Fulfilling Job

The results are in for the first month of our social responsibility initiative. If you don't know what I'm writing about , please check this blog entry
So far we have:
- 7 check out reservations with an average spent of $168.571 COP
- An average of 1.71 night per reservation.
-21 reservations in total for the months on JAN, FEB, MAR & APR.
- 4 cancellations.

In the technical department we have from DEC 25 to JAN 25:
-84 unique visitors to www.posadanativa.com
-50 Likes in the Facebook page
-6 excellent comments in Trip Advisor.

What's next?
I have to definitely finish up their website, increase the revenue per available room (REVPar) by lowering their fixed costs and get them to prioritize on how to spend their hard earned money in things that would attract more clients such as Internet access. Juan

Complaints advice

Complaining after you leave, makes you look dumb.

Complaining about fixable things after you have left the premises is silly and makes you look dumb, mostly, because there is nothing we can do about it for you. We take complaints and advice very seriously into account when they make sense and are informed to us at appropriate times.

With that said here a list of thing we can not fix.

• Water Pressure: We would have to re-design the whole island in order to get good water pressure in San Andres. Only hotels with desalinators and hydroflows can offer good water pressure. We have neither. We used the good ol' reliable gravity to get water to the showers and toilets.

• Hot Water: The whole hot water argument is a waste of time, yes, we do understand that in some countries people are only used to shower with hot water, but implementing a hot water system in the hostel, besides expensive would be underused as with the weather most people won't use it and ultimately pay for it in the rate.

• Air conditioning: Did you know that San Andres pays the highest Pesos per Kw in Colombia? that is why the government subsidies 40% of everyones electricity bill. The electricity here is generated by gigantic German diesel generators, this diesel fuel comes by boat from Cartagena which makes it more expensive and ultimately this reflects on the electricity bill, therefore if we installed AC units We would have to pass the bill onto the rates and stop being the cheapest hostel in San Andres and become just another hotel with suites and room service.

Thing that we can fix.

• Cleanliness: If you think that the common areas of the hostel or your room, are not clean enough, just let us know. We will either tell the maid or clean them ourselves.
• Noise: If a guest is being noisy, LET US KNOW, we don't sleep in the hostel and can't read minds.

 Juan

Blue Almond and Social Responsibility

Posada Nativa Ms Trinie

Jenniffer and I are happy to announce that we have adopted a "Posada Nativa" which in English is the equivalent of a guest house. The Posada Nativa initiative is a goverment program that helps local house owner open their doors to tourism. In the case of San Andres one of the prerequisites to be a Posada Nativa is that it should be run by local native people, however as many government programs in Colombia whoever makes the decisions thought that by making a flashy website, this would attract hordes of tourism to a posadas' door... WRONG. Posadas currently have a very low occupancy rate, horrible REVPAR and a lack of vision, which comes basically because the people running the posadas have little or no knowledge of tourism, segmentation, marketing, applied technology, customer service etc.
We will not be running the posada, we will only provide them with the tools and the training to make them more competitive these tools include, a website with online booking capabilities, reservation system software, a marketing and e-marketing plan.


We are doing this because we know posadas nativas give people who are interested in culture a chance to take a plungle into our amazing soon-to-be lost traditions, an on top of that we will help a local family increase their income therefore their quality of live.

Hostel Blue Almond in Greek!

Το Hostel Blue Almond απέχει από κεντρική παραλία του Σαν Αντρές μόνο 20 λεπτά με τα πόδια, και προσφέρει οικονομικά καταλύματα με δωρεάν Wi-Fi και κοινόχρηστες εγκαταστάσεις.Υπάρχουν μονόκλινα και δίκλινα δωμάτια με κοινόχρηστο μπάνιο. Όλα τα δωμάτια διαθέτουν πλακάκια στο πάτωμα και ξύλινες ντουλάπες. Οι επισκέπτες μπορούν να μαγειρέψουν το γεύμα τους στην πλήρως εξοπλισμένη κουζίνα ή να χρησιμοποιήσουν το μπάρμπεκιου.Το σαλόνι διαθέτει DVD player και ανταλλακτική βιβλιοθήκη.

Το Σαν Αντρές προσφέρει πολλές δυνατότητες για κατάδυση και ψαροντούφεκο, και το Hostel Blue Almond μπορεί να σας εξασφαλίσει κράτηση με τους καλύτερους όρους για τέτοιου είδους θεματικές εκδρομές. Επίσης προσφέρει ποδήλατα για ενοικίαση προκειμένου να εξερευνήσετε το νησί.

Is happening!

Yes, is true. We are opening availability until the middle of February tomorrow (aug 31). That means you can stop emailing me! yay!

Keep in mind that:

• We only do online reservations.
  
• November has 2 long weekends.
• The 8th of December things will get busy for that weekend as is a holiday and people will likely take Friday off and come to San Andres.
• From December 20 to January 20 is considered HIGH season in San Andres. Everything from water to flight tickets is going to be more expensive than usual.
• From December 28th to the 2nd of January is considered VERY HIGH SEASON.
  
• We have yet another long weekend on January the 9th.
• Although there's a child in the picture, we don't accept underage minors in the Blue Almond for many reasons like alcohol consumption as a bad example an insurance voidance.

On a more serious note, remember that high season will sell fast, so have your credit card and dates ready.

Most traveled person I know.

According to www.mosttraveledpeople.com, Harry Mitsidis, a former guest at the Blue Almond is the most traveled person under 40 years old IN THE WORLD. We are happy to having help him achieve that!. You can read his blog and his very interesting stories on his personal website Harry's Trails Around the World We wish you the best Harry!

Web of lies, or lies on the Web.

While doing some benchmarking on the web I found out that a new hostel is soon opening in San Andres in SEP 2011. This is great news for the island and we welcome them with open arms, as backpackers are a market that has been historically neglected in San Andres and to everyone's surprise is a very profitable and low impact niche.

What I find unacceptable, borderline offensive is that they claim they will be the first; therefore the only hostel in the Island. This is simply a BIG LIE and a example of unethical and irresponsible marketing, we have been in business for almost a year and not even us were the first hostel in San Andres at that time. With this post We don't mean to pick up an argument, we just think people should get the facts straight.