Cyclists Beware: Roosje van de kaap, Swellendam Accomodation

[Eugene]

Thanks Freerk for posting your side of the story. Quite funny actually, to find out that you are a cyclist and obviously read the Hub.

[Big H*]

Within reason. Just because you're paying doesn't mean you can behave like an a-hole. And there are minimum standards or actions required from customers as requested by service providers to protect the interests of yourself and other patrons. E.g. smoking in restaurants, jeans on a golf course, helmets at cycle races, towels in a gym, etc.

 

You mean they prefer these clown pants above jeans?

[Mojoman]

As a bicyclist myself (even did Luik-Bastenaken-Luik, 230km, 4000m climb in 10 hours) I don't see any reason why I should be against bicyclist. When people are acting rude and keep on acting rude when you carefully point them on their behavior (not only noticed by me but by all my employees who spoke about it the rest of he week), that's another question. I will explain why:

The table in question was 1 week old and I carefully asked not to place bicycles against it, this was answered by unfriendly almost aggressive faces and attitudes. After that I help the group putting their luggages in a room to keep them safe so that they could do other activities the rest of the day. I brought the group to the room and asked them friendly and clearly not to put the bicycles in the room to spare our furniture and carpets (we have plenty of places outside the rooms to put bicycles safe and dry). Despite that some of the cyclist still stalled their bicycles in the room. Apart from that these bicyclist put their sweaty cloths on furniture all around the swimming pool, furniture that other guests can and wanted to use as well.

I tried to ignore all of it and try to explain to the woman who managed everything that we had negative experiences with previous cyclist groups but that we would do our bests to give them a good time (in the double century weekend for example we had a drunken group that were so aggressive that the two girls serving were to scared and left their work because of that). However only the first part of what I said was heard and apparently (as I hear on this site) translated as if cyclist were not welcome.

To the man with with the Fiancé I would like to say: Swellendam is a country community where outsiders (especially from another country) are not accepted. The fact of the matter is that anyone is welcome but Swellendammers themselves don't want to come and replace that by gossip. Another fact is that the hygiene in the kitchen when we bought this place was so bad that we closed the restaurant for two months to install a brand new kitchen which is very clean up to this day.

Small towns always have small town syndrome! Magalies is just as bad, if you haven't lived here for over 5 years, you are a 'tourist'!! Small towns just love gossip and they love someone failing even more!

I think your best bet is to lay down ground rules when the guys book (wih your reservation T's&C's) and make sure there is parking for their bikes and just remove any chance of them doing something that you do not want to see or have at your venue.

Thats hospitality for you, just watch Fawlty Towers a few times to get into it...!

[Tiny K]

I am glad that both sides of the story have been clarified - I can see that the owner is just trying to keep his furniture as unscathed as possible. I can understand that MTB's do carry dirt (sand, stone, mud) within the tread so I do see his point.

 

At the same time, if you are cyclist friendly, you would realise that cyclists need place to park their bikes, in a safe and reasonable location.

 

re the kit on the deck chairs - come on guys, you could have left it in the room and not hogged the chairs preventing others from using them to sit on.

 

anyways, hope that many others will visit the place and give us feedback on their experience.

[Eddy Gordo]

Thanks Freerk for clearing that up. One suggestion, maybe get a shed or something to store bicycles in. Also I tend to believe what freerk has said about how these guys have behaved like they owned the place and could not give a damn. Alot of people behave like this. I just dont understand why people must be so incondsiderate and dissrespectful to others. They are not the only ones in this world. The sad part is they get away with it.

[flymango]

You mean they prefer these clown pants above jeans?

Excellent!! :lol: Never said I always agree with the rules.

[jmaccelari]

Many years ago they taught me that the client is always right. Freerk moet dit dalk leer.

If the customer sh1ts on the floor, is he still right?

 

Glad the story was cleared up.

[Akon]

Thanks Freerk for posting your side of the story. Quite funny actually, to find out that you are a cyclist and obviously read the Hub.

 

I don'tthink he "reads the Hub" --> only joined yesterday, and only posted once.

 

But I agree: two sides of the story. Client is (mostly) right though...

 

I would have taken my bike inside, despite his request - no piece of equipment of mine that expensive is left outside in the cold

 

The sweaty clothes issue could also easily have been addressed by offering an alternative (like washing and drying it for free - THAT's how you get customer loyalty)

[Big H*]

If the customer sh1ts on the floor, is he still right?

 

Glad the story was cleared up.

 

Somebody earlier mentioned ground rules. Ground rules are important in all spheres of life. There are many unwritten rules. Sh1tting on the floor is definitely one, but if the client pays enough he may certainly go ahead and do it.

[ricochet_rabbit]

Chaps, just remember that there is always 3 sides to every story.

1) The Customers Side

2) The Sellers side

3) THE TRUTH!