Well, here we are in February 2010 already and I have not yet posted one blog entry, so here it is.
The weather here has been pretty wet since 24 December 2009. On that day, apparently more water came from the clouds than had fallen for six months or longer. There was lots of flooding in much of Malaga province, especially from the Guadalhorce river which overflowed its banks into the many hotels along its path. I'm reliably informed that one hotel in Ronda had a full house and had to evacuate all staying guests as their ground floor was completely flooded and destroyed all food products and much equipment in the kitchen; of course the owners were quite distressed when the insurance companies said that this was an act of god and would not be covering the damage. Fortunately, someone in the provincial or regional government is as harsh and are planning to provide some relief later this year to all businesses that suffered. This was the first time in 40 years that the river overflowed its banks to that extreme. And then there were more torrential downpours again starting 4 January and lasting for a week and days and days..... or so it seemed.
Hotel Bandolero has suffered from water damage as well in one of the guest rooms where mold is now growing and long black stains mark the walls. We have been leaving the window and terrace doors open on dry days to try and let the room air out fully but once again it has been raining all night and into this morning. We had someone from our insurance company come by on Sunday to have a look at the damage as we are hoping to get some assistance from them to repair the roof. With the number of locations where water is obviously coming in, one cannot pin point exactly where the water is coming from and so we have advised to replace the entire portion of the roof which will cost a bomb.... maintenance, boy, it can really get you down in the pocket. And this is not to mention our annual problem in the bar where we actually have a cascade of water on one of the walls and major leaks... so I ask, watchagonnado?
Well, the Great Recession of 2007-2010 is in Juzcar for sure. Our client flow has drop down to, oh, just about nothing. Last weekend I had two walkers come in on Sunday for tapas only. They spent a whopping 23 Euros and that was all the lunch business we did for two days. I am hopeful for more passing business this coming weekend as one has to keep ones hopes up or one can end up in a very dark and ugly place and one does not really want to go there. As for hotel bookings, they keep coming in but not for this month nor last month. I have a put a couple of good offers on our webpage but have not had a nibble really especially for the summer offer. Our business flow last year at this time was not bad for a February but all our business was Spanish clientele and so now it is very obvious that our Spanish clientele are not spending much money these days; everyone tells me the same thing, things are very bad all over but that, my friends, is no consolation.
There are many things that need done now, with this rain having made the paint literally fall off the building. I have big swaths of walls to paint and I plan to re-do the hotel name painted on the wall of the bar terrace, looking rather long in the tooth at the moment in my view.
January is the month in the year when the Junta de Andalucia accepts applications for grants for the tourist industry so of course, I have have made my applications; this year I have applied for three grants, same as last year (all of which were denied, why, is a good question). This year, I have requested assistance to buy all new digital ready, flat screen televisions for our guests rooms as the analog signal is going to be shut off in Spain very soon and the TVs we have will serve no purpose. The government made this decision to follow the rest of the world in converting to digital TV but has offered no assistance to anyone to convert their TVs to digital so I am asking for a grant to buy those needed TVs and hopefully that request will be accepted. I am also requesting a grant to repair the roof and to buy heater/air conditioners for the rooms and the hotel's restaurant. The heater/AC machines are individual units that can be operated independently of each other making them more efficient than the central heating system we now have in place. If we have one or two rooms occupied, we need not turn on the heating system for the whole hotel if these units are in place. Furthermore, they are more efficient in consumption of electricity (not expensive butane gas) so they are environmentally friendly and provide AC as well, something that is lacking in our rooms.
Last year, we were denied our application for these units because it was not, in the view of the Junta, an improvement in quality for our guests. I was a bit bewildered by their negative response as I thought surely this is a quality improvement, how could it not be? But at the end of the day, like many things in this country that I have come to be resigned to, is that the money in the coffers of the Junta that they announce to all the world that they have available for the industry as a whole, will actually only be distributed to the very few who are actually friends and family of people that have the right connections. You see, I have come to be a realist in this regard and Spain is actually a very corrupt country, if you are not connected, then you are not going to get anything. This phenomenon has been demonstrated as every single time we have applied for a grant, that would 4 out of 5 years now, we have actually received a negative response, only once. Yes, only once, the other times we were not even given a response, things just went very quiet and we never heard from them again.
I realise how negative this entry is reading, but this is not being negative, it is being realistic. Spain has showed itself to be a place very difficult country for small enterprise and many a Spanish sole proprietor that I have met, confirmed this to me. So, me being a foreigner here, really has no bearing on my situation, it's just that the Spanish government sees no reason to assist in the development and growth of small businesses in any way shape or form, something that really boggles my mind, Spanish or not. Well, maybe there is something.... but it really is only for the friends and family of those connected. Enough on this subject; I am still going to await the response to my applications which we are told will happen by end of April 2010.
Just to give a bit of depth to the Spanish bureaucratic process which may or may not be unique, let me tell you a short tale; I applied for residency and a work permit on 25 January 2005. I met with a advisor on how to go about the process of applying and indeed got advice directly from the ESP Labour Ministry as well. I had a letter with a time stamp on it with the date 25 Enero 2005 as the date received of my application. Then I waited, and waited and waited. I checked their webpage where you can find out if the application has been processed and the static response was, "In process". Finally, 19 months later, sometime in September 2006, I saw they had finally posted a response to my application on their website and the answer was "Denied". To find out the reason, I would have to await a letter that was required to be sent from them explaining their response. After waiting yet another five months, a letter finally arrived, so the whole waiting time was 25 months, over two years!! And in the end, they told me that my investment in Spain was irrelevant to the Spanish economy. How I could ever make an investment that was relevant to the Spanish economy, 12th largest economy (by GDP) in the world (one step behind Mexico, surprisingly! and one ahead of So. Korea, impressively), is beyond me.
So, a country so big, the second largest tourist industry in the world by receipts (US$61.6 billion), and no help for small businesses, there you go. I need to go and make up two rooms from last week now.
