During the 2010 FIFA World Cup from the 11th June until the 11th July I set out to research the impacts that FIFA had on the tourism in South Africa. As I went about this I discovered that there were many implications with the accommodation service agent, MATCH. Throughout this research I sat down with various Durban hotel managers and staff to investigate why MATCH was such a sensitive topic to speak about in the tourism and hospitality industry.
These insights I gained were from my primary research with hotels in Durban and how they were being affected.
MATCH had promised these hotels that they would be full during the World Cup yet so many of these hotels were released from the MATCH contract. Some of these hotels were released with warning and had time to fill their occupancy yet other hotels were told about their release only five days before the World Cup was to start. This gave the hotels very little time to market and advertise their hotel to fill up their occupancy. The mangers commented that the cancellation penalties for MATCH were not high enough allowing them to cancel when ever they wanted to. The hotel managers said that they could have filled their hotels without MATCH being involved.
The hotels had long waiting list of guests who would have been able to book in once the hotels were released by MATCH but because the hotels were notified so late the people on the waiting list had already found alternative accommodation. This made it even more difficult for the hotels to fill up their now empty rooms.
The managers commented on the rates of the accommodation saying that they were exorbitant as MATCH was asking for 30% commission which the hotels did not benefit from at all. With this being said the rates were charged per unit instead of per person for example if two people stayed in a twin room (room with two beds) they were charged per room instead of per person, this rate was lower than the hotel rate of charging per person, which meant the hotels were making a loss and weren't benefitting from the increased rates.
Another issue that the hotels experienced was the reservation system. MATCH used a voucher system to book guests in. The hotels found this system extremely confusing as they were not informed on how to use them which impacted negatively on their image. As the vouchers did not have the name of the guest booking in, the hotel staff did not know when receiving five vouchers for example, whether it was for five people staying one night each or if the five vouchers were for one person staying five nights.
One has to ask, surely a big organising agency like MATCH would be more organised? Why did FIFA choose a foreign agency to organise the accommodation services? Why were the hotels not allowed to resell their rooms if there were no-shows (people who didn't arrive without warning)? And why could the hotels not have used their own reservation systems to book guests in?
