
But at least it’s good for all you travellers out there… If you visit Lisbon now and the next months – or until things get back to normal – you get this lovely city for yourself.
There are NO people lining up for the popular tram #28, no lines in front of the Jeronimous Monastery, the St. Justa Elevator and all the other tourist attractions where you could easily wait for an hour to access five months ago – now the are almost empty. And you won’t have problems getting a table at one of our many popular restaurants – even the Michelin ones where you had to make reservations weeks ahead before Covid.
The best thing for you is that because of the collapse of hospitality industry all hotels are running promotions where you get rooms for almost half the normal price.
We are privileged – we own the house (together with our partners) and don’t have a mortgage to worry about. And because we predicted this situation from the first Covid days and dismissed all our staff and don’t get any salary ourselves, we have reduced our fixed costs to an absolute minimum which means that we don’t have the financial pressure most other hotels have.
And since Tings has a size we can handle and since we can do almost everything ourselves we have managed to stay open during the all the Covid months with the same services. Just more homey and personal (aka crazy). Sometimes we feel like being characters in Fawlty Towers.
So for as long as we have the energy we follow our colleagues and offer attractive promotions to travelers who want to stay with us.
We are desperate to bring the lively atmosphere back – the silence is driving us crazy.
Reading Portugal News the other days was a little scary. With 82% fewer guests’ and 85% fewer stays compared to last year June was alarmingly bad. A little better than previous Month – June is just a much bigger month.
We were down 99 % because our primary target group are international non-Portuguese travelers – the business from domestic travelers was only down with 50%.
What’s more scary (or interesting): Almost half of all hotels have closed – but that will most likely increase.
56 % of the remaining wont rebate their price compared to last year. But that was in June – this has changed already… prices are going down faster than fast.
The situation is most likely the same all over Europe. Lisbon is just so much nicer compared to most other destinations. Especially if you want to combine all the things a classic historical and beautiful city like Lisbon offers with chilling and leisure at the best beaches in the world.
So take advantage of the situation and misuse our offers.
Love & Compassion
Annette & Thomas Fawlty