Ch-ch-changes

I've named this article thus after the song I sang at karaoke the last time I was here at Clube Praia da Oura for any length of time. And although I chickened out of doing likewise last night, it seems an apposite title for any article reflecting upon the very major changes which have taken place at CPO at the behest of the new management style introduced by MGM Muthu Hotels.

When I first arrived here at 11.00pm on Saturday night I was quite surprised to see the Piano Bar packed to the rafters, to the point where my family and I couldn't find a seat until the bar began to clear shortly afterwards. Even when I visited the resort in July last year, at the height of the holiday season, it wasn't like this.

Similarly, the pool area during the day is to all intents and purposes fully subscribed. Not everybody is prepared to brave the chilly autumn water, but many do and many more still spend a great deal of their day sprawled out upon the ample sunbeds around the pool. In the evenings the M&M Bar (formerly Amanda's) is invariably full, whether there is a staff show, karaoke or visiting entertainment.

What is happening is that MGM's new all-inclusive option has kicked in with a vengeance. Holidaymakers who pay a set amount for their meals and all they can drink tend, not unreasonably, to make every effort to get their money's worth. The autumn throng at CPO probably makes little impact upon the local economy beyond the walls of the resort, but it has transformed the resort itself into a bustling hive of activity.

Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends very much upon whom one happens to be speaking to. Many of the staff whom I have come to know over the years seem suddenly to have moved on, and those with whom I am still in touch generally tell an unhappy story.

REGULAR USERS

This has the effect of rubbing off on long-time regular users who, like myself, feel that part of the CPO experience has traditionally been about the sense of belonging which comes with continuity. It feels good to be greeted by bar staff and entertainers who, not only do I remember, but who remember me. The team MGM has at the moment maintain the excellent standards set by those who have moved to pastures new. But the arrival of so many new faces still leaves me feeling like a newcomer at a resort that I've been using, and using well, for over a decade.

On the other hand the business case for the present approach does appear unanswerable. CPO is a holiday resort, and it is not unreasonable that the management should aspire to fill it with holidaymakers, and to apply whatever strategies are best equipped to achieve that objective. There can be nothing wrong, surely, with having a bar and reception area which is buzzing, a pool which is popular and entertainment which is well supported?

Memories are a wonderful thing, but progress is the life-blood of any successful business venture. And it is not as though the current set-up actually lacks ambience, it is simply not my ambience, at least in the way that I remember it.

If the management is smart it will endeavour to marry its new strategy with an attitude towards long-standing and loyal users of old which is sympathetic. To consciously drive away one's most faithful and dependable clientele is silly. CPO is a big resort, there is room for both - and for a business strategy which incorporates both models with a flexible approach to membership and to service provision.

I will continue to come to CPO, as and when I can afford to do so and work permitting. I'll adapt to the new approach, I'm sure, but if it can adapt to me also, and to others like me, that will be a bonus.

You Read it Here First!

Back in January I advised that former CPO entertainment supremo Bruno was now plying his trade as lead singer with local rock group DiéB Band, who have been taking the Algarve by storm.

At the time I wrote: "It would be great to see Bruno and his band performing back at the CPO some time - and if the management team are reading this, I'm sure I'm not alone in looking forward to the day".

Well, you read it here first and last week DiéB Band rocked the CPO with a lively gig at the resort's big open air Ocean Bar at the old bowling green, in front of a huge backdrop which doubles as a giant TV screen (hope you didn't mind me borrowing your fine photo Pedro) which is rumoured to be the biggest in the Algarve.

Sadly I'm not in the wage bracket for impromptu continental junkets, not even to see the DiéB Band, so I wasn't able to be present at this memorable event and therefore cannot give a first-hand report. But hopefully there will be more. Welcome home Bruno!

Share Your CPO Experience

Do you have any stories or photos to share from your time at CPO or any of its sister resorts? How about any interesting or amusing pics from the resort or about town?

We would love to feature them on this blog. Don't worry if you don't have the technical know-how - we'll do all the necessary cutting and cropping. Just send them to us at cpoblog@hotmail.com and we'll do the rest.

A Weekend with MGM in England

Albufeira it isn't, but having Infiniti Exit points to use up before 2015 ends we decided to spend a weekend at Muthu Hotels' solitary resort in the UK, at the perhaps unlikely location of Belstead Brook, just outside Ipswich in Suffolk.

It's not a place we would usually have visited. No personal issues with East Anglia, of course, but a horrible 115-mile drive, half of it around the M25, coupled with its lack of proximity to the sea renders it a slightly inhospitable alternative to the many coastal resorts from which we have to choose due south.

Nevertheless at a little over 10,000 Exit points for a long weekend we decided to go for it, and arrived here at about 6.30 in the evening after a long and windy day pounding the streets at work.

The first impressions were favourable. After parking up we descended the steps to the Reception, where we were assisted by a very pleasant and helpful young man for whom nothing was too much trouble, and who answered our last question with as much patience and enthusiasm as he had the first. We took a look around - at the pool (which was self-evidently popular even at that time on a Friday evening), the spa, the gym and the restaurant and bar facilities. We were offered a table for lunch, which like breakfast was ever so slightly on the expensive side, but declined as we had already eaten, although we promised ourselves we would give it a try on Sunday.

The room is nice - quite spacious, all the necessary facilities, clean and smart. The double bed is at the small end of acceptable, but adequate. A good selection of television channels, and of hot beverages. The pictures on the wall captured my wife's interest.

Down at the bar in the evening, once again one was struck by the polite helpfulness of the staff. By hotel bar standards there was a good range of beers, including the weakish but tasty local brew Adnams Southwold, which were decently priced. We enjoyed a few in comfortable surrounds, along with some tasty hot bar snacks.

In the morning we used the swimming pool, which it seems is also visited upon by the locals as Belstead Brook is a leisure centre as well as a hotel. The water was nice and warm and there were lots of good facilities - sauna, jacuzzi, ample lounge area with comfy chairs, a selection of reading material and a coffee machine. The changing rooms were decent and the showers warm, something which ought to be a given but is not always so at holiday resorts. This was followed by a leisurely walk around the hotel's substantial grounds, and a venture into the pleasant town of Belstead where we found a great local pub and restaurant, the Belstead Arms, which is worthy of a mention in its own right.

The Belstead Brook Muthu Hotel is a great place for a stay, to relax and to chill out. It is difficult to reconcile it with the Clube Praia da Oura, which is my unlikely connection with this resort and indirectly my reason for being here. It is a typical, quality English hotel, having little in common with the sunny poolside apartments and ambience of CPO. But I'm glad of the experience and it is a change as well as a rest.

Infiniti Exit Concerns

This blog exists to publicise and promote the Algarve region in general and the Clube Praia da Oura in Albufeira in particular, for the simple reason that I as author have great affection for the resort, its staff, the people who visit and the ambience that all these elements combine to create.

But as is stated in its “Disclaimer” this blog is not under the ownership or influence in any way of MGM Hotels, Infiniti, RCI, Petchey Leisure or any of the various entities which seem to have a stake in the resort and/or in its marketing as a holiday destination. This humble blog is solely the property of its author and when something gives me cause for concern I feel I have a right and a duty to comment on it. I am nobody’s shill.

Just a couple of weeks ago I had an unpleasant experience which I feel obligated to share, if only for the benefit of others who may be labouring under misapprehensions about their membership.

Having been given a timeshare at the resort back in 2006 I was a regular visitor to CPO, and I always enjoyed my stay at the complex whether I was in the company of my family or, as was often the case, I travelled alone. However the relentless annual increase in maintenance fees under the old regime, coupled with changes in the whole dynamic of European travel, meant that the arrangement became increasingly unviable, to the point where I was paying more than twice as much for my timeshare as a cash customer would have paid for the same service.

UNREALISTIC PAYMENTS

Something had to give. It is one thing a timeshare company demanding unrealistic payments with menaces, but at some stage the point is reached at which customers just will not and in some cases cannot pay. Seeing the writing on the wall, the new management offered a new approach via the points scheme. One option was the Exit program involving the payment of a rather substantial sum as a “buy out” from the timeshare contract, with the blow softened by the inclusion of a generous points allocation over a two year period, enabling the customer to travel to CPO and other resorts within the group for a total of several weeks during the remaining period of the contract.

This was the option I took. At a cost of £4,800 I was awarded 80,000 points for each of two years, which enabled to me to travel three times in 2014 with a similar allowance for this year. Last year I used these to good effect, visiting my beloved CPO on three occasions – for 12 nights in February, 9 nights in July and a fleeting 3-night visit in December – on each and every occasion, I should add, as a high-spending customer.

This year however I was in for a shock. When a few weeks ago I attempted to book a July holiday at the resort I was told curtly that there was no availability whatsoever throughout the months of June, July, August or September. Everything was fully booked.

ALMERIA

Having promised my daughter a holiday I settled for a week at the Infiniti Beach Resort in Almeria, Spain. I’m sure it’s a very nice resort, however I am something of a “homer” and when I find a place and get to know it I tend to plump for it rather than for the uncertainty of something unfamiliar. No matter, I’m sure we’ll enjoy it.

I did though harbour a nagging feeling, call it a sixth sense, that I wasn’t being told quite the truth. And so I contacted MGM Hotels via the Customer Chat mechanism on the company website and asked whether any availability existed for CPO on my chosen week in July. This was the reply I received:

It is self-evident that MGM, having my money and that of others like me securely in the bank, had decided to reserve the high-season slots for cash customers and to offer the loyal but already committed points customers the off-peak slots which were left over. In other words I have paid nearly £5,000 to be a second-class customer.

For a while I felt so incensed by this that I seriously considered never returning to the resort, as I was reluctant to give my money to a company with such a poor ethic. But CPO is my “home” – I feel welcome when I visit the restaurant, the bars, the Reception area, and the sister resorts. I know many of the waiting staff, the entertainment staff and the visiting acts. This is my holiday home and I’m not going to be driven away by the anonymous faces who manage from afar, but it leaves a bad taste all the same.

Next year, health permitting, I will return to CPO as a cash customer. But I wouldn’t like to be the poor sales rep who comes to my apartment in Spain in July, or at the CPO in October (when I did manage to secure a booking) and tries to sell me an extension of their points scheme!

News from Bruno

Friends of Clube Praia da Oura has recently heard from Bruno, former singer, entertainer and all-round good guy at CPO, who has given us some news and info about his present work.

Bruno is currently the front man for the DiéB Band, who have been playing gigs at venues around Albufeira, as well as singing and entertaining in his own right. You can keep up to date with the group's activities by visiting their well-supported Facebook site.

It would be great to see Bruno and his band performing back at the CPO some time - and if the management team are reading this, I'm sure I'm not alone in looking forward to the day. But in the meantime, I'll leave you with a little DiéB:

Does Anybody Know This Man?

"I've know this guy since he was this high"

Striking a pose in his fetching new cerise shirt, our intrepid Algarvian superhero demonstrates how he maintains his cool by keeping one hand on the ice bucket whilst doling out canecas and peanuts to the multitude.

The legend that is Miguel has been bartendering to the CPO faithful since time immemorial, forever with a smile. If you see him when next you are at the resort, say "hi" (or "bom dia") from the Friends of CPO and tell him that the Fat Bloke at the Bar will be returning in earnest for laughs and lager before the summer is done.

New Acquisition - Forte da Oura

MGM Muthu Group began with just six European hotels in its portfolio. Since then it has expanded its presence, particularly on the Algarve where last year it took on the luxurious Forte do Vale. Now the CPO "family" has grown further by the acquisition of the magnificent Forte da Oura, one of the largest and most popular hotels on the Algarve.

Forte da Oura is a spacious and sought after 4-star hotel with 115 modern and fully air-conditioned apartments each with a private balcony, a large outdoor pool with a private area for kids and a dedicated pool bar, a stylish restaurant, wonderful entertainment, a children's play area and a tennis court. It is situated directly beside MGM's Oura Praia Hotel.

As well as the leisure market, Forte da Oura offers a full range of services for business travellers and meeting planners.

Some Reflections from a Weekend at CPO

This is the first post on this blog, hopefully of many, that has actually been made from the CPO itself. Having arrived on Friday night for an untypically short weekend visit, I was determined to see whether anything had changed very much since my last time here, for better or for worse.

One of the "for worse" parts is that the weather is pretty dire - dry, but cold. There's no feeling homesick for Blighty while it's like this.

But there isn't really very much the management or the team at the Clube Praia da Oura can do about the elements. One piece of bad news that does come from within is that the hard-working and ever-popular entertainer Bruno has moved on to pastures new. Bruno was an absolute legend and an institution at CPO, a real character who personified everything that is fun about the resort, not only providing entertainment and laughter in the evenings but also calling the numbers at bingo (in the days when it was permitted by the Portuguese government), helping to run the pool parties in the summer and even managing activities such as archery during the day. Bruno will be missed by many and we wish him all the very best in his new work.

The CPO itself continues to excel in its service to its clients. The room as always is spotless and the small but thoughtful "added touches" - some basic foodstuffs in the fridge (for which one is always grateful after the flight and transfer in), bottle of wine, toothbrush and other little bathroom essentials, are always much appreciated.

CPO's portfolio of entertainers would appear to be expanding, and the strategy of encouraging cross-patronage around the family of resorts and hotels would appear to be progressing well.

Obviously this week there is a Christmassy feel as well, although I will have missed the carols in the open air by arriving too late on Friday and departing too early on Monday.

It is always a pleasure to be at the CPO and always a sadness to leave. Three nights are never enough to completely rediscover a feel for a place but there is clearly much to be optimistic about.

The Oura Praia Hotel

The Oura Praia Hotel is part of the CPO "family" and is situated just a short walk from the CPO site as one exits the north side of the site.

The hotel boasts a veritable array of leisure facilities and activities for guests. Outdoor pools, a sauna and jacuzzi, tennis court and gymnasium are available for use and indoors the Café Latte Bar and Trevi Restaurant serve a range of food from breakfasts to evening meals as well as hosting (at Trevi) night time entertainment, often with Bruno the Club Praia da Oura's lead entertainer. There is also a bar at poolside where one can choose from a range of soft drinks or cocktails.

The 126 self-catering apartments are all newly redecorated and are equipped throughout with satellite television and air conditioning. From the balconies and the furnished terraces guests can enjoy views over the pool and Oura village.

Weddings at MGM Hotels

CPO owner MGM Hotels is offering a range of wedding packages to suit most budgets and provides a dedicated Wedding Team to help organise the whole event from start to finish.

Up until 31st March 2015 MGM is offering a "Stay 5, Pay 3" deal on new bookings only and subject to availability.

Contact Hotel Reservations on +44 (0)845 4680164 (UK) or +351 289 249 850 (Portugal).

Long Stay Promotion at CPO

Book a stay at the CPO for 21 nights or more online and receive a 25% discount. All taxes are included.

Full non-refundable payment is required to guarantee the booking. This offer is only available for new bookings and cannot be retrospectively applied to existing reservations.

Promotion ends on 31st March 2015. See the CPO website for more details.

Amanda's Bar

Although CPO and its associated resorts boast a number of bars where one can enjoy a drink and some good entertainment, for many Amanda's Bar is where it's at when one wants to wind down for the evening. It is designed as a medium-sized entertainment venue and its various shows, talent contests and karaoke events are usually well-supported by holidaymakers at the resort.

A long, well-staffed bar with ample seating and open till 1.00 am, when Amanda's was undergoing refurb earlier in the year many felt the resort was missing a certain something. It's great to see it back in use.

Restaurants and Bars at CPO

Club Praia da Oura currently has three functional bars, each offering an entirely different experience. First of all there is the Piano Bar, which abuts the Reception area. A large screen TV shows major sporting events while light entertainment is provided around the piano, or by the popular local saxophone player Rui Sá. The Piano Bar opens till late - usually 1.00am - which is handy for those arriving late from the airport at the start of their holiday.

The Pool Bar serves the area around the open air swimming pool, and is especially popular during the summer months when pool users and sunbathers are able to enjoy a pleasant drink in the sunshine.

Down towards the coast and overlooking the sea the Ocean Bar is a pleasant setting in which to enjoy a drink during the day. In the evening this forms part of the M&M Bar, where there is a wide choice of entertainment during the week including dancing, cabaret, movies, disco music and sport.

RESTAURANT FOR ALL OCCASIONS

Jac's is the CPO's restaurant for all occasions, whether you wish to partake of an English or continental breakfast in the morning, a snack at lunchtime or a full evening meal.

Off site, but still within the CPO family, there is the Aqua Restaurant at the Oura View Beach Club and Café Latte at the Oura Praia Hotel.

Holidaymakers can quite literally spend the week alternating between the various bars and restaurants around the hotel group's sites without even venturing out elsewhere and still not become bored. There really is something to suit every taste.

About the Clube Praia da Oura

Clube Praia da Oura is a hugely popular resort on the golden Albafeira beach in the Algarve. A combination of wonderful sea views, great facilities and an almost family atmosphere inspires many guests to return again and again, making friends both at the resort and with one another.

The site boasts two swimming pools, a sauna, a launderette, a restaurant, a children's play area and several bars, as well as being a short walk or bus ride away from Albufeira, both the Old Town and the famous Strip. It is also linked with four nearby hotels whose facilities are also available to CPO residents. Much of the site overlooks the beach; that part of it that doesn't is just a short stroll away.

Staff at the resort are without exception helpful. Whether you want information, need money changed or a transfer to the airport booked, or require something for your room, they are always just a 'phone call or a visit away.

A full evening entertainment schedule is provided, with many acts "touring" between CPO and its sister sites so guests are able either to visit their favourite acts across the locations or stay at "home" and watch a varied programme throughout the week. Regular acts include Michael Jackson, Elvis and Tina Turner tributes, a sax player, various vocalists, in-house Country & Western and Latin dancing shows and a great deal more. There are also regular karaoke nights and talent contents. During the day activities include dancing lessons, Portuguese language classes, archery and bird and reptile shows - to name but a few. A comprehensive list of outings and expeditions is also available each and every week, and guests can book day trips to Seville, Lisbon or Gibraltar as well as days at the market, historic adventures and safari tours.

For the British tourist the weather has appeal too. During the summer it is hot, and pool parties are held every weekday afternoon (especially enjoyable with a cocktail from the Pool Bar - Ed.). Even during the winter months it is often warm enough to sunbathe, and visitors are to be seen walking around town in vests and shorts (thereby conveniently distinguishing them from the locals, who think it is cold).

CPO really does offer the ultimate holiday experience in the popular and unspoilt beach resort that is the Algarve. Its growing "family" is testimony to the popularity of the site.

Friends of CPO

This new blog is dedicated to the Clube Praia da Oura (CPO), a leading holiday resort on the golden Albufeira beach on the sunny Algarve.

We hope to bring you news, views, information and articles, from CPO users and from all around the resort. Please feel free to leave a comment, or to send us in an article - if it's relevant, clean and in reasonably good taste we'll be happy to publish it.

Hope you enjoy the blog, and please do bookmark us and come back to visit us regularly.