Please stay with me as this is a long post but it’s what I see happening on the island. Please share the post and let me know you’re opinion in the comments below.
Like many places throughout the world, Madeira is going to suffer huge problems this year, as it has already since last summer, but is it going to get worse.?
Let go back before covid, if you wanted to find a job in Madeira, in would be very difficult, and mainly through people you know you might have got lucky. Now fast forward to 2021, it seemed there were jobs everywhere, especially in hotels, bars and restaurants. The service in the area went don’t greatly, and many places you once went to you may not have returned to because of the poor service.
The summer of 2021 saw one of the busiest we had, with a whole new generation of tourist that heard about Madeira being a safe destination, free testing on arriving and departing, and generly open throughout the whole of covid, if you could get here and were allowed to fly. Car hire prices went through the roof and that was if you were lucky to get one, and tourist hot spots were rammed solid, for me really spoiling these places as they were just tooooo crowded.
Now we come to now, April 2022 the busiest April we have ever had, almost impossible to get a car hire, and the cheapest you will probably pay more than your flight and accommodation if samtaying in an Airbnb. Facebook and other social media is awash with people looking for affordable car hie, and if you have not booked in advance its really not going to happen, and most won’t even have a car because of this. Here is an example below I saw on Facebook today.
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Last year the link on my blog Zest Car Rental was one of the cheapest search engines I could find, but prices were still double the normal or more during the summer.
Now on to staff problems, there is not a single person I have spoken to in all companies, tour, hotel, bar, restaurant, so on and so on, all looking for staff, it’s an almost impossible job in itself to find good staff now, and of course if you eat out regular you can see how the service in many places is just going down the pan, especially in the big hotel names and their restaurants, it just not worth the stress to eat out if you are someone that enjoys good service. More local places seem to still do well, but they are all under great pressure, and the island is just going to get busier and busier although the summer. Many places also may only open 2-3 days a week as they want to keep their great service but don’t have the staff to stay open, and to book these places, you might have to book weeks in advance, or you will just miss out.
Porto Santo will go into melt down I believe, there are no staff for the island, and they will have one of their busiest years ever. My partner has just returned from being there 3days, had 3 job offers, and he said the service is terrible. They have many peopke from Cabo Verde, and they only really speak Portuguese, and may not even understand our Portuguese to well. On top of that let me tell you, Porto Santo is expecting in the summer 72 flights a week, from many destinations. I just can’t get thst out of my head, and wonder how this island will cope.
Many other problems to with so many new people moving to the island, looking for construction, builders and so on, and just done expect nothing to happen fast. I have many people I know going through this and just being taken advantage of through the way. Looking for a spa jaccuzi, I can say that Pool Prime are one to give a miss, my friend had to fight for his money back which took over a year and taking them to court, and then winning, the owner still didn’t pay up till 6 months after, after more threats, and this is a big company on the island that you would think you could trust.
Airbnb and other accommodation is also another issue, rent prices have doubled in many areas, and there is just nothing available if you like to do self-catering in a holiday home, unless you will to pay top dollar for what’s available.
So I think many people left during covid, and found better lives and didn’t return, those here want the better well paid jobs, so everything else is just going to suffer. Now with sky high prices, and some of the poorest wages in Europe, it will be interesting to see what happens to Madeira in the future, gone is the good service, and the island is getting to busy that makes it not a pleasant trip for newcomers wanting to do all the tourist things.
Will be very interesting to hear from you in the comments below to you’re views as this is just my personal opinion from what I see happening.