In the interests of fairness I have published a response received from Hahandorf Resort.
“Following our phone conversation yesterday we would appreciate it if you were to consider removing the harsh comments in regards to the Hahndorf Resort.
We understand your disappointment in the conference, but we would appreciate at the least if you could remove certain phrases which you have pointed out in our conversation. Yes, your comments want to reflect the truth of the situation, and we do respect the right of everybody to express their view, but in this instance I believe that some of the comments can be misconstrued to the detriment of the Resort, and that is not a true and fair criticism as seen by yourself.
I would first of all like to point out that we work very hard and with passion in everything that we do at the Resort and it is very disappointing that it did not seem this way to you.
In regards to your heading, we would like to see the removal of “(and probably soon to be out of business)”-this might indicate to some people reading your Blog that the Resort is under financial pressures and that will influence future bookings that will affect employees and the local economy, and this statement is not true or correct.
As much as you are very disappointed, we have a number of companies that have enjoyed their conferencing and the way we conduct our business.
In reference to your comments in regards to “use by date” the packaging was Best By Date-there is a big difference and it seems in your quotations that ALL the cereal was out of date which is once again not true and correct. It was only one brand of cereals out of 7 and in someone reading your comments would think that ALL the cereals were out of date! And even though we realise now and it’s not a policy of the Resort to even offer anything best by date on that date and we have taken measures to ensure this does not happen again, it was only one day out of best by date. In reference to the yoghurts, again it was best by date by 1-2 days.
In reference to the Butters, I did not see the date and the instruction was to just throw it all out and take a new box off the shelf.
In reference to your comment “the game is up” I think that is very unfair as I can assure you it is not a game to us and that all of a sudden food that was in date did not just “come out”. It can be misconstrued by the way it has been written, that we use all our out of stock products first before putting out our in date stock.
In regards to our Gourmet biscuits, I think that is an unfair comment also, as it only seems that what we classify as our Gourmet biscuits and in your comments it seems that the only products we put out there are Monte Carlos. The Gourmet biscuits that were used in afternoon tea were Kez’s Kitche and yes because they are very rich, following past feedback from other conference groups as mentioned to you before, that some guests do prefer the Monte Carlo and Kingstons that we do offer. We do not reduce the number of Gourmet biscuits that are provided for each guest, we just actually add extra of the other two types to ensure we cater for all.
In reference to your pizza comments, we believe it is a harsh criticism as we know the produce we use and the marinating is way above the quality of Pizza Hut, especially in our chicken pizza, but we all have different taste buds and if that is your assessment of our pizzas then we accept that. A few days later we catered for British Aerospace executives ( who had the pizzas) and a group of 20 medical doctors( who had a dinner) and it is their second time at the Resort in 12 months and our catering, preparation and our service was exactly the same and they were more than pleased with the quality and the taste of our Pizzas.
In reference to me blaming the staff and suppliers, yes I had just been honest with you and even though the buck stops with me at the end, I just expressed my disappointment in the supplier so you can understand that it is not the Resorts policy or the way it does business and it was the supplier that let us down and our lack of vigilance that let us down too. And it also did not help that our experienced girl whose job it was to set up that morning was involved in a car accident, which left us in an awkward situation in trying to get everything ready on time. You must also appreciate that it was not just a minor accident and all the rest of the staff were very concerned about Jenna including myself as it only happened approximately 15 minutes before your breakfast started.
Michael your comments are justified in some areas in which you were disappointed and in that regard the Resort has lost a client, but I don’t believe that its fair that your comments can be read and for any person that was not at the function, and that the information will be misconstrued. You know how tough it is out there and we realise that the mistake that was made has cost the Resort dearly, as well as the casual employees that depend on the Resort for their livelihood. We would hope that as a professional businessman that you will take our request of the above matters seriously and make the alterations to your Blog as soon as possible.
Just to inform you the Resort has given the organisers a full credit for the breakfast and have sent them a new invoice.”
