All the hotels in our chain have been subject to a comprehensive deep-cleaning process following guidelines to combat COVID-19. José María Caballé, President of Servigroup Hotels, has declared the situation as “exceptional” and assures us that this crisis...
“Must make us stronger and even make us rethink our strategies to return to the market better than before.”
Servigroup Hotels is already prepared to start scaling back on the measures implemented to tackle COVID-19 as soon as the health authorities permit, at the pace and speed indicated by management. For this reason, every hotel has been subject to a comprehensive process of sanitisation and disinfection, carried out in all the communal areas, rooms, kitchens and bathrooms, which have been left “sealed and ready to be opened as new whenever we get permission”, states President José María Caballé.
“I never imagined we would live through a situation like this that affects the entire sector and that has created such an extraordinary situation. The Servigroup machinery has not stopped and is working to continue guaranteeing the quality of its accommodation and to get things back to normal as soon as possible when the situation permits.”
The state of alarm generated by the public health crisis forced the group to put all its machinery to work in an unprecedented way. With the hotel closures, it had to cope with situations that the business group has never experienced in its more than 50 years of history. In light of this exceptional set of circumstances, José María Caballé sends out a clear message:
“We have been compelled, out of a sense of responsibility and solidarity, to look after the health of our customers and that of all our employees and partners.”
“For now we must stay at home, for our own safety and for that of others, but our customers can rest assured that as soon as we open again, the hallmarks of our group – quality, safety and hygiene – will still be guaranteed.”
Servigroup has more than 50 years’ experience in the sector and during this time it has continued to increase its number of hotels throughout Spain, and even further afield, with one in Colombia. The Chief Executive of the chain has always held the same business philosophy: “work hard and with lots of enthusiasm”. It is a maxim that has also very much been put into practice over recent months and will continue to be adhered to when the exceptional circumstances permit normal business to be resumed.
“We have never lived through anything like this. We will work to re-open as soon as possible, and be the same or even better than before. We have endured complicated times in the past but never anything like this. Our intention is that everything goes back to working as it did before and that customers and employees return to our hotels, which are also their home.”
José María Caballé believes his management of the hotel chain consists of more than just the business input:
“A hotel director needs to be like an expert butler making the customer feel as comfortable as possible. Over the years, I have realised that the customer doesn’t only want to be the recipient of a service and pay for it, but they want personal attention, an experience, and part of our success is offering a service injecting all the personal commitment and passion of the team into it.”
The hotel chain is grateful for the work that everyone on the front line is doing during this public health crisis to keep the company going, those who are in the facilities maintaining the equipment ready for the reopening and also those who are at home whilst this unprecedented situation continues. Caballé stresses that:
“Re-opening will be complicated and we will have been through difficult moments, but we will come back stronger and with more enthusiasm than ever. We will undoubtedly have to re-open gradually, but that will not stop us giving our absolute all.”
Servigroup has also put in place a cancellations policy to deal with the booking problems that the crisis was generating for its customers. The chain assures everyone that bookings can be made for its hotels with “total peace of mind” thanks to the flexible terms as explained by José María Caballé:
“We are offering to retain the deposit for other dates for a one-year period should they not be able to come on the dates of their reservation, always maintaining the promise of our early booking advantageous offers. Furthermore, owing to the uncertain situation at the moment, all bookings made up to the prospective opening can be cancelled at no cost.”
Servigroup is confident that it will be able to open its doors soon and, as always, “the safety of our guests and employees will continue to be paramount”. For this reason,
“We will continue taking the maximum possible precautions, implementing the World Health Organization’s recommendations and continuing the intensified cleaning practices in rooms and communal areas, as well as adhering to all the hygiene measures.”
But the President of Servigroup Hotels expounds further on what the future should look like for a sector which, for Caballé, also has to draw constructive conclusions from this crisis, and paraphrases Einstein.
“I’m not saying this; it was Albert Einstein. We can’t expect things to change if we keep doing the same thing over and over again. The crisis may bring positive things, as creativity is born from anxiety, that very anxiety that is gripping us all at the moment.”
“The tragedy of all this would be not wanting to fight to overcome it. Let the health authorities beat the virus and then we will work hard to reinvent ourselves. The real economic crisis would be incompetence.”
Servigroup was founded in Benidorm in 1970 by José María Caballé. The hotel group, specialising in sun and beach tourism, is currently focussed on the marketing and management of 18 hotels located in the best locations on the Mediterranean coast: La Vila Joiosa, Orihuela Costa, Mojácar, La Manga del Mar Menor, Alcocéber, Benicasim, Oropesa del Mar, Peñíscola and Benidorm, the location for the administrative, bookings and purchasing headquarters. In total, it offers over 10,000 hotel beds and direct employment to more than two thousand people in peak season. Internationally, it has a four-star hotel in the city of Manizales, Colombia.
The endless white sandy beaches of the Costa de Azahar often overshadow the many other charms that this incredible area of the Mediterranean coast awaits travellers. This is the case of the Coves de Sant Josep, some very interesting underground caves that hide the longest underground navigable river in Europe and whose walls house cave paintings. Are you going to miss it?
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