[imagesource: Vineyard Hotel / Facebook]

In normal times, Cape hotels would be gearing up for another bumper summer, with an influx of foreign visitors ready and eager to splash their powerful cash.

This being 2020, those plans have been well and truly shredded, and many of the city’s hotels are going to great lengths to try and entice would-be visitors to book a stay.

In that respect, the Vineyard Hotel in Newlands is no different, although a story in yesterday’s Sunday Times is far from good PR.

A self-storage company, OnShelf Investment Five, has “lodged an application for the provisional winding up of the hotel at the high court in Cape Town”, reports the paper, on the basis that the hotel has allegedly failed to settle a pretty hefty debt:

[Alan Lyons, director of OnShelf Investment Five] said the hotel had failed to pay R159,678 for the rental of storage units leased from his company in 2018. The lease agreements ended in September this year.

He said he had demanded payment through his lawyer, but the hotel’s financial director had disputed the amount and “requested all invoices in order to be able to settle the dispute”…

“A liquidator will be in a position to determine whether it is viable to continue with the business of [the hotel] or whether the business should be finally wound up,” Lyons said in an affidavit.

Lyons alleges that in August, the Vineyard Hotel did pay his company R96 879, but that still leaves a balance owed just a touch under R160 000.

In response, George Petousis, owner and CEO of Petousis Family Holdings, which incorporates The Vineyard, said the hotel was ready to defend itself in court against the “spurious and unfounded” accusations.

The matter is due to be heard in the Cape High Court on December 4.

Following on from the Sunday Times story, the Financial Mail’s Rob Rose weighed in, having spoken with the Vineyard’s finance director, Hilary Seymour.

Seymour says it’s not so much that the hotel cannot pay, but rather that a commercial dispute is behind the withholding of any payments:

“That company was the landlord of the place we rented to store our excess furniture. We believe they charged us twice, and they dispute this. It’s nothing more, nothing less,” he says…

“It should never have got to this. I don’t understand why they took this route — maybe to put pressure on us,” he says.

Seymour did go on to admit that, like pretty much every business related to the tourism industry, the hotel has suffered under the strain of the lockdown.

As the list of which countries can and cannot visit for a holiday continues to change, Seymour says it’s a waiting game:

“We’re waiting with bated breath to see what the government decides,” says Seymour.

“But if someone gets a Covid-19 test before arriving, and the protocols are quite strict, why not let that happen? Already we’re not expecting tourism to recover to what it was for the next two or three years. So why be so inflexible and make it worse for everyone?”

It will be interesting to see what happens on December 4, if and when this one hits the Cape High Court.

[sources:sundaytimes&finmail]