tourism coming decades. One idea to illustrate this change was to drop the word ‘Palace’ from the name and become simply The Caleta Hotel. In 2003 he was elected to the board of G&JB Hotels Ltd, the company which owns the hotel. The grading system on the Rock is the same as the UK, using the AA grading system. Not all local hotels participate in this scheme although all the four star hotels do. In addition to the grading there is also a merit score. The Caleta Hotel has an 80% merit score which is the highest on the Rock. If London is used as a benchmark, of 200 hotels rated four star only 15% receive an 80% merit score. Every year since 2009 the Caleta Hotel has been awarded the accolade of being Gibraltar’s leading hotel; an award made by the industry, not the public. The 125-room Caleta Hotel is also the largest on the Rock, and includes 11 self-catering apartments on the top floor. Banqueting facilities are also the largest in Gibraltar and can cater for up to 400. There is a fully contained conference centre which is equipped with state-of-the-art audio visual equipment and seats from 10 to 200. Guests in pursuit of maintaining fitness will enjoy the dedicated health and beauty club. In fact, £7 million has been invested in the hotel over the past 12 years and it is well regarded within the industry, however Franco does not intend to rest on his laurels as “the hotel has to either go forward or go backwards — it cannot remain as it is.” Up until recently Gibraltar had no need of a five star hotel but it became obvious two years
ago that a need now existed, although the market is small and limited as the clients would come mainly from the finance and corporate business sector. Franco explains that it is not easy or practical to change an existing hotel from a four star to a five star hotel and it was never the intention to make such a move. To achieve a five stars rating a hotel has to have a complete refurbishment, with high quality fixtures and fittings, a minimum size for all bedrooms, en suite bathrooms of high quality — in effect, a total transformation. There is also a huge difference in the standard of service provided, with staff needing to learn new skills and a higher ratio of staff to guests. The Board therefore made the decision to keep the four star hotel as it is, but build a bijou five star hotel on the North side overlooking Catalan Bay. This will have 41 suites, a 70 car indoor car park and an infinity heated swimming pool, at a cost of some £15 million, including
On the South side, there are plans to build luxury residential apartments, 15 of which will be retained by the Caleta Hotel as serviced apartments and the others sold
complete refurbishment of the existing Caleta Hotel exterior, which will be self-financed and is expected to open in early 2017. In addition, on the South side, there are plans to build luxury residential apartments, 15 of which will be retained by the Caleta Hotel as serviced apartments and the others sold. These two exciting new projects will be kept within the footprint of the existing Caleta Hotel site. Tourism in Gibraltar For decades, in Franco’s opinion, the industry has been denied proper recognition as an important pillar of Gibraltar’s economy. He believes the governments of the past 20 years have not invested sufficiently in the product, resulting in a lack of vision which has created a situation whereby the last decade has seen a dramatic rise in the corporate market share and a decrease in the leisure market. The latter remaining the natural market for Gibraltar. Today 70% of hotel occupancy is corporate and 30% leisure. This also means the corporate market is becoming more sophisticated while the leisure trade is has become more down market. Today all the hotels are looking after these completely different customers under the same roof and with the same staff. As the Caleta Hotel enjoys more space and facilities it was able to manage these two different markets and could segregate the customers. But recent difficulties led to the board’s decision to alter the hotel’s profile and reposition it as a multiple accommodation centre offering the existing
The new look Caleta Hotel
GIBRALTAR MAGAZINE • JANUARY 2014
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