What a year!!

Ahoy there sailors!

The Year 2014 has come and gone in the wink of an eye, and what an exciting year it's been for Hermanus and The Windsor Hotel & Self Catering Apartments!

Happy Festive Season and a Prosperous New Year from The Windsor Team!

This is what happened in Hermanus:

• The launch of The Cape Whale Coast Hope Spot at the Old Harbour in Hermanus: http://www.sst.org.za/hope-spots/cape-whale-coast-hope-spot 
• Hermanus experienced an excellent Whale Season with lots of active Whales coming very close to The Windsor Bay entertaining our guests from all over the world!  

Launch of The Cape Whale Coast Hope spot with Mayoress Nicolette Botha-Guthrie and Dr Sylvia Earle  

Southern Right Whale up close in The Windsor Bay Hermanus

This is what we did at The Windsor:

• We now have a Self Catering option available - 8 Sea Facing Self Catering Apartments next door to The Windsor Hotel at 45 Marine Drive
• All our rooms and apartments now have DSTV (13 Channels)
• We have started the process of a soft refurbishment on the ground floor by replacing the blankets with white duvets 
• We have changed most of the lights in the Hotel with LED's and are in the process of changing the bathroom lights to LED's. 
• Kids Program: This year we have added more activities and goodies to our kids program E.G. Zero Gravity has given each one of our kids an hour complimentary voucher, we have a baby sitter doing activities with the younger children and each one received a bucket on arrival with tools to play in the sand on the beach and much more! 
• The Courtyard Lounge has been restored which has been excellent for winter with a roaring fire place. 

The Windsor Hotel Courtyard Lounge

• We have worked on the grass across the road as well as our garden. 
• Fourth consecutive year with no rate increase. 

The Windsor Hotel & Self Catering Apartments 

Coming up in 2015:

• The DHL WP and DHL Stormers Teams are returning to The Windsor Hotel for the fourth consecutive year for their team building.
• We have worked very hard on finding a solution to upgrade our WiFi to offer guests the best connection in Hermanus, we have found one that will be launched in 2015. 
• A newly developed website will be launched in 2015.
• The Windsor Hotel will be hosting lots of activities during Hermanus FynArts including Ceramics for the third consecutive year. 
• Soft refurbishment will continue in 2015, we will do one floor at a time. 

The Windsor Team wishes you a prosperous new year and look forward to welcoming you back soon! 

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for daily updates. We'd love for you to share your experiences and photos in Hermanus with us on Facebook and Twitter!

Wish you all plain sailing until we meet again next week, same time, same place. 

The Windsor Team

WTM AFRICA 2014

Ahoy there sailors!

Wow, what can one say about the overall experience of WTM Africa. Straight off the bat there are going to be many comments as to whether there was any “new business” or “real business” done at WTM 2014. We will only know that in the next few months. What was overwhelmingly clear was that Cape Town sets itself up so nicely to host an international tourism trade shows such as WTM.

General View of WTM Africa 2014 

What fun it was being able to catch a city bus from the V&A Waterfront to the Cape Town International Convention Center and then onto Long Street afterwards to enjoy some of the beauty and cosmopolitan feelings of Cape Town as a vibrant and exciting African city center.

WTM itself was a great social occasion for a lot of those in the biz of hospitality and tourism and it was really energizing to pick up on the excitement expressed about the show by these ‘in the know folks’.  It was also evident that there was a lot of ‘scouting’ going around by hospitality businesses and establishments to see whether they should in fact exhibit at next year’s WTM Africa show and one would have to say that we think there would be a positive response to it and we believe that WTM Africa hosted in Cape Town will grow from strength to strength.

One of the most exhilarating things about WTM for us at The Windsor Hotel was the use of social media and the encouragement of bloggers which we personally do a lot of satisfaction off as The Windsor Blog was recognized as one of the prize winning blogs of the show. 

Bloggers Prize Winners at WTM Africa 2014 including our very own Madelein Marais 

For us it was more what we learned from our interactions with all the people at WTM and most importantly some of the exhibitors that had it not been for WTM we would never see on our shores. So WTM Africa gets a big thumbs up from us and we thoroughly look forward to next years event!

VIVA WTM VIVA!

For more photos go to WTM Photo Gallery.

Wish you all plain sailing until we meet again next week same place same time!