“Everybody has been full for weeks now, if not months,” said Mike Bandey, chairman of the Grahamstown Hospitality Guild.
“Everybody has been full for weeks now, if not months,” said Mike Bandey, chairman of the Grahamstown Hospitality Guild.
He said there might be one or two cancellations, but as far as he knows all guest houses in and around Grahamstown are already crammed full for the National Arts Festival.
He explained that the Guild has an excellent, yet simple booking system that maximises benefits for both guest houses and their clients.
When potential guests submit their accommodation requests on the website, their enquiry is then sent off to the 70-odd Guild members who then decide on whether to reply or not.
Bandey said that in some cases, the prospective client could receive responses from all 70 members.
He further attributes the success of the Guild to the stringent standards set in their grading system that uses pineapples to grade each establishment where one pineapple is the minimum grade and four is the maximum.
Bandey says all Guild members have to be inspected and graded either by the Guild itself or by another recognised system.
Judy Hockly, who is in charge of grading, has a list of about 60 items used to grade establishments.
The Guild’s list has a different emphasis to the widely-used star-rating system.
For example the star system would take the size of the room into account, whereas the Guild’s pineapple list will place greater emphasis on the quality and cleanliness of the room.
Bandey says for most establishments Festival is their peak season, but he notes that their bread and butter comes from a steady stream of academics who stay in B&Bs during the year.
