Minimum Standards. Minimum Standards for Guest Tents and Bathrooms. All tents should be clearly numbered or have names with attractive signs.

Transcription

1 1 Module # 5 - Component # 2 Minimum Standards Minimum Standards for Guest Tents and Bathrooms All tents should be clearly numbered or have names with attractive signs. At least two camp style chairs must be provided outside each tent. Beds must be ¾ sized with bases, except the honeymoon suites, which must have a queen size bed, of the same make. All beds must be fitted with headboards. Under blankets or mattress covers, fitted sheets and night frills must also be used on all beds. Two pillows must be provided per bed, and two spare blankets must be available in each tent. Two hot water bottles should be available for each tent. Remember to advise guests of these, they may think wild animals of sorts have burrowed into the covers. Each tent must have a large walk-off mat outside, and at least two floor mats inside the tent. One must also be provided in the bathroom. All tents must have sufficient wardrobe space for hanging clothes. Wardrobes, which are open, should use only wooden coat hangers, a minimum of six hangers for each tent. A drying rack must be provided for the hanging of smalls laundry. A luggage rack must be available in each tent for guests baggage. If there is space, a second luggage rack should be considered. Each tent must have an umbrella.

2 2 Each tent should have a straw/grass or ecologically friendly laundry basket with lid, and an open grass waste basket. Grass and straw baskets should be varnished with a clear varnish to prolong their life span. All tents must have at least two electric/solar bedside lamps, not paraffin lamps. Each bathroom should also have a toilet brush and holder, preferably wooden, not plastic. All toilet cisterns must be ceramic and all new toilet cisterns inside parts must be copper. Keep a spare toilet cistern lid in camp at all times. Bathrooms with screens must have at least two lights one above the mirror and to light up the toilet / shower. Put pens in the tents for the guests to fill in laundry lists / evaluation sheets. Tents must have bedside tables, on which the following should be available: Your lodge company Brochures Magazines, 1 Local, and one other travel magazine. At least one animal and one bird book. Two Complimentary Postcards Ashtray Terracotta water carafe on a saucer with two glasses. Bird and Animal check list. Laundry list with pen Only WHITE two ply toilet paper may be used and the ends must be folded and neatly secured each time the tent is serviced. There must always be one bin in the tent and one in the bathroom.

3 3 All tents must have a GUEST INFORMATION book, that should be displayed on the bed which must have the following information: A welcome page no manager s names mentioned. (Managers could be on leave or resigned). A camp description and location. Camp procedures and activities. A warning page of all safety aspects. A summary of the camp s drinks policy and pricing. An emergency procedure page. Emergency map of where managers tent is situated and where to meet in case of a fire or emergency. Disclaimer of liability. A solar page (if applicable) and reasoning. Tsetse page (where necessary). A malaria page. A page on Electrical and water supply, plus sewerage system explaining the septic tank operation. The camps tipping policy. Camp s towel policy. Smoking policy. The safe keeping of valuables. Disclaimer for luggage/items left behind by guests. A page on the use of mokoros at guests own risk, the reason for using fibreglass mokoros. A page on checkout times. Some tents may need to have curtains for the windows to ensure more privacy; this will also add colour and a personal touch to the tents. All mirrors must have frames, such as latte wood or thick sisal rope. Only wooden toilet seats should be used. These must be tightened daily. All showers must have a duckboard, preferably wooden, a soap dish and foot-rest. Towel policy notices must be displayed on the wash hand basin or on the vanity table. All basin plugs must have chains. A notice about the septic tank should be placed on the toilet cistern. Sanitary bags must also be available in each bathroom, displayed and stored properly. Each bathroom must have a grass, straw or ecologically friendly basket, with lid. If there is a single guest in a tent, only turn down one bed, not both.

4 4 All tents must have the following items inside them, either in the wardrobes or on a side table: Two Bathrobes (with logo) Two Bath Towels (with logo) Two Hand Towels Two Face Cloths Three Soaps One in the Shower and Two at the Hand Basin Small lockable Safe Duck-board or shower mat Two Guest Shampoo (with logo) Two Guest Body Lotion (with logo) Two Shower Caps (with logo) One Washing Powder in a holder A nail brush in the bathroom. A few books (covered in plastic) on animals and birds Laundry list and pen Ashtray (not glass, use wooden or ceramic alternatives) Mosquito stand and spare coils Matches Two spare toilet rolls One Tin of insect killer One tin of spray-on mosquito repellent Tissues in a decorative box Ceramic water jug in a saucer with cups or glasses Air-horn (for emergencies) Whistle Items can be left in the bathrooms, provided you do not have monkey problems. Please try to be creative when displaying the above items, using seeds, grasses, bark, driftwood etc. Camp managers must do a complete check once a month, on all aspects of the tents and bathrooms and action pertinent points.

5 5 Tent Maintenance All tents must be maintained to a high standard, and the following points must be checked and carried out on a regular basis: All tents must be hung correctly and chains must be used to suspend the canvas body from the frames. There must be sufficient space between the body of the tent and the flysheet so that it minimizes the transfer of heat. The minimum gap must be at least 45 cm (18 inches). All tents in the sun should have additional shade cloth topping, over the flysheet. Ensure all white manufacturers labels have been removed from tents. Straighten your tent floors monthly. Inside and outside, window and door, tent flaps must be neatly folded and tied in the correct manner. Canvas tie straps must also be rolled and tidy, they are not allowed to hang loose. Broken zips must be sent to your head office for repair. All leaves and branches must be cleaned from the tents regularly. Open the top vents in the tents in summer and neatly align Velcro fasteners. To maintain zips, rub with candle wax or Vaseline. Check all zips daily. Any stitching done on the zips must be neat and tidy and with green or brown thread. Building of new lodges try use wooden doors in tents and not zips, as they can give endless trouble. Tent Inspection Tent inspections must to be done on a weekly basis, preferably between guest occupations. Using the Minimum Standards and Maintenance headings above, draw up a comprehensive Tent Inspection Checklist. These records must be filed at camp and be available for perusal always.

6 6 Food and Presentation Your guests deserve the best service; please make sure they are given the highest standard of service possible. During dinner walk among the guests, offer them drinks and check that all is well with their meal. Ensure you have water filters to purify your drinking water and ice machines. Bar snacks should be given to guests before dinner; hot snacks must be served straightaway and not made in advance. There must be snacks available (on all activities), such as rusks, homemade biscuits on the morning drive and cooked snacks for afternoon drives. Lodges where game is scarce may elect to use a small gas cooker to heat up snacks. (This helps keeping guests mind off trying to find game that may not be abundant). Ensure that you have green enamel mugs or something similar for game drives. A member of management must be present at every mealtime. All camps should have adequate equipment to carry out bush braais and picnics around every three days tables, glasses, plates etc. Picnics should include a wide range of food, such as a selection of salads (green, pasta, potato), quiches, fruit, cold meats, cold chicken, bread rolls, cheeses etc. The dining-room table and serving area must be wooden and decorated with natural items from the surrounding area or with any other imaginative display. You can use grasses, wine bottles, vegetables, fruit, driftwood, curios, leaves or baskets displayed at various levels. The dining room table must not be too wide. Serving tables must be decorated differently at each mealtime. Lunches for guests arriving between meals must be of a high standard, there must be at least one hot dish, a selection of various salads, bread, cheeseboard etc.

7 7 Ice is a priority in camps, therefore if you cannot make enough, please order supplies well in advance. Camps must not ever be without ice. Try to announce the main meal before the starter, so that dinner does not get cold. Seat guests before serving hot soups or starters. All camps should have chafing dishes. Serve pork on the same day in each camp and always with one other meat choice. Toast bread and fry eggs for breakfast or brunch in front of the guests in the dining room. Regarding meal times, specifically dinners, many lodges maintain very strict starting times. This is to ensure that food can be served at the correct time, i.e. when it is as freshly prepared as possible, and not overdone or dried-out. This is obviously of importance and a point of pride with kitchen staff. To make certain that guests are ready for dinner, field guides are frequently instructed to get back to camp in a timely manner, irrespective of the game viewing opportunity. Many a guest has literally been pulled away from a special game sighting so as not to annoy the head chef and his staff. In one memorable example, this author witnessed a convoy of three vehicles packed with high-paying overseas guests stop following a leopard in the process of stalking a grey Rhebok to ensure their entrees were served warm. The chef s speciality may have well been memorable too but for many guests a safari in Africa is a trip of a lifetime never to be repeated. Can a meal being served to you really be compared with a leopard getting its meal? This type of policy must be decided for each individual lodge. However, remember that even though you may be justifiably proud of your lodge s culinary skills, your guests can always get a fine dining experience in whatever city they might come from, but a good game sighting is uniquely African.

8 8 Meals that are Expected In a similar fashion to cruise ships, lodge guests have become accustomed to a wide variety of daily meals, these include: Early Breakfast Breakfast/Brunch Lunch Tea Game Drive Snacks Bar Snacks Dinner The more African each meal is in style and content, the better; as long as there are always alternatives for the more timid diner. A lighter style all around, not every dish with a heavy sauce (especially white or cheese sauce) plenty of big leafy salads that are not overdosing on small cubes of cheese, sliced things out of bottles or heavy dressings. Sauces and dressings are fantastic and necessary but should be served in a bowl/jug alongside the salad, vegetable or meat dishes. Pay special attention to the ambient temperature, when the thermometer hits 42 o C it could be a good day to prepare all cold dishes apart from eggs, bacon, and sausage. Use your common sense at night with choice meat, the starch and vegetarian dish could be one and the same, such as Mushroom Risotto or a Lentil Curry. If you only have 4 guests in camp, you should not scare them by putting out enough food for 20. If a guest specifically asks for something and you have it in camp, of course you can give it to them if you are offering an alternative to the other guests.

9 9 Minimum Standards for the Kitchen The kitchen must have all the equipment that a good restaurant kitchen has: Proper stoves with good ovens, adequate freezing and cold storage, a decent drying rack, steel preparation tables, deep sinks, wash up sinks, preparation sinks and strong industry utensils. You need 2.5 square meters of stainless steel work surface for preparation. All table surfaces need to be stainless steel. 2 x Double wash up sinks and one single preparation sink. 1 x Wash hand basin and soap dispenser at the entrance. Certain lodges insist that soap used must be bacteria killing soap. However, this may be to the serious detriment of your lodges septic tank system that needs a large healthy population of bacteria. The type of soap used is an individual decision based on your lodge infrastructure. Industrial size roll-paper for drying hands. Day fridge, dairy fridge, 2 x 430 Lt minus 40 o C freezers for meats and other frozen stuff, ice machine, 1 x upright minus 40 o C x 250 Lt. 1 x Industrial dish drying rack. 1 x Industrial can opener. 1 x industrial mixer-mincer-grinder-liquidiser. Fire Blanket. Container cool room/freezer in big camps where needed. Burn Shield.

10 10 6-Plate Garland stove or similar with 2 ovens. Pots and pans of durable material they must also serve as serving dishes. Fire Extinguisher outside the kitchen. Kitchen, stove, floors, shelves, fridges, work counters and freezers must be cleaned properly with the proper soap / chemicals daily. Make sure you do not have two gas operating appliances working close to each other, as it can be a fire hazard. Floors must be impervious if permitted by regulations. Scullery must use HOT water to wash all pots, cutlery and crockery. Always keep a spare burner for your different gas fridges. Catering storage areas must be rodent proof. You need a dry goods store with shelves that are impervious.