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A year ago I wrote of the preparations in Cape Town in advance of the World Cup on 2010. Last week, on the anniversary of last year’s visit, I went back to review progress. I revisited hotels such as the Cellars Hohenort (currently my favourite of all hotels both for its interiors and service), the Cape Town waterfront hotels, as well extending my visit up the west coast and into the Cedarburg mountains.
Investment has accelerated, with new hotels opened and new building underway. Refurbishments and extensions are also proceeding apace, with the Cape Grace for example currently refurbishing all of its 121 rooms, and planning the refurbishment of its public areas to follow on. Following their acquisition of the Arabella Sheraton brand, Starwood has rebranded the Cape Town property as a Westin Grand. Intercontinental has opened a new Holiday Inn Express which is trading at 85% occupancy I was told, whilst Marriott’s worst kept secret, the site of its new hotel in Cape Town, is well touted locally as being adjacent to the Royal Cape Town Yacht Club.
In the next couple of weeks I will post the results of visits to two of the leading Cape Town hotels up in the News area as ‘miniviews’ (the Radisson and the Cape Grace), and we will be featuring two of the hotels I stayed in as full Reviews (the five star suites hotel the Steenburg in Constantia, and the eco-hotel Bushman’s Kloof in the Cedarburg Mountains). As you will know the difference between a full Review and a mini-view is that I stay in every hotel we Review to analyse the interaction between design and functionality, whereas a miniviews is a half day ‘walk round’ with a camera.
Cellars Hohenort has maintained its upgrade programme with 8 rooms upgraded this year. Unfortunately I was unable to see all these as the hotel was fully booked on my visit, but I was able to see many of the improvements made and here the plans they have to give every room an external balcony area. Meanwhile in the suburbs new building and refurbishment has continued. In Hout Bay the extension to the Chapman’s Peak Hotel (Chappies to the locals) is now running six months behind schedule with the plans having been substantially altered. The owners are currently analysing finishes and looking at the FF&E for their new rooms which promise spectacular views of the beach and bay that make up a part of this busy little fishing port (they serve the best calamari in Cape Town).
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