French roots, and celebrates Bastille Day every year.

The Franschhoek day a’ le francais starts with a champagne tasting with JP Colmant and Ludwig Maske, is then followed by a lunch at Mon Plaisir, by a game of boulles at Dieu Donne, and then a dinner and a movie at ici at Le Quartier Francaise.   During the whole day nothing but French will be spoken!

The price for the French Franschhoek day is R 800, and bookings can be made at the Franschhoek Tourism Bureau at tel. 021 876- 2861.

Franschhoek restaurants acknowledge service deficiencies

Last month The Franschhoek Month asked guest house owners and managers to provide feedback about the service levels of the restaurants in Franschhoek.   The outcome was that there are many good aspects about the service offered by the local restaurants, but criticisms were raised about the quality of service experienced by some accommodation establishments and their guests.  Guest houses fed back that they receive little acknowledgement for the business that they send to the restaurants.

 

We asked all the restaurants in the village to answer to the compliments and complaints that the guest houses raised, and the full article was sent to them.   In fact, 6 weeks ago every restaurant was asked to supply information to the topic, and a paltry three restaurants responded.   Two weeks ago they were requested to respond again, and follow up calls were made to many restaurants.   Calls were not all returned, and responses ranged from “we are so busy”, “if we had 5 minutes to spare, we would spend it on other priorities” and “we are so busy preparing for Topsi’s function”.   Once again, only three restaurants replied.

 

Can the restaurants be serious?   Can they have that little interest about a topic that should be of concern to every tourism player in our Valley?   We are known as the Gourmet Capital of the country – it is not only the food quality, but the service quality too that makes a restaurant outstanding.  

 

We salute those restaurants that did take the time and trouble to provide input to this article.  They reflect a care and interest in their customers which the silent ones do not appear to.

 

One of the newest restaurants is the Italian Allora.  Philip Aplas, the locally based owner, and co-owner of three other Allora restaurants in Johannesburg, is refreshing in his relationship building, and understated way in which he is building his business in Franschhoek.    He says:”We are grateful for every guest sent to us. We are having a dinner on the 4th of May to thank the guest houses that supported us during the season.    We are launching our Allora Miles program, to thank the guest houses that send business to us.”   The reward program will award miles for reservations made, and this will qualify the holders of the Allora cards to receive gift vouchers, and a variety of other prizes, depending on the number of miles they have ‘clocked’ up in referring business to Allora.

 

Haute Cabriere has been outstanding at recognizing the value of the relationship between itself and the accommodation establishments in the Valley, and hosts the establishments just before the start of the new summer season.   “Certainly from our point of view we appreciate the synergy between the many Franschhoek restaurants and the numerous accommodation establishments in the Franschhoek Valley. It is undoubtedly one of our main focuses when gearing up for a new season, to make sure that we take the time to thank these establishments for their support and brief them on any changes or developments planned for the upcoming season. On any given day during season I would say that the restaurant is 90% booked up with guests that have been booked into the restaurant by their local hotels or guest houses and we are certainly appreciative of this fact” says Haute Cabriere’s Nicky Gordon.

 

Gordon would like to see a reciprocal communication relationship between her restaurant and accommodation establishments:  “I do feel though that restaurants should be kept informed, by the guest houses, on a regular basis, about feedback from their guests. It is most beneficial to us to hear what comments are being received (both good but especially negative if any) so that we get an opportunity to rectify or improve on certain areas. It is certainly no help to any restaurant for a guest houses owner to just to stop sending business without phoning to follow up and hearing the other side of the story.”

 

Burgundy has an agreement with some guesthouses and referrals are done between them on a regular basis.  They receive feedback from the establishments as to how the customers enjoyed their meal at the restaurant.

 

“We do not rely heavily on Guest Houses booking at Rickety Bridge Restaurant as we are only open during the day. Our walk in trade has been really good and I think that if we were to open at night, our marketing efforts would definitely have to be more accommodation based” says Cindy Miller, of the company that manages Rickety Bridge, a popular wine estate, wedding venue and restaurant just outside the village.

 

“What I can say about the relationship between restaurant and accommodation is that when we launched a Tapas menu at the beginning of the season and invited 20 guest houses over two days (15 – 20 per day) to experience our Tapas– only 3 arrived”, added Miller.

 

Guest houses and self-catering establishments send their guests to the Salmon Bar for “great coffee, excellent breakfast – freshly baked artisan breads are a big part of this, lunch all day and dinner from Wednesdays to Saturdays.  We are seen as a breakfast and lunch venue of choice, and have more competition at night. We are relatively new (1 year) and are still building relationships” says Judy Sendzil, the owner of the Salmon Bar.   The Salmon Bar invites guest house owners who send clients to them for dinner, to thank them for the business received.

 

Aplas understands how vital service is, and staff training is an important foundation of his Allora restaurants.   “When we train staff at Allora, we always stress that the three most dangerous factors in the restaurant industry are complacency, arrogance, and fatigue.  All need to be managed carefully.   As the newcomers to the village, we are doing all we can to improve our service and quality levels at all times, and hope people will continue to take notice.”

 

Rickety Bridge has seen huge staff movement in Franschhoek.  “I think many of the points raised by the (accommodation) establishments are valid.  I have found a vast difference in the caliber of staff in Franschhoek compared to my staff in town – it has taken us ages to build a team at Rickety Bridge and we had to “import” some waiters from Cape Town and house them on the Estate!   During this time our service suffered (as did some of our guests) and it was a very painful birth from a staffing point of view. “

 

What I have personally found is that good waiters do the rounds – I have seen good front of house staff move around from one good restaurant to another in the time that I have been involved in Franschhoek and since I do not believe in poaching waiters and waitresses, we have endured the long road and trained from scratch” added Miller.

 

Gordon also talks about the challenges of staff recruiting and training:  “With regards to standards of service, this is always a huge commitment and task for any restaurant owner. We all employ largely local staff and the time and challenge spent training is often underestimated. Most of the staff have never eaten in restaurants themselves and have never heard of some of the menu items on offer that they are expected to sell to foreign and local tourists.”

 

“At Haute Cabriere we offer a tasting for staff before each new menu comes out and also focus on pronunciation of the dishes and a general test on the menu before it is launched. This is an ongoing and arduous task. The fact that for most of the front line staff, English is at best a 2nd language provides even more challenges in this regard, especially when they are faced with foreigners with different accents and sometimes limited English.  These are all issues restaurants in the bigger cities do not often have to contend with as there are thousands of university students seeking part time and casual work and they are spoilt for choice! “

 

Restaurant owners and managers are also customers of the other restaurants, and shared their views about the service levels they have experienced in the local restaurants.   One restaurant owner wrote:  ‘Many of the staff of the restaurants that I have dined at have an attitude that is rather poor considering that they are in the service industry.   Most restaurants are manager run and it shows.   The general attitude is that they will be full with or without you. Service levels certainly aren’t up to scratch at the moment.’

 

Are guests and accommodation establishments too critical of the local restaurants?   The owners of Burgundy restaurants think that this may be the case: “We should keep in mind that each establishment has a character of its own. We cannot be everything to everybody.  We can only do our very best to give the customer a good experience. I have heard guests and guesthouses alike giving criticism and tearing apart top award winning restaurants in Franschhoek many times. I fail to understand this”.

 

“I’ve often read that the credit crunch will bring about a new order, where true service will be paramount. It is maybe time for us in the service industry to remind ourselves of the meaning of the word ‘service’, and thus what it means to serve another person.   Franschhoek in general is in need of an attitude adjustment towards its patrons. Tourists aren’t here because of Franschhoek businesses, Franschhoek businesses are here because of tourists.     A continued drop in standards will kill Franschhoek as a tourist destination, and will affect us all” says Aplas.

 

Burgundy‘s owners would like to make a difference, “but we keep to ourselves and conduct our business quietly, ridicule and backstabbing took care of that.    We are willing to work with anyone who reaches out to us. It is my personal opinion that this stunning little town still suffers of a “small town mentality” and that this will hamper its efforts to overcome the difficult times ahead.”

 

Gordon sees it differently:  We are very fortunate in Franschhoek to have a set up that is ultimately beneficial to both the restaurants and accommodation establishments. The food and wine reputation of the valley without doubt brings in hordes of tourists to the area and fills up both the accommodation establishments and as a result the many restaurants. A win win situation for us all!

 

“Is it not possible to create a tourism awareness campaign that is aimed at all residents across the spectrum, to educate and remind us all on how important tourism is (directly or indirectly) to each one of us?” a most relevant question asked by and challenge coming from Allora, which we will ask Jenny Prinsloo of the Franschhoek Wine Valley Tourism Association to address.

 

We need to safeguard our priceless marketing point of difference in Franschhoek in being the Gourmet Capital of the country, an attribute that is unique and unprecedented for such a small village.   We do not own this attribute for the sake of it, and will have to work very hard to have more restaurants on the Top Ten Eat Out restaurant list at the end of the year.  It is not the food quality alone that is rated – service quality, from the call being taken for the booking, the service efficiency in the restaurant in serving the food and beverages, to the speedy presentation of the bill, is also an important criterion. 

 

The poor response to this vital topic from the local restaurateurs is most worrying, and reflects a degree of arrogance from our local restaurants, the exact arrogance that Aplas warns us about, combined with the small town politics Burgundy’s owners write about and have been experienced by many, that can lead to our downfall in Franschhoek as far as our gourmet reputation and therefore tourism future goes.

 

This article was written by Chris von Ulmenstein and first appeared in The Franschhoek Month, May 2009.

Franschhoek becomes Wedding Valley!

The Franschhoek Wine Valley may soon change its name to the Franschhoek Wedding Valley, if the trend to an increasing number of weddings taking place in and outside Franschhoek continues!

 

The value of wedding tourism has never been calculated for Franschhoek, but could easily be in the region of R 25 million per year in direct venue and catering income, and double that when expenditure on accommodation, wine, restaurant meals and shopping in  Franschhoek before, during and after the wedding is added. 

 

Wedding Tourism has become a vastly important source of revenue for the Western Cape, and for Franschhoek particularly, and the valley will soon be called the Wedding Capital of South Africa, in addition to being the Gourmet Capital already.  Between 50 – 100 weddings take place in Franschhoek per month in summer, it is estimated.

 

Some wine estates have indicated that their revenue or profitability is greater from weddings than it is from their wine production!

 

How did this all come about?

 

For the past few years an increasing stream of young South African school leavers have left to do a gap year in London, while university graduates have also sought greener pastures there.  Many have opted to stay in London, due to their earning ability.  The young South African ladies get engaged to their British beaus, and get to choose the wedding venue back home.  Nostalgically, they think of the Cape Winelands, and the Cape Dutch gable buildings on them in particular, even if they did not grow up in the area.

Wedding tourism benefits tourism generally in that 50 – 100 British friends and family will come to South Africa to attend a wedding, and this introduces the country to many first-time visitors, who would not necessarily have chosen this country as a tourism destination.         

The value of the Wedding Tourism industry in the Western Cape has been estimated at R 120 million, according to The South African.   The United Kingdom is the major source of wedding business, with the bride usually being South African and the groom from the UK.    For the price of a wedding and reception in the UK the couple is able to hold a lavish wedding and enjoy their honeymoon in South Africa.    Local weddings are attractive as the weather is guaranteed to be better than in the UK, they cost less, and offer a variety of appealing venues in the Winelands and at top restaurants.  

While Stellenbosch used to be the premier wedding destination just a few years ago, local tourism players have seen an increasing number of weddings taking place in Franschhoek.   The large wine estates surrounding Franschhoek are well placed to cater for large weddings.

 

Jenny Prinsloo, CEO of the Franschhoek Wine Valley Tourism Association (FWVTA), says Franschhoek is well placed to be the perfect wedding venue for large and smaller weddings, offering an exclusive and personalized service to wedding guests wishing to make the most of their most memorable day.   “It is an exotic destination” she added, and well set to provide top quality catering, wines, professional staff and beautiful settings

 

Has the credit crunch affected the wedding industry in Franschhoek?   Most wedding venues state that the number of weddings they have hosted this season, and bookings ahead, show that the number of weddings will remain roughly the same.   However, what has changed is a shift in the period in which they are being held, the days of the week on which they are held, and the number of persons attending a wedding.

 

Karen Minnaar of the N G Church says that the number of bookings for the church for weddings will be down slightly, to 40 this year, from 44 last year, the best year for the church as far as weddings go.    She predicts that the number of weddings will not increase next year.   Up to 90 % of the weddings taking place at the church are held on Saturdays.    Most weddings are with “mixed” couples, a term a number of wedding venues used to describe the South African/UK partnership between bride and groom.

 

What does a wedding cost?     It can range from R 150 000 for a wedding of around 150 guests, up to R 500 000 at the exclusive La Residence, and this includes the wedding venue, food and wine only.  All other weddings services such as décor, music, special wedding cars, flowers, etc are contracted out and paid for separately.

 

The largest wedding venues are Allee Bleue, Le Franschhoek Hotel, Boschendal, and Vrede & Lust.

 

Allee Bleue’s Ashley Whaley, co-GM, says that weddings earn more revenue, and are more profitable at this stage than the estate’s wines.    Wedding bookings have increased year on year, and she sees an increasing number of international brides and grooms.  The estate prides itself on being the largest wedding venue in the Valley, in that up to 220 wedding guests can be accommodated.   The average wedding size is 150 guests.   Up to three weddings are hosted per weekend in summer, making it about 10 – 12 per month.  The wedding ceremony is conducted in the Conference Room, which is dressed as a chapel, and the reception takes place outside, with a free-form tent catering for less favourable weather conditions.   Allee Bleue’s weddings have the benefit that there is no noise control, and that they can carry on late, being located outside Franschhoek.

 

The Le Franschhoek Hotel is a popular wedding venue, especially as it can accommodate a large number of the wedding guests in its 79 rooms as well, being the largest hotel in the Valley.   Sunette Pringle, Head of Banqueting, says the hotel’s wedding business is growing year on year, and the hotel hosts one wedding per weekend.  She is not seeing a reduction in wedding business for the season ahead, but does see “international” weddings becoming smaller, with about 30 – 80 guests, while South African wedding groups are around 100 in size.   The Hotel has a number of Americans marrying at the venue, in addition to South African and British residents.  

 

Boschendal fits the Cape Dutch gabled building requirements of wedding couples most perfectly, and is steeped in tradition and history.  The ceremony is usually held at the nearby St George’s Anglican Church, drinks are served outside under the oak trees, and the reception is held in the restaurant.   The wine estate sees itself as a restaurant first and foremost, and does not actively encourage weddings.  Its catering offering offers bridal couples less flexibility in that the buffet must be utilised.   The estate only hosts one wedding per month with up to 120 guests on average, says Boschendal’s Neil Els.

 

Vrede & Lust is one of the most sought after venues, and is trendy since Johannesburg socialite and TV personality Gerry Rantseli married her second husband on the estate last year.   The wedding was featured in the Sunday Times’ social pages.   Wiena Riedel, Hospitality Manager of Vrede & Lust, sees a definite reduction in the size of their weddings this season, down from around 120 guests to about 60 – 70, and attributes this to the global credit crunch.    It is one of the most active wedding estates, with an average of six weddings per month, which can increase to 12 in March.  The estate is seeing an increase in weddings held on weekdays, due to the 15 % discount it offers for mid-week weddings.

 

Smaller weddings are held at Grande Provence, Mont Rochelle, Haute Cabriere, Dieu Donne, La Petite Ferme, Rickety Bridge, Le Manoir de Brendel , Franschhoek Country House, and La Petite Dauphine.

  

Mont Rochelle caters for weddings with an average size of fifty guests, and has seen a trend to smaller and more intimate weddings.   They host only one or two weddings a month, so that the hotel operation is not affected.  La Petite Ferme also focuses on its restaurant business, and will not accept wedding bookings between November and February.  It caters for about two weddings a month in the remaining summer months, with about 60 – 80 wedding guests.  If the bridal couple want dancing, they have to book all the accommodation at La Petite Ferme.    Wilmari Dippenaar, wedding co-ordinator at La Petite Ferme, says she is satisfied with the number of wedding enquiries she is receiving, and cannot see any change due to the downturn.

 

Dieu Donne has only been open for a year, but can also see a steady increase in its wedding bookings, with one to two per month and up to 140 guests per wedding.   The ceremony is held on the downstairs terrace, with the superb backdrop of the Valley, and the Reception in the restaurant upstairs.

 

Rickety Bridge Winery can cater for up to 85 guests, and offers an attractive wedding package with accommodation on the estate and at the neighbouring Basse Provence.  One wedding is hosted per week, and this booking level continues until April.   Cindy Muller says that the Winery offers its wedding clients good value for money.  Franschhoek is attractive because of its beauty and proximity to Cape Town, and the village “is steeped in romance”, she says.

 

Le Manoir de Brendel has its own chapel and spa, and is a popular venue because of this feature.   Shirleen Waskis, who co-ordinates the estate’s weddings, says that the last two summer months have been on par with last year as far as wedding bookings go, but sees a decline for this month.  She says that the next three summer months will be back in line with the past year.  Wedding sizes have reduced, and bridal couples are becoming more demanding, wanting more for less.   The property can cater for about 50 guests in the chapel and in-door venue, and can accommodate larger weddings in its gardens.  

 

La Petite Dauphine is one of the newest wedding venues, and caters for small intimate weddings, of round 30 wedding guests, but can accommodate up to 100 guests.   Marie-Louise Oosthuizen manages the weddings, and says that her clients are mainly locals, from Cape Town.   The venue only hosts day-time weddings, and February and March are particularly good wedding months.   She says that for smaller weddings, her guests are likely to book the accommodation over a four day period, and a series of wedding-related activities are planned for the wedding guests.    She has also seen a trend of an increasing number of same-gender weddings being held at her venue.

 

Haute Cabriere is one of the few Franschhoek restaurants focusing on weddings.  Nicky Gordon says Franschhoek is a popular wedding venue because of its natural beauty and setting, which makes for good wedding photographs, and it offers a good spread of accommodation, from 5 star indulgence to 3 and 4 star value for money accommodation.    The restaurant has 2 – 3 weddings per month from November to mid-year, and is a popular venue for winter weddings, given that it can host the service in the wine cellar, and the reception in the restaurant.   An increasing number of foreigners are getting married at Haute Cabriere, with one of the couple being from South Africa originally.   Gordon does not see a decline in the wedding business due to the credit crunch, whilst the restaurant is seeing the downturn for meal bookings.   

Wedding tourism is a huge contributor to the tourism industry, and Franschhoek benefits from it in the summer months.   It is not only the wine and wedding estates that benefit from weddings, but also many other tourist sectors.

In “mixed” international weddings, the South African bride recommends the accommodation, car rental, restaurants, and trips to take before and after the wedding to her wedding guests, thereby making the planning of the trip to South Africa easy.   The bridal couple offers more than just a reception, to “compensate” for the far distance the friends and family have travelled, and the money they have spent on the ticket and the trip – often a wedding in Franschhoek will be followed by a picnic at Boschendal the day after, and a sailing trip may precede a wedding whilst the group of guests is in Cape Town prior to the wedding.   

Weddings convert tourists to regular visitors, given their surprise and delight at the beauty, value for money, safety and quality they experience in the Winelands.