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Post by Lesley on Aug 21, 2016 11:48:52 GMT 2
Hi I too am a former member of the forum I came off due to many posts being negative please everyone can't we all just enjoy what's so great about Corfu and in particular Roda which I love I'm back again in September we all have to understand that different cultures enjoy different things I wholeheartedly agree with your comments Bev
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pete sant
Roda Anorak
Roda Riddler 2008
UNITED - NOT ARROGANT - JUST BETTER
Posts: 6,977
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Post by pete sant on Aug 21, 2016 15:39:17 GMT 2
I have to totally disagree with Bev's comment about " most Brits go self catering to cook in their apartments" - utter rubbish, most Brits go self catering to allow them to eat out all day to sample many of the wonderful restaurants. Many, many of them budget £100 per day for food & drink to do just this. It's all very well saying that businesses have to change to attract the "new" eastern European visitors but how do they do this when, as Steve has already stated, they have no disposable money? I question also the "hours long evening stroll till everyone is hungry" - where are they going to eat at 11 at night - some might be going to O'Arabas or the Italian but not very many of them. Without the British in Roda it will become a ghost town - go to Acharavi for a night if you want to see what it's like, dead after 9p.m. Yes, Booking.com has opened up a new source of visitors, but many of the apartment owners are using it through need rather than want, just ask Pipitsa what she thinks about some of her Eastern guests! Have a word also with Gayle from Melinda - ask her about the gang of visitors who stole her son's bmx bike this week, luckily they were later caught but the bike was not returned. As I said previously the list goes on and on. I'll probably get slated for my views but this is what I see on a daily basis, no one has addressed the majority of comments I made in my original post on this thread - awaiting your thoughts. pete.
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Post by kathwebber on Aug 21, 2016 16:56:18 GMT 2
"we only want British customers" was mentioned in a previous post. Funnily enough this is precisely what two Roda business owners said to us in June (neither of which were the owner of a bar or a restaurant) - reason being that the British actually spend money in Roda whereas other nationalities appear not to. We have been self-catering in Roda for almost 20 years and the most catering I've done is boiling the kettle for a tea or coffee. As Pete alludes to above, we budget 200 euro per day (for 4 of us) for brunch and dinner + drinks etc. We too have been to Spain, Portugal, Canary Islands and France for holidays and France is the exception in not having so-called "British" bars - at least none that we have seen. We don't want to eat at 11pm - 9pm is late enough for us - but each to their own. Self-catering for us means a coffee in the apartment and everything else bought in Roda.
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Post by Bev on Aug 21, 2016 21:10:41 GMT 2
We go self catering purely for the fact I can make a cup of tea when I want. I love sitting on the balcony in the early morning at the Kosmas with a pot of tea. The most I cook is toast but I do smell cooking from other Apts at night. Talking of Eastern Europeans not having disposable income what about the Brits who stay in the AI resorts either side of Roda? Local business owners have been complaining about them since we have been going to Roda. I believe there was a local Festival last week. Around 1000 approximately attended of which only 6 were Brits. Festival food and drink are not free and I can't believe they were all Greeks there. I have eaten at O Arabas, in my opinion the best and most authentic Greek food in Roda. The owner told us he has plenty of Russians and French eating there. I am sorry Pipitsa has had to resort to Booking. Com if she doesn't like the clientele coming. Maybe there are some websites that say Brits only. Crime happens everywhere and unfortunately the poorer countries who are just making it possible to have a wonderful cheap holiday in our favourite spot have to learn to behave. Wasn't Roda founded by cheap package holidays from Great Britain and as Steve said, they had to install fridges for people to have food in their room because they couldn't afford to eat out all the time.
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Post by MalcClayt on Aug 22, 2016 10:55:10 GMT 2
Well, this opened my eyes this morning, some very good opinions on what is right and wrong in Roda. Personally, and this is my humble opinion, having just returned from my yearly escape to what most of us call our second home.
Can't see too much wrong with the place, different venues cater for different tastes whether you are from Naples or Northampton. This didn't spoil mine or my families holiday as we have our usual haunts to eat and drink through our two week break. What we did do this year is try places we hadn't been for a long time or ones that were new or newish. We like to eat late and found on several occasions places such as Roda Park and Nikos FT were full at 9 to 9,30, so sort out other places at our leisure... not an issue. One place we did visit to meet Greek friends was Nemo's, I couldn't spot a tourist, apart from us, and what a warm welcome and it seemed they were doing great business, perhaps they know their public? Oh, and it can't be the prices in Roda, that are an issue. We drove down to Benitses while over and the prices were twice as much for food and drink!
Unfortunately, its a fact of life that times and peoples preferences change along with the holidaymakers the resort attracts and I don't think its down to nationalities, only how much money they have to spend.
So, change for change sake? Perhaps it needs a little shake up? What are the options?, What are the trends? This is the business these people are in, and I'm sure there will be some changes and there will be a few places go by the way side, it happens everywhere. One things for sure, I will be there with my family again next year, god willing, and hopefully we will see you all there too!
P.S. Brexit? means nothing at the moment, will it mean anything in the future, unless you have a crystal ball, then you're better informed than me.
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Post by HigginsFam on Aug 22, 2016 14:13:07 GMT 2
Ladies and Gents,
It may be worth considering toning down the negativity on this and similar threads. I have stumbled upon this forum as I am a Brit visiting for the first time next week and given the underlying theme of the posts, I am beginning to have doubts on my choice.
If you are concerned about the changes going on in Roda, airing them on the world wide web in such a negative way IS doing your cause no good whatsoever.
Maybe engage brain before posting........
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Post by Bev on Aug 22, 2016 16:49:18 GMT 2
Higginsfam Roda is a lovely relaxing holiday. You make it what you want. Whether laying on the beach all day, going on a trip, hiring a car or enjoying the local bus ride to Corfu Town, Sidari and Kassiopi. A lovely walk to Acharavi along the beach, you might not make Acharavi as there are plenty of taverns on the beach before you reach the town. A little harder walk is to Astrakeri and the Three Brothers Taverna or it is a short taxi ride. There is plenty of choices to eat in Roda but I recommend at times going outside the triangle for some more choices of fabulous food choices. Sorry we have seemed to put you off but please make your opinion. I am already planning my next break there.
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Post by Another Bev on Aug 22, 2016 18:14:16 GMT 2
We have only been to Roda twice,and enjoyed ourselves both times. We stayed in Paradise Village last year and could not fault the 2 bedroom bungalow. Only made coffee and the odd snack because we found a great variety of places to eat and drink. I would say to anyone put off by some comments ,just go and enjoy the Roda experience. The locals we met were all friendly and welcoming. There are bars or restaurants to suit most tastes, and all reasonably priced.
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Post by artisans on Aug 22, 2016 23:18:08 GMT 2
This thread is becoming so complex, that it’s hard to reply as there are so many issues being raised. I’m not sure what the ‘negativity’ is that is mentioned by ‘HigginsFam’, so I can’t comment on that, but both Bevs have said what I would have done – Roda is a great family resort and you will be made most welcome.
I don’t believe that anyone should feel insulted by the facts – it just can’t happen. We have been watching the changes for a while now, but since these issues became more contentious we have taken more time to speak to people, both tourists and business owners, and the general opinion is that things have changed considerably. For some it is a difficult season, some are much the same, and many are having a better year. All of this means that some businesses are better positioned to take advantage of the changes than others – they should ignore them at their peril. On balance, I think there is more optimism than anything else, but that may not be true in the British bars.
A walk around the village two nights ago, between 9-10:30pm, was interesting, with only 12 people attending a normally popular quiz night, and one bar had just a single customer. The restaurants, in the main, were full, but we can see how a shift in demographics has helped some more than others. I could name names, but that would not be helpful at this time.
The overall view is that people are spending – but not necessarily on drink, at least not on beer. I have never seen so many cocktails being made though, and some places are flat out keeping up with demand. Of course, the margins on a cocktail are far better than what is made on beer. What is new, is that many venues are emptying at 10pm as people go off, like Bev, for a last drink on their balcony, or an early night.
One of the areas that is going from strength to strength is transport, with car hire, quad & scooter hire being far more popular this year. This is where our new visitors are spending their money, rather than in the bars. They are off discovering the delights of Corfu, and who can blame them? I take emails every day from people trying to contact Roda’s businesses. Last night was a quiet night with only seven messages for car-hire. One was from the UK, the rest from other countries like Italy or Poland. This is fairly typical of this year, the UK accounting maybe for just 15% of car hire. These businesses – Sunriders, Dromeas, Top Gear, NSK etc., are all Roda companies doing reasonably well. At the last count, Spiros was up to 23 cars and Nikos had bought 12 new quads this year – not bad for a ghost town. And then of course, there are the taxi transfers – has anyone seen Yanni’s eyes this year? He’s working flat out!
Of course, not all of our new visitors are on cheap holidays –but most do fly and have cash to spend. A look at the airport arrivals & departures boards will confirm that, and Corfu (CFU) had a record year in 2015 making it one of the busiest airports in Greece. The recent report about the clientele at Roda Park serves to illustrate how many of our new visitors are enjoying the Greek experience and they are definitely spending.
There seem to be more tribute acts in our bars this year than ever before, maybe four per week in some places. My guess is that the bars are each spending around €5k per month and they started early this year. That may amount to €15,000 by the end of this month and it all has to be paid for, more or less, by additional beer sales, over and above what they would normally expect. How long can that continue if they are selling cut-price beer, and with fewer Brits? I would expect it to stop early this year, but that won’t ruin Roda.
I previously mentioned bars that had closed, and I forgot about Roundabout & Roda Blue. This has left us with four or five bars frequented by Brits – at least seven others having closed in the last ten years. It seems like a trend to me and I think maybe Skiathos has the right balance. If we do the sums, and if 85% of visitors are not Brits, only one or two of our bars should be dedicated to them. That’s what is happening organically and we probably have twice as many Brit bars than we can support.
Jan & I are privileged to visit other European countries every year now, and the resorts that we remember from the early days of package tours have changed enormously. You rarely see British packages to places like the two Callela’s on the Costa Brava, or Diano Marina & Lido di Jesolo, Rimini & Cattolica etc., etc., but we’ve seen them recently and they are still there, and still doing well without our help.
Melinda, Oasis, Kosmas, Afroditi, Elizabeth & Theodoros are wholly committed to tour companies. I imagine they are 100% British and they form a big slice of our visitor numbers, but self-catering apartments are once again in the ascendency and many of our new visitors will do just that – cater for themselves. Trip Advisor & Booking.com are bringing in a larger proportion of people now and their spending habits are different. It’s not that they don’t spend, just not on the same things. I understand that owners using these two companies can select the countries they want to deal with, so if visitors from one country cause problems, the country can be deselected.
One apartment owner told us that, for some time, she has consistently had all five of her apartments full and wished she had another five. She is giving bookings to other local apartment owners who are not computer literate. She says the customers are from all countries, they are polite, they are educated and they do spend. In any case, even if they spend less per capita, there are more people here. It may mean the businesses have to work harder to get the same result, but the potential is there. Another apartment owner is giving food to his guests and providing all manner of kitchen gadgets to help them cater for themselves – now that’s the Greek hospitality we have all come to love and it brings back a good hard core of independent travellers every year.
It’s not healthy to have one supplier of anything, food, clothes, money etc., but it seems that some would like nothing better than for Roda to be another Torrevieja. To be dependent on a single nationality would be a big mistake - not least because we would be at the whims of tour operators who would exploit their control mercilessly, with income actually falling rather than rising. A multi-national approach gives us immunity to market variations in any one of the countries from which our visitors come. For many years, Northampton relied solely on one trade and that failed as shoe manufacture went to other countries. I once met the Town Development Manager, and she told me that the town diversified as a matter of policy so as never again to be at the mercy of fickle single markets – we must do the same, or we certainly will fail. I think it’s the Round Table that has the motto – ‘Adapt, Adopt, Improve’ – and that’s what we must do.
Acharavi’s situation is totally different. It’s almost a small town and its location attracts all the year-round businesses. The busiest I have ever seen it was at 1am one April when you couldn’t park a car from one end to the other. Every restaurant & bar was full – but they weren’t tourists. It cannot be compared to Roda. I suspect that at 9pm it’s to take a breather before the night crowd arrives.
All things being equal, I think there is room for a broad spectrum of bars & restaurants playing a supporting role to our other businesses. I think we have some way to go yet, but I am excited by the way in which this year has evolved and the opportunities it brings – let’s hope the village can embrace the changes and become even better.
Steve
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Post by joolsd on Aug 23, 2016 2:04:23 GMT 2
Surely at the end of the day it's up to the individual where they eat, drink etc....., every year we eat at a different restaurant every night & frequent as many bars as I can, supermarkets & shops too, personally I don't like quizzes & tribute acts but that's just me, however, I do like a drink but that's my choice, I have a full time job with 24/7 shifts & if I choose to drink all day so be it, I love roda & have some very good friends in the village & wouldn't come back every year otherwise, week on Sunday woohoo 😎🛩
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Post by artisans on Aug 23, 2016 9:52:53 GMT 2
I think we all agree with you, jools, but Pete’s concern is that there may not be enough Brits to support the bars that depend on them. We have little influence over who visits Roda or where they come from, so our businesses will have to set out their stalls accordingly.
Steve
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Post by smg on Aug 25, 2016 20:48:55 GMT 2
Pete your views are outrageous (there is a word for them that begins with r) and I don't think that an administrator of a forum should behave like that.
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Post by bert122 on Aug 26, 2016 15:29:33 GMT 2
We have just returned from our holiday in Roda and it was a lot quieter than previous years, lots of all inclusive families walking along the front plus it appeared though there were a lot more people from the likes of France,Russia and Italy, even the likes of Big Ben's/Crusoe's weren't as busy as previous years which are mainly busy with British holiday makers.
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Post by davidandpaula2012 on Aug 26, 2016 19:38:42 GMT 2
Well for 3 weeks just got back on Monday we eat and drank in all the places where we had done the two years previous. Well apart from El Mar where they had ran out of food at 10.25 one night - we always eat late by the way. It shows how busy the restaurants were because we gave up on that one - you would have to queue like Colman's at South Shields here to get in ha In general all places to eat were really busyespecially early Dolphin Old House Where we sat at Crusoe's on the Beach having our usual drink and watched the tables fill up quick!y. The rest were really full all along so they've done well. Will in time comment more but that as you say in restaurant terms is just a starter.
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Post by davidandpaula2012 on Aug 28, 2016 13:54:10 GMT 2
What we found is a slow change emerging ive spoke about the restaurants on the front been full of families eating on the beach tables with lots of seafood being advertised as the speciality that night. However as we eat late we were always amazed at how many locals were eating further up the village at Roda park Nikos Drossia Pixida O Arabas Rialato(new Italian) Yummies Grill Room
Not so many people venturing right up as between Drossia and Grill Room there isn't much there between them.
Drossia food outstanding. Roda Park outstanding. Nikos outstanding. Pixida lovely Italian. O Arabas you can't eat the amounts you get(doggy bag) Grill Room class for late night snack
However try Yummies get a crepe late on QUALITY.
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