Väderöarnas Värdshus & Konferens
We transport guests out to Väderöarnas Värdshus & Konferens on the Weather Islands on our two catamarans, which were built to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Each boat carries 12 passengers, and we keep the speed to around 17 knots, so the engines operate at the lowest possible and greenest rate of fuel consumption. Outside high season, when the boats aren’t full, washing, food and materials are brought over in them. We talk about the environment both at sea and on the island during the journey, and how we can all keep helping to manage it by for example picking litter up.
We try in every way to work as sustainably as possible and we want to get better at communicating that to our guests, which at the moment is mostly done by word of mouth.
During the last year we have started a package called “stay a bit longer” which is marketed with so called extra nights. The aim was to encourage our guests to stay two nights and now, no doubt as a result of the coronavirus situation all over the world, this has increased significantly, with guests booking between 4 and 6 nights during June, July and August.
Before the economic uncertainty, back in 2018/19 we had many multi-day conference bookings.
Our business benefits both Hamburgsund and Fjällbacka because we are based there. Our guests use both shops and restaurants in those communities a lot, according to reports fed back to us from shop and other business owners in the area. We also collaborate in a small but still positive way with other accommodation in both Hamburgsund and Fjällbacka.
Our check-in office in Hamburgsund has also seen an increase in people dropping in at other times of the year than just summer, to book day trips with lunch or buy gift cards or clothes from our Väderökläder collection.
What we have observed is that our target group, in their 40s, have a lot of free time, and are active and well off which generates revenue for our business and as well as our seaside towns.
We have actively chosen not to work with bus companies, the Chinese and Russian markets and large group trips as we feel that’s approaching mass tourism and would be difficult to manage well.
We don’t advertise the months of June, July or August, concentrating sales and marketing on the remaining months and so far this has given us a year on year increase in guests all year round.
We are open all year and therefore have a permanent staff team who work twelve months full time, and are members of the Swedish Hospitality Industry organisation, Visita. During summer it’s mostly returning youngsters/students, their siblings and friends who work here. Many of them have a local link, most often coming from families who live in the area part of the year. The Gothenburg Boat Show in February generates a lot of work and everyone helps out in different ways. We also carry out painting, maintenance, repairs, building and so on when there are less guests and all hands are also welcome then.
