{"id":19364,"date":"2011-04-20T00:21:47","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T22:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whalecottage.com\/blog\/?p=19364"},"modified":"2011-04-24T07:48:06","modified_gmt":"2011-04-24T05:48:06","slug":"hotels-in-cape-town-offer-good-value-rates-but-discriminatory-to-foreigners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisvonulmenstein.com\/blog\/cape-town\/hotels-in-cape-town-offer-good-value-rates-but-discriminatory-to-foreigners\/","title":{"rendered":"Hotels in Cape Town offer good range of rates, but discriminatory to foreigners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>An article in the\u00a0Cape Business News<\/strong>, entitled “Fedhasa to monitor Cape hotel pricing”, echoed a promise of such a survey by FEDHASA Cape Chairman Dirk Elzinga\u00a0at the recent Tourism Destination Conference<\/strong><\/span>.<\/a>\u00a0 Elzinga\u00a0promised that his association would conduct\u00a0the survey\u00a0in response to the accusation by Conference speaker\u00a0and Cape Town Routes Unlimited Chairman\u00a0Peter Bacon as well as provincial\u00a0Minister of Tourism Alan Winde, that Cape Town’s hotels are expensive, and do not reflect the law of supply and demand, which should bring down rates, given poor demand, thereby giving our city a bad reputation, it was alleged.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given that FEDHASA Cape still has not\u00a0conducted the promised survey, I decided to do my own independent survey last week, to get a feel for pricing of the largest and best known Cape Town hotels, asking them for their May rates.\u00a0\u00a0Ellerman House\u00a0is the most expensive Cape Town hotel by far, starting at R5000 per room, and the Peninsula All Suite Hotel is the least expensive 5-star hotel, at R1570 per room.\u00a0 The opening offer of R1875 per room at the Queen Victoria Hotel is exceptional, given what it offers.\u00a0 Interesting too is that a number of 4-star hotels are more expensive than some 5-star hotels.\u00a0 The survey found that the\u00a0average rate of the\u00a0sixteen 5-star hotels surveyed is\u00a0R2939 per room,\u00a0just under\u00a0R1500 per person.\u00a0\u00a0 Across all 27 hotels surveyed, the average rate per room is R2419, or just over R1200 per person, not cheap given that\u00a0it is winter in May,\u00a0and that there is poor demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was interesting to hear how the calls were handled, most hotel reservation departments asking careful questions, to identify if the caller was a travel agent\/tour operator,\u00a0single or double, a corporate business client, South African ID book holder, and\/or a Protea Hotel Prokard holder, all of which would have affected the rate quoted.\u00a0 Few hotels called had\u00a0a rate sheet from which to quote immediately, having to access their computer for the information, costing time.<\/p>\n

The rates were checked for 3 – 6 May<\/span> (or the dates nearest these if one or more dates were fully booked already),\u00a0per room for<\/span>\u00a02 adults sharing and inclusive<\/span> of Breakfast per day,<\/span> so as to compare the rates fairly.\u00a0 We added breakfast to the rates where these were quoted separately.\u00a0 \u00a0We have ranked the hotel rates from most to least expensive:<\/p>\n

Ellerman House,<\/strong> 5 star, R5000 – R15700, Tel (021) 430-3200<\/p>\n

Cape Grace Hotel<\/strong>, 5 star, R 4510 – R 5680, Tel (021) 410-7100<\/p>\n

One&Only Cape Town<\/strong>, 5 star, R3889 for South Africans – R5990 for non-South Africans. Tel (021) 819-2000<\/p>\n

Dock House<\/strong>, 5 star, R3790 (but pay for 2 days, stay for 3 days offer). Tel (021) 421-9334<\/p>\n

Cape Royale Luxury Hotel<\/strong>, 5 star, R3565.\u00a0 Tel (021) 430-0500<\/p>\n

Table Bay Hotel<\/strong>, 5 star, R3166 for South Africans, R 6000 for non-South Africans, Tel (021) 406-5000<\/p>\n

V & A Hotel<\/strong>, 4 star, R3115 (but special\u00a02 days pay\u00a0for\u00a03 days stay offer), Tel (021) 415-1000<\/p>\n

Mount Nelson Hotel<\/strong>, 5 star, R 3000. Tel (021) 483-1000<\/p>\n

Westin Grand Arabella Quays<\/strong>, 5 star, R 2960. Tel (021) 412-9999<\/p>\n

Twelve Apostles<\/strong>, 5 star, R2865 – R4480.\u00a0 Tel (021) 437-9000<\/p>\n

15 on Orange Hotel<\/strong>, 5 star, R2770 – R2970, Tel (021) 469-8000<\/p>\n

The Taj Hotel<\/strong>,<\/a> 5 star, R2200. Tel (021) 819-2000<\/p>\n

Cullinan Hotel<\/strong>, 5 star, R2150.\u00a0 Tel (021) 415-4000<\/p>\n

Crystal Towers Hotel & Spa<\/strong>, 5 star, R2120 – R3220.\u00a0 Tel (021) 525-3888<\/p>\n

Ambassador Hotel<\/strong>, 4 star, R1920 (but stay for 3 and pay for 2 nights offer), Tel (021) 439-6176<\/p>\n

Queen Victoria Hotel<\/strong>, not graded yet but seeking 5 stars, R1875 special opening rate until July, Tel (021) 418-1466<\/p>\n

Southern Sun Waterfront Hotel<\/strong>, 4 star, R1750. Tel (021) 409-4000<\/p>\n

Victoria Junction Hotel<\/strong>, 4 star, R 1686. Tel (021) 418-1234<\/p>\n

Commodore Hotel<\/strong>, 4 star, R1600.\u00a0 Tel (021) 415-1000<\/p>\n

Portswood Hotel<\/strong>, 4 star, R 1600.\u00a0 tel (021) 415-1000<\/p>\n

Bay Hotel<\/strong>, 5 star, R1600 – R2100 for South Africans, R 2590 – R3690 for non-South Africans.\u00a0 Tel (021) 438-4444<\/p>\n

Peninsula All Suite Hotel,<\/strong> 5 star, R 1570.\u00a0 Tel (021) 430-7777<\/p>\n

Cape Sun Hotel<\/strong>, 4 star, R1500.\u00a0 Tel (021) 488-5100<\/p>\n

Winchester Mansions Hotel<\/strong>, 4 star,\u00a0 R1470 – R1930.\u00a0 Tel (021) 434-2351<\/p>\n

President Hotel,<\/strong> 4 star, R1460 – R1660. Tel (021) 434-8111<\/p>\n

Protea Hotel Breakwater Lodge<\/strong>,\u00a0no star grading, R 1295 standard, R1665 business rooms.\u00a0Tel (021) 406-1911\u00a0<\/p>\n

Protea Hotel Fire & Ice Hotel<\/strong>, 3 star, R 900, Tel (021) 488-2555<\/p>\n

To contrast the rates of hotels in the city, a rate survey was\u00a0also conducted amongst the 24 members of the Camps Bay Accommodation Association<\/a>, consisting of mainly 4-star guest houses.\u00a0 The average May rate for the Association members is R766 – R1173 per room, the lowest rate being R500 per room.\u00a0 The most expensive rate is R1600 for the 5-star Atlantic\u00a0House.\u00a0\u00a0Guest houses have dropped their winter rates by up to 50 % for many years already, understanding about demand and supply<\/p>\n

What is most disturbing is that some hotels are offering South Africans better rates than they would offer international guests, very short-sighted in our opinion, given that it signals to international guests that they are not as desired, and means that they could be staying away from Cape Town and going on holiday elsewhere.\u00a0 Price discrimination against foreigners is something the provincial\u00a0Minister of Tourism Alan Winde should urge FEDHASA Cape to fight against, and to encourage hotels to drop this practice.<\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 20\/4:<\/strong> Rey Franco, Deputy Chairman of FEDHASA Cape, has e-mailed this comment: “Thanks for this, I do need to correct you on one specific comment you have made by saying we have not done the survey. Rema and I are checking the rates daily, on Expedia, booking.com and others. It is important to note that we decided to do the survey over a minimum of 3 months before releasing any information in order to ascertain the actual status of the rates stituation. Something the media forgot to mention. <\/em><\/span>I am sure you would agree that looking at rates for only a few days is certainly not going to show any worthy trend. To show you why this survey must be conducted over a longer period I have attached the rates as displayed this morning under the certain categories for your perusal. You will see how low they are. See what you can get from the Taj! <\/em><\/span>It is also important to note that rates will vary dependant on demand especially where large conferences and events are concerned. Another reason why rates need to be averaged out correctly. <\/em><\/span>I will do the same daily searches on the additional hotels you have tested to ensure a wider trend analysis.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

POSTSCRIPT 24\/4:<\/strong>\u00a0 We received the following e-mail from Dirk Elzinga, Chairman of FEDHASA Cape: thank you for your email\/copy of your blog that was passed on to me\u00a0while I am travelling overseas. It made some interesting reading, and I am sure that we are able to\u00a0make good use of your suggestions. I trust that the response you received from Rey Franco is clear to\u00a0you, and that you do understand that we as Fedhasa try to get some\u00a0
\nrealy (sic) reliable information about the relative pricing of our hotels in\u00a0Cape Town. A once off snap shot comparison obviously does not serve\u00a0this purpose. We definitely will inform our members and the media about our findings\u00a0of this ongoing survey as soon as we feel that we have collected\u00a0sufficient data to express an opinion based on facts. As Rey wrote,\u00a0this will at least take three months or so.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com<\/a>\u00a0 Twitter:@WhaleCottage<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An article in the\u00a0Cape Business News, entitled “Fedhasa to monitor Cape hotel pricing”, echoed a promise of such a survey by FEDHASA Cape Chairman Dirk Elzinga\u00a0at the recent Tourism Destination Conference.\u00a0 Elzinga\u00a0promised that his association would conduct\u00a0the survey\u00a0in response to the accusation by Conference speaker\u00a0and Cape Town Routes Unlimited Chairman\u00a0Peter Bacon as well as provincial\u00a0Minister […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[7,3,124,22,21],"tags":[5054,1317,115,11108,114,1036,2157,1553,110,1903,11104,32366,108,32378,11102,6542,5404,4826,11010,24,320,5456,129,27,1318,1326,1094,11094,1266,11103,11105,11106,11107,11097,8159,11095,1506,11100,3728,111,3316,5307,10757,11096,2495,11098,11101,11099,32373,190],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t