Short Stories of an Hotelier (Chapter V)

My hometown was not like the typical touristic Algarve. It still isn’t. However, the city’s downtown has developed over the following years in a way that most people could not foresee, at least not this quickly. It looks prettier now. The famous Olh?o’s fishing-village type restaurants and bars adapted to the new customers, and new kind of customers.?

The old typical houses, of known architectural interest, were formed like cubes with a?oteias (terraces) back in the old days, giving Olh?o its famous nickname of 'Cidade Cubista', have now been bought and renovated by many people, mostly foreigners, who wanted a little piece of paradise that this little town has become. Olh?o is now home to many new real-estate agents and companies with design and renovation's expertise.

This was the first luxury hotel in the city (we didn’t even have a 4-star hotel yet). Part of a small Portuguese hotel group, with other hotels and residences in Lisbon’s greater area and the Algarve, this was a great, or some would say, risky move for the group. Set within a major real-estate development by its parent company, luxury apartment blocks were also built, each with a plunge pool on the rooftop.

This was sort of a previously forgotten part of town. A huge area by the Ria Formosa, where fisherman's shacks once stood and had then to be relocated to another part of town.

This hotel was a turning point. ‘For the better or for the worse?’ is not an uncommon discussion amongst the natives.?It’s strange how with a bit more of tourism, things can change almost dramatically. But that’s what this hotel did.

Just so you to have an idea, the closest city to Olh?o, and the Algarve’s capital city of Faro where the regional airport is, did not have a 5-star hotel. Indeed, this was the first 5-star hotel from Faro all the way down to Vila Real de Santo Antonio, where the Portuguese-Spanish border is.

I was in love with this hotel. I still visit and have a drink in the terrace everytime I go back home for holidays. Its view is unrivalled, and to this day, it still is my favourite in the whole world. I may be biased, but I don’t know, it really is something special. The guest lifts are built in the centre of the building, with glassed walls in glassed elevator shafts, so that you can marvel at the view as you go up (or down for that matter).

The pool is on the first floor, surrounded by a massive sunny terrace with the same view: overlooking the newly built marina and the small islands that delimit the Ria Formosa Natural Park. Genius.

We all started working in May, one month before its scheduled opening. It was a month of trainings and team-building activities. We dined at local restaurants, drank in local bars, visited the local markets and the beautiful Ria Formosa islands. How awesome it was to be back in town.?

We visited the sister properties in Albufeira and learned the hotel group ethos and its processes throughout.

It was also a month of cleaning up. Building works were still in place, the final dust was yet to settle. We all had protective gear and yellow reflecting vests. It took many working hours, and most of the workforce then, to hoover the carpeted corridors and rooms. And carry the bed linen and pillows to every room, the chairs and TVs, make the beds, clear out debris… And we did all of this without a working lift. Not to mention the apartment blocks just across the street, where this hotel group would manage 80 apartments as part of its residences concept.

June was just around the corner, and with it, the start of the high season. So we would have to open doors. Whether it was ready or not.

And so, we opened doors. We welcomed our first guests - the owner of the parent company being one of them. Without working lifts and without an outdoor pool.?Well, there was the tiny indoor pool in the SPA, but of course, people wanted to be outside. You know, "where the grass is green and the girls are pretty". And where the sun shines :)

There were also, initially, not enough pillows for every room as most of the ones delivered had some spots of mould and we had to send them back. Of course we only noticed this after carrying them up the flights of stairs in this 5-story building. This went on for a couple of weeks, the lifts being sorted first.

Nevertheless, a pre-opening experience, although it can be really tough, coming across many issues with a deadline pressure on top of it, it’s a very enriching professional experience. You learn things from scratch, you implement new processes yourself and become part of creating a concept and vision, you put the wheels running, whether you like it or not. It’s also very fun and you build a strong emotional attachment to the place. Sort of a family that ‘raised’ a baby together. You take pride in it, and you know every little corners, you all start at the same level and build up from there.

Needless to say, we were a very tight crew here as well.