Media Release: 2 June 2010
“Santé Winelands Hotel and Wellness Centre is back and open for business” said Carlos Vilela, CEO of Santé, in his welcome, during the Industry launch last night (1 June 2010).
Santé is located on a 160-hectare working wine estate and is dedicated entirely to a health and wellness lifestyle. The well known Spa pioneered Vino-therapy in South Africa and bears to its name many accolades in this regard, most notably ‘Top three Spas of the world – Condé Nast 2006. It still remains ahead of the game, in international treatments and innovative therapies that now includes “Santeens”, a wellness range and treatments aimed at the youth market, between
12 and 16 years old.
In the very near future, the Wellness Centre will be focusing on sport-injury-recoveries with a fulltime physician on site, as well as surgical recoveries.
In attendance was the Western Cape Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Alan Winde.” I am very excited to have one of the icons of the Western Cape back and that Santé will be a valuable tool in the our arsenal to achieve a 15 % growth to GDP, from the Tourism Industry, by 2015”
Santé Spa Director, Anja Liebenberg comes with vast experience and knowledge in her field of expertise. She has held the same position for Spas in Turkey, Germany and 5 star resorts in South Africa. The spa has a laconium, heated indoor pool, sauna, gym, experiential showers and a steam room that can be used by all guests at Santé Hotel.
Executive Chef, Niel Rogers, studied under Italian Michelin Star Chef and has worked in some of the most outstanding restaurants in the world. Rodgers will delight patrons in the two restaurants at Santé, called Cadeaux (which is French for ‘gift’) at the Wellness Centre; focusing on healthy living and the hotel’s fine dining restaurant, Sommelier, presents a gourmet menu following international trends and drawing on local delicacies. All dishes are prepared using only the freshest ingredients, sourced locally as well as from Santé’s own organic fruit, vegetable and herb gardens.
Hotel rooms are stylish and luxurious, with marble finishes and deluxe bathrooms. Every detail pertains to the guest’s sense of relaxation and wellbeing with toiletries and cosmetics reflecting the symbiotic relationship with nature. There are 10 Manor rooms at the hotel itself and 39 Spa Suites with fire places, patios and small kitchens.
Conference facilities in the Banqueting hall can accommodate up 165 persons cinema style with breakaway rooms and organisers office.
For weddings, Santé has one of the largest Bedouin style marquee tents in the southern hemisphere, covering more than 2,000 square metres in the Piazza and hosting over a 1,000 guests.
“We are not here to re-invent the wheel, but to bring Santé back to life and provide our guests with the ultimate in service excellence and bestow upon them the luxury Spa experience that one would expects from an establishment such as ours” said CEO Carlos Vilela in conclusion.
End
For further information visit : www.santesa.co.za
Media Enquiries and images:
Jacques Maritz, Media Liaison
Santé Winelands Hotel and Wellness Centre
+27 (0)8 44 44 0775
jmps [at] worldonline.co.za
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4 users commented in " Santé: A South African Icon Returns "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI have just experienced two days of hell at Sante (left one day early), and must strongly warn any potential guests AGAINST going to stay there. The list of complaints is extensive, and it is clear that they should have waited another three months to train their staff properly, and to fix their facilities after the long “beauty sleep”: the reservation procedure was a joke, the server did not work most of the week, wrong rate quoted, no drinks in mini-bar, sound on a TV channel did not work, froze at night as there were no blankets in the rooms and only a thin artificial duvet inner, expensive dinners, no hot water in ladies showers in Spa, noisy guests and babies in Spa pool, no breakfast buffet on first day, staff smoke and reek of it, cold and unsympathetic GM who “knows it all” and who does the “my staff are perfect routine”, most Spa facilities not working (e.g. Experience showers - cold water only, laconium), Cadeaux restaurant has not opened (despite menu for it on website), and last but not least 20 staff were fired last week, according to the GM, including the chef Neil Rogers, still mentioned on the website. The gravel road to the hotel is as bad as ever.
I liked the facial and friendliness of therapist Charlene, the fact that I could get an electric blanket on the second night when I suggested it to the friendly Housekeeping Manager Anja, and the LavAzza coffee machine in the room, although I did not use it.
We endevour to take all our guests comments seriously and act on them accordingly. Our reputation is of the upmost importance to us and we pride ourselves that our service and staff always have the best interest of the guest at heart. All of Ms von Ulmensteins complaints were addressed at the time, to the extent that our restaurant set up a buffet for one as that was what she requested. To comment on every point she made, as unfounded and unreasonable as most of them were would be undignified and a boring read for anyone on this site. What concerns me most is the assumption made regarding our staff. Our staff have not been fired, their 3 month contracts have come to an end as they were employed specifically to facilitate the opening of the hotel. I do believe that Ms von Ulmenstein should spend a bit more time at her own property, looking after her own guests instead of undertaking a vigilante crusade of other hotels. I refer to http://www.dirtywhale.com.
I must agree with Sharon Viela in relation to her comments about C Von Ulmenstein. This woman sets herself up as the expert in what is right and wrong in tourism and hospitality in Cape Town. The reality is that she runs a few second rate guest houses that have attracted such a bad reputation, as she has herself, that I believe she is damaging the image of the Western Cape as a tourist destination.
Just look at her Whalecottages on Tripadvisor.com and you will see what I mean. She has to be one of the meanest, bitterest, nastiest individuals in tourism in Cape Town. No one has a good word to say about her, and she is universally despised and hated. She is barred from practically every restaurant in Franschhoek, where local restaurateurs have even set up The Harpoon Club.
Don’t take her comments personally, as they are really a reflection on herself, and how she actually feels about her own life.
The Harpoon Club?
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