All our clients and investments are having their best trading results this summer since 2008 which gave me a welcome opportunity in August to enjoy what others in the hotel and leisure industry have to offer.
A visit to the annual Festpiele (opera festival) in Bregenze in Austria was a unique experience (Bregenze opera was featured in the James Bond film, Quantum of Solace). The stage is built out on to Lake Constance facing an auditorium with a 7000 capacity audience and the production of The Magic Flute by David Poultney was brilliant. However what was exceptional was the catering. The catering at Glyndebourne is good but it was not until I enjoyed a superb a la carte meal before the opera in the auditorium's restaurant did I realise it was the best dinner I have had in a restaurant with 500 covers, all a la carte served by the most organised and efficient staff I have encountered. The catering was by EvenTZ a local Austrian company. It truly was an evening to remember.

Next stop was Switzerland and its great hotels.
A short stay in Berne at the Schweitzerhof where this great hotel had the most elegant, efficient and friendly welcome on arrival from its reception team and General Manager Iris Fluckiger. Then on to Gstaad and the famed Palace Hotel which is one of the finest hotels in the world. Everything was perfect – accommodation, restaurants, service and a choice of sporting and cultural activities to cater for the most fastidious of guests, yet in a completely laid back traditional setting. It is always a country to visit to enjoy the best the hotel business can offer.
Guaranteed sunshine was next on my schedule and a visit to Greece, this time to see a relatively new development in the Peleponese where two Starwood Hotels – the Luxury Collection Romanos and a Westin Operation – make one great resort with seven restaurants, luxury spa, leisure activities for all ages during the day and evening. Several evenings I chose to visit local restaurants which I had visited over 10 years ago and found the choice and quality of these local family eateries had improved tremendously.
One such restaurant set out its story on the place setting mats:
THE FAMILY RESTAURANT
Everyone was inventing excuses to visit our home and taste all those dishes my mother was cooking. My father was always on the grill. They kept saying: 'Why do you not open a restaurant then we can come whenever we want without making up excuses to come and visit you?' So we did. It was September 1999 when we decided to make it happen. All the odds were against us for it took almost a year to find and rebuild this place as our first restaurant, the only acceptable building being a half demolished warehouse in which someone was keeping his livestock.The front was a dirt track with no lighting.
When our friends saw the place they said 'You are doomed and going to throw away your money for nothing.' But we could see the potential then in this tiny village of Gialova by the sea.
Finally in June 2000 and into the new Millenium the restaurant was ready to open its doors. None of us had any experience on how to serve professionally 200 customers all at once. We were so stressed that we did not tell anyone the date of our opening as we wanted to build up slowly while we learned the business. But when we opened the doors on the first night we found a queue outside and we were on panic. After a crazy day and then the first of many such days, we made it through and have learned through the years how a restaurant works and we are still here today after 14 years to offer you just the best. FROM THE FAMILY

With fresh fish, fresh vegetables and a delightful local wine I can assure you of a great meal to complement the choice of restaurants in the nearby Starwoods Resort when you visit. Note down Gialovas Family Restaurant

With the summer over we are now back to planning our development and marketing strategies for 2015 and 2016 with our clients investors and friends.

Gordon Currie at Calpe Hotels and Leisure Consultancy Group