Tag: hotels

Latest Gran Canaria News, Views & Sunshine

Foundation Investigated for Alleged Mismanagement of Public Funds Meant for Care of Unaccompanied Migrant Minors

The 7th Investigative Court of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has opened a preliminary investigation into the Social Response Foundation Siglo XXI and four of its directors. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office in Las Palmas filed a complaint against them, alleging crimes that could include forgery of commercial documents, mismanagement, and embezzlement of public funds. The investigation aims to determine whether this nonprofit organisation, and its officials, could have misused public funds intended for the care of unaccompanied migrant minors, during the migration crisis of 2020 that was precipitated by the pandemic confinement on the islands, leading to a build up of arrivals having to be assessed and cared for by the Canary Islands Regional Government, using hotels left empty due to the lack of tourism. The estimated amount involved in the alleged misuse stands at around €12.5 million between 2020 and 2022 on Gran Canaria alone.

 

Canary Islands Expect Rain and Potential Storm Weather Next Week

The Canary Islands are preparing for a change in the weather next week, as a significant increase in cloud is expected bringing higher probability of rain. The effects of a powerful storm forming in the Atlantic Ocean are likely to extend to the Canary Islands as well as neighbouring Madeira and The Azores.

 

The Canary Guide #WeekendTips 2-4 June 2023

June is here and that means that summer is just around the corner. The Patron Saints’ festivities in honour of San Juan de Bautista and San Antonio de Padua are just getting started on Gran Canaria, and in Pueblo de Mogán the main Romería pilgrimage for San Antonio El Chico is this first Saturday of June, as well as the start of the build up to those in Arucas, Santa Brígida and Moya. This weekend also brings the biggest outlet fair shopping experience back to INFECAR and a collectables fair in Gáldar.
OPERATION KILO is this weekend, at all participating supermarkets, asking you to add a few non-perishable food items to the Food Bank collection boxes to help families in need.

Vox Enters Canarian Politics, Stage Right: Anti-Migrant, Anti-Feminist, Anti-Green, Anti-Autonomy, Anti-LGBT, Anti-Multiculturalism, Pro-Franco politics find a foothold on The Canary Islands

The Canary Islands were unable to avoid the rise of the far right on Sunday, unlike in 2019, writes Natalia G. Vargas in Canarias Ahora. Vox, which previously had no representation on the islands, managed to make its presence felt in several municipalities and councils this May 28. They also secured seats in the Canary Islands’ regional parliament, securing four deputies. “Defending what is ours, our own, and fighting against insecurity” were the slogans that underpinned Vox’s campaign in The Canary Islands, along with “family, employment, and freedom.” This rhetoric, coupled with an electoral program that was repeated across all local elections in Spain, proved sufficient. Dozens of cities and towns on the islands welcomed their first far right candidates of the modern democratic era into Canarian politics, with urban areas serving as their main strongholds.

La Alcaldesa Bueno Secures Incredible Majority in Mogán

Mogán, May 29, 2023 – The often controversial incumbent, O Bueno, La Alcaldesa, has achieved an unprecedented and resounding victory once more in Mogán. The candidate who switched her party’s name, for these elections, to “Juntos por Mogán”, a local ally of the regionalist conservatives “Coalición Canaria” (CC), will once again assume the role of mayor. Her party has clinched a rather noteworthy 17 out of the 21 seats in the Municipal Council of this popular tourism destination located on the sunny southwest of Gran Canaria.

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“????? ?? ?? ?????́?” Agaete’s Cordial Spa Hotel Roca Negra pioneers live music events where dancing is allowed by performing to the balconies as the sun sets

An innovative event was held for the second time this weekend at a hotel on Gran Canaria’s rugged north coast. The Cordial Roca Negra Hotel & Spa in Agaete held a large live weekend ????? ?? ?? ?????́? music concert, with multiple performing artists, which enabled concert goers to reserve a hotel room, from which to watch and dance on their balconies, to the delight of attendees. This tranquil spa hotel transformed into a concert theatre for a few hours to host the event. This pioneering initiative on the islands held their first eventback in December. Attendees were able to not only enjoy a three hour concert but could also have a boogie in a perfectly socially distanced environment. Guests check in to the “hotel theatre”, and are directly immersed in an experience with live music from the moment they arrive. This unique evening, was joined by some of the best known local performers from the Canary Islands facilitating larger scale live performances than would usually be possible and a safe environment in which to enjoy the show.

 

The idea of ​​allowing people to continue enjoying an outdoor music concert in a responsible manner during the pandemic has a lot of potential while restrictions are still necessary to prevent COVID19 infections on the islands, and while the vaccine roll-out continues. The ????? ?? ?? ?????́? stage for the event was located in the solarium and pool area and allowed for a spectacular sunset backdrop, while watched from the balconies of the 140 rooms as some of the best loved contemporary Canarian music artists played live and loud for their audience, undoubtedly the largest audience any of them had seen for a year or more. The weekend event began on the Friday, in a more intimate and relaxed manner, with Cuban and flamenco music from the artists The Son Flamenco and Toto Noriega and then on Saturday, March 13, two overwhelming performances from the television star Cristina Ramos followed by the band Los 600.
“It is a fact that” ????? ?? ?? ?????́? “was a great success and we cannot be more proud of it. All the workers of the Hotel & Spa Cordial Roca Negra, from management to restaurants and apartments, were fully involved in this beautiful initiative so that all our guests could enjoy good music, complying with all measures of social distance” said the general director of the Gran Canaria hotel chain, Nicolás Villalobos.
With the second edition of Teatrotel: “Dance on your balcony”, the Hotel & Spa Cordial Roca Negra say they have shown their commitment, once again, to reinventing uses and spaces to allow thier guests to enjoy those experiences that so many miss, always respecting strict compliance with all social distance measures. The event, in order to respect the distances and capacity allowed, was exclusively limited to guests staying at the hotel, so places were limited. It is likely to be an experience not only repeated in the future, but copied by others looking to restart our ailing hotel industry in the post-covid era

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Hotels on Gran Canaria, and elsewhere, are looking to innovative reservations models to survive the crisis

Despite the coronavirus crisis and the huge reduction in tourism globally, online entrepreneurs and tourism professionals have been forced to innovate, adopting various new opportunities to try to ensure they can simply stay in business, and even prosper, despite the unprecedented economic fallout.  Some hotels on Gran Canaria have moved away from 2-night minimums and overnight stays to offer themselves to different types of customer.  ByHours is a hotel booking site like most you will have seen before, who deal specifically in hourly room reservations and “microstays”, who say interest in their service has skyrocketed over recent months, according to platform founder Guillermo Gaspart, who spoke to Spanish news agency EFE this week.
Here on Gran Canaria at least two four star hotels, the Hotel Silken Saaj Las Palmas & the Gold by Marina in Playa del Inglés, have joined the platform, with more expected to follow suit, as businesses seek more ways to continue operating under drastically changed conditions and with traditional tourism flows erratic at best, and in many cases completely non-existent at worst.  For many businesses the only way that they will survive this crisis is by thinking outside the box and finding new markets into which they can offer their products, facilities and expertise.  Things will not be returning to how they were before the pandemic for quite some time.
Gaspart says that hourly reservations on the platform, which currently advertises rooms by the hour at nearly 3,500 associated hotels in 24 countries, grew 62% in September compared to the same month last year, and in October increased more than 70%, having brought in more than 14,000 reservations.
There are a multitude of hotels right now with empty rooms and many have used the platform to offer them at hourly rates rather than simply seek overnight stays, “the more products you have, the more you sell” says Gaspart.
Many companies have started to focus more keenly on local demand, during the pandemic, and showing people who live near them that the hotels in their area are not just for tourists, offering a much wider range of possibilities than may have previously expected.  The allure of being able to experience some of the most prestigious accommodation at an affordable rate for the day seems to be paying off.  Using the site customers can reserve rooms and suites for 3, 6 or 12 hours, where they can work, nap, spend the night, attend telematic meetings, experience something new or simply disconnect from the world and pamper themselves.
One example is of people who travel some distance from where they live to a nearby city to spend the day shopping with the family, giving them a base while they are there to rest for a while in a room, whether for a little siesta, or to feed the kids, or simply take a load off for a couple of hours before visiting more landmarks, attractions or shops.  If you don’t live near the beach, but want to spend the whole day there, why not grab a room for a few hours too?  Whether you are between flights or just looking for a little alone time and self-care, to enjoy pristinely laundered sheets and towels and a little touch of luxury, or you want to work quietly in a space with hi speed internet and a range of other facilities, the ByHours model helps hoteliers offer more from their facilities than they usually would be able to.
In cities like Madrid or Barcelona, ​​where restaurants may currently be closed due to restrictions, “you can reserve a room and eat at the hotel restaurant” Gaspart points out, offering clients a sense of safety even while away from home. Significant increases in bookings have been noticed in all the cities where the platform already operates.
Even in the face of the tourism crash and economic hardships caused by the pandemic response, the company expects to exceed €6 million turnover this year, a 20% increase on their performance in 2019.
However, the uncertainty that this second wave of coronavirus is of course causing many in the tourism and hotel sector to be “very worried” and they are waiting to see how the crisis develops, for those who want to stay open, this is just one of a range of models being tried in the hope that enough business can be generated to keep moving forward.
The company recently created ByHours Direct, a booking and reservations platform that helps hotels offer hourly room reservations directly through their own website, selling room packages of 3, 6 and 12 hours from the hotel’s own website as well as facilitating the sale of meeting rooms by the hour.  The system was already planned for launch, the arrival of Covid accelerated its growth could see the company double its turnover in the next twelve months, says an optimistic Gaspart.
Founded in 2012 the platform originally offered pay-per-use reservations in the hotel sector, where the user could decide their time of entry and exit. They had planned to expand their operation in 2020 to the United States, but had to postpone due to Covid, though Gaspart hopes that within the next two years they will be present there and in some of the biggest cities in the world.  They already enjoy a significant presence across the world in cities like Madrid, Paris, London, Berlin, Rome and Dubai with major brands including Barcelo, Hilton, Sheraton, Best Western, NH, Sercotel and many others.  In fact they welcome hoteliers with anything more than 20 rooms who want to increase their yield without significantly changing their business model.
With ByHours you can enjoy quiet time, in a clean comfortable space, at some of the most luxuriant hotels for just a few hours at a time, bathe, sleep, use their spa facilities, take meetings and meet clients at affordable rates that suit your needs and budget.

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