team work

On October 20th, Hotel La Canela hosted its first large group, testing our organizational skills. It was the Mercedes Off-Road Adventure Club (Spain) which offered its members-owners a tour of the Sierra de Gredos mountain range. A total of 64 persons and 30 very expensive M Series cars stopped over at Hotel La Canela for lunch where they were treated to a 10-course tasting menu and a spectacular view of the Tiétar Valley.

Preparations began several days before the actual event which took place on a Saturday, starting with a near total redistribution of all the furniture. Due to the number of guests, we had to turn the salon into the restaurant for the day. That meant moving all furniture out of that place and afterwards move in sufficient chairs and tables for the event. Mari Carmen and I did that during Tuesday and Wednesday, nearly breaking our backs hauling those heavy teak tables up the stairs.

Most of Friday was spent preparing or "pre-preparing" all the food items which were not too time-critical, such as desserts, certain appetizers, as well as vegetables and meat that need marinating.

Saturday morning we woke up early, nervous and edgy. With only a few hours left, the list of remaining tasks and problems seem way to long to be able to get through. The kitchen was a war-zone, filled with food, noisy machines and sweating people. But as we got closer to show-time, miracously pleasants smells starting emanating from the pots and plates starting getting lined up with food ready to serve.

With two hours to go, crucial support troops reported for duty. We had hired two extra waiters for the event - elderly pros, both with more than thirty years experience in the business. And were they good! Superbly managing the stress, marching plates and wine bottles in and out, dodging and guiding people along the way, these guys deserved a medal. In the kitchen Mari Carmen was assisted by extra help hired for the day as well one of our friends, who volunteered for the crucial role as coffee brewer.

We survived, and we might even dare to do it again, as the guests seemed satisfied with the food and the service.

Just when we thought that our main hurdle in the hotel business (or any business) was surving the first year, we have realized that first real goal post to reach is to stay alive for two years.

Some reasons:

• The novelty effect of the place has worn off.
• Certain costs, mainly in the form of yearly maintenance start to repeat.
• Supplemental investments has to made according to acquired / discovered needs.
• When you start to repeat months and seasons, you ajust strategies (promotion, prices, etc) and you can actually compare results.

One of the main investment items on the agenda will be directed at improving the access to Hotel La Canela. None of the roads leading here are paved which means that they are vulnerable to erosion both from traffic as well as rain. Our principal connection to the neighboring village was cut in August due to a heavy downpour which tore away a bridge and created a small landslide. Luckily, the village mayor quickly arranged for a escavator to clear and level another road, allowing cars to reach us again. But this was a clear warning that we had to do something. We are now talking to the neighbors about paving at least a part of distance to the village.

Another important project already underway is the establishment of a new power line connecting 4 houses (including us) to the grid. Though not strictly necessary, since we have a reasonable supply of electricity from our solar panels and a diesel generator, it will provide an additional supply security. Once we are connected, we will continue to use the solar panels, switching only to grid power for direct consumption (and simultaneous battery recharging) when solar radiation is insufficient. We will keep the generator as a backup resource in case we are disconnected from the grid.

Now that we are beginning our second year of operation, we have also learned valuable lessons about when to expect people (we have already redefined the concept of "high season" - more about that in a later post), and when and what resources are spent in the different part of the year.

So let's see how this second, and supposedly decisive, year will turn out.

The worst part of having a business

What is the absolutely worst thing you sometimes have to do when run a business? Facing creditors, lose money, or lose a customer? Nope, the number one brownie goes to have to fire a person who works for you. Of course it depends on the situation. If you catch somebody stealing money or doing industrial espionage (not very likely here), then it should be pretty easy. If your business is about to go down the drain, the situation would be bearable too, as everybody is sort of suffering together. But what the company is doing OK and the problem is simply that this person does not perform or has a personality conflict affecting everybody else? And what if that person happens to be in a rather vulnerable situation (single parent with a small kid for example)?

How honest do you have to be in that situation? Do you actually tell the person the unadulterated truth, running the risk that plain honesty will create a suicide candidate, or do you conceal your intentions by referring to external factors which you regretably cannot influence?

We did it, and probably due to the combative attitude of the person affected, was forced to tell her the real reason behind our decision and had to act very "business-like".

We also discovered that the worst part of the whole process was in fact the preceding months spent agonizing over what to do, while things were getting gradually worse due to the attitude and actions of the employee. Once you have uttered "the sentence", the situation heated up, but at least it became action time and you could see the end of the sequence of things to happen.

In conclusion, it was like going to the dentist: You walk around with the hurting tooth for weeks, knowing that only a visit to dentist will save you, but you resist in fear of the pain to come. The hour you send in the chair is pure horror, but with a productive finalty to it.

Afterwards, you walk around dazed by the violence inflicted upon you, but relieved that it is all over and once again able to enjoy working and communicating with the people around you.

Summer is here?

The last two months have been really strange, and that is not only us saying that. Business is moving very slowly here and everywhere. Our suppliers are telling the same story. Is it the feared cooling of the economy which has been forecasted countless times?

Hotel La Canela is doing OK, but in a strange haphazard way. Sometimes we get a get a really good room occupancy, and on other occasions a birthday party fills the restaurant to capacity. But one such good event usually stands alone, and as they seldom coincide, the end result is simply average - which of course is good enough in itself, because we can pay our bills and stay open.

Anyway the travelling patterns of tourists in Spain seem to be changing.

If we look at national tourism (Spaniards travelling to Spanish destinations), the shift from long stays one place to short trips to many places is accompanied (caused by?) the gradual disappearance of the traditional one month holiday - typically in August - in favor of prolonged weekends and odd days off throughout the year. This trend has been documented by the "Instituto de Estudios Turísticos" (Institute for Tourism Studies) for several years now.

That should in principle be good for the hotel business, as those tourists will less inclined to rent a summer house and more likely to stay in a hotel during a short break. The tourist season also becomes longer, although less intensive, reducing the risk of adverse wheather and other unpredictable phenomenen. The downside is of course that you have to stay open all the time, increasing operating costs.

But what happens if the economy does slow down, and consumer spending power goes down? Do people spend less per day or do they celebrate shorter holidays? Does the upmarket segment shrink proportionally to the rest of the market?

We are observingly keenly for any clues to the answers to these questions. Comments are welcome.

The odd guest

Hotel La Canela was originally meant to be a weekend getaway, and most of our guest do also sleep here from Friday to Sunday. After 10 months in action, a certain weekend routine has been created here, consisting of relaxed, long-drawn breakfasts, midmorning strollers and trekkers stopping by, lunch-time, then afternoon tea time, followed by candelight dinners.

By Sunday evening we are mostly left alone as the city crowd migrates back to prepare for Monday Morning Battle, and we get a couple of days of Hotel Management style R, R & R: Repair, Rearm & (perhaps) a bit of Relax.

But every now and then (and to the undisguised joy of our bank mananger) we get mid-week reservations, responding to a very different profile of guests. We have had retirees, nurses working night-shifts (and therefore accumulate in-between restdays), a writer, and foreigners on holiday in Spain. Common for these people is a desire to find a peaceful spot away from civilization. They normally don't want us to organize horseback-riding, paragliding and other activities, asking instead for quiet hiking trails and village pubs. They bring thick books, the right footwear, and enjoy a good bottle of wine.

All in all, a nice crowd that not only comes to enjoy the atmosphere here, but also contributes positively to it.

Preparing for Summer

Sorry for our long absence. Although we have not had too many guests (still low-season), there are always lots of things to do, especially since we live surrounded by Nature, which constantly objects to our presence.

After reaching a height of more than a meter, we have now cut the grass around the terrace and along the garden paths. Next week we will cut some more along the main road so as to reduce the risk of fires created by sparks from cars. Along with rising temperatures and less rain, the insects are now seeking shelter from the sun, which means indoors. Weekly we have to impregnate door and window frames with insecticide to prevent an invasion of ants, spiders and other bugs, none of which present any danger but of course can make some of our guests uncomfortable.

We are also impatiently waiting for the Piedralaves municipality to live up to its promise of repairing the access road which was damaged during the spring rains. The Mayor, who recently won her second reelection has said that she will arrange for a excavator and and an earth-leveller to fix the worst stretch of about 300 meters.

Once the access has improved, we will launch our summer campaign, focusing on the opportunities to the dine on the outdoor terrace under the stars. More about that later.

Controlling ourselves

In Spain, current regulations require restaurants (which we also are) to possess a "Registro Sanitario" - a kind of health / sanitary certificate, indicating that the place complies with minimum set of standards, that it has certain safeguards, quality control mechanisms, that the staff has received instructions and education in handling food, and that all these issues have been properly documented.

The philosophy behind the rules is radically different from those used a decade ago. Before, the owner of a restaurant, or any site preparing food for public consumption, should carefully study and implement a series of preventive measures, and every now and then a health inspector would make an unannounced visit to check out the place. If he found something contaminated or dirty, you would be fined and be ordered to take specific corrective action, and if not you would declared a "good guy". In order words, the burden was on the inspector to detect problems, and as long as none were found, the owner of the restaurant could relax.

Now, it is the other way round. Now the owner has to document that he is continuously doing all the right things to prevent health / sanitary problems. And if the health inspector finds something incorrect during a control visit, the owner is to blame for not implementing his own preventive and correctional measures. In other words, the system has changed from control to auto control.

We contracted the assistance of a vet, specialized in food safety, to work out a complete set of documents, including food reception, storage and handling instructions, cleaning procedures, insect / rodent prevention as well as options for correctional action in case problems occur. The vet was very thorough, detailing procedures to a level of detail which sometimes bordered on the tedious. She also ordered certain changes to the distribution of the kitchen, and made us change certain equipment.

The resulting documentation was then sent to the local health center for approval. And finally today two officials (also vets) from that health center visited today to check out that the documentation actually reflected the reality on the ground.

We are proud to say that everything went well and that we were actually praised for our level of compliance with the regulations.

We have also decided do something which is beyond requirements: Since we believe in the level of our quality control, all documents related to the maintenance and cleaning of the hotel will be made available on our web site. Everyone will be able to see the state of cleanliness of all the areas of the hotel (though mainly focused on the kitchen), and see details such as the temperature of our refrigerators and freezers. All data will updated twice a day.

When we have implemented these features, we will announce it here on this blog.