Durban - Tourist Krish Pillay loves Durban – and its hospitality – so much that he knew exactly how to thank 200 staff at the beachfront hotel where he was staying.
The grateful visitor, who spent 10 days over the festive season at the Tsogo Sun Garden Court South Beach with his wife, Jenne, and daughters, Adrienna, 38, and Amy, 30, presented staff with purses, wallets, watches and jewellery. He forked out a whopping R5 000 for the gifts – and part of his budget was set aside for food for some of the city’s street children.
“I have done this every year for five years as the staff really look after us. If you receive good service, you have to give something back,” said Pillay, who has returned home to Johannesburg.
Pillay and his family did all the usual activities while in the city: visiting uShaka Marine World, the beach and going to see family. “We moved around and had fun,” he recalled.
Meanwhile, the hotel’s general manager, Amar Hurjan, has been totting up the figures for the busy December trade.
With an “extremely high” occupancy rate of 92 percent as opposed to 75 percent at other times, he welcomed 31 684 guests, a 10 percent increase on the previous December.
Everything the guests ate or used was also up on the previous figures.
They got through 29 023 breakfasts, although Hurjan said that not everyone ate breakfast, preferring to sleep in and have an early lunch. About 43 704 eggs, 1 683kg of bacon and 4.31km of sausages were consumed.
Thousands of units of shampoo were used, “enough to wash 53 100 heads”.
Hurjan also had fun totting up all the toilet paper used. His guests got through 287km of toilet paper, enough to cover the distance from eManzimtoti to Hluhluwe. - Daily News