Please bear with me as this is a long post but this is what I see happening on the island. Please share the post and let me know your opinion in the comments below.
Like many places around the world, Madeira is going to have huge problems this year, as it has already since last summer, but will it get worse?
Let’s go back before covid, if you wanted to find a job in Madeira it would be very difficult, and mainly thanks to people you know, you might have been lucky. Fast forward to 2021, it seemed like there were jobs everywhere, especially in hotels, bars and restaurants. The service in the area hasn’t been very good, and many places you’ve been to once may not have returned due to poor service.
Summer 2021 has been one of the busiest we’ve had, with a whole new generation of tourists hearing that Madeira is a safe destination, free testing on arrival and departure, and generally open all throughout covid, if you could get here and were allowed to fly. Rental car prices skyrocketed and that was if you were lucky to get one, and the tourist hotspots were packed, which for me really ruined those places because they were just too crowded.
We now come to April 2022, the busiest April we’ve ever had, almost impossible to get a car rental, and the cheapest, you’ll probably pay more than your flight and accommodation if you’re staying in an Airbnb. Facebook and other social media are full of people looking for an affordable car rental, and if you haven’t booked in advance, that really isn’t going to happen, and most won’t even have a car rental. car because of it. Here is an example below that 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 normal or more during the summer.
Now moving on to staff issues, there is not one person I have spoken to in all companies, tower, hotel, bar, restaurant etc etc all looking for staff it’s is an almost impossible job in itself to find good staff now, and of course if you regularly eat out you can see how service in many places is down, especially at the big names in the hotel and their restaurants, it’s just not worth the stress of eating out if you’re someone who has good service. More local places always seem to be doing well, but they’re all under great pressure, and the island is just going to get busier and busier though the summer. Many places may also only be open 2-3 days a week as they want to keep their service great but don’t have the staff to stay open, and to book these places you may need to book weeks at a time. advance, or you’ll just have to pass.
I believe Porto Santo will melt away, there are no staff for the island and they will have one of their busiest years. My partner just got back from being there 3 days, had 3 job offers and he said the service was terrible. They have a lot of people from Cabo Verde, and they really only speak Portuguese, and may not even understand our Portuguese well. On top of that, let me tell you that Porto Santo is expecting 72 weekly flights this summer, from many destinations. I can’t get this out of my head and I wonder how this island is going to get out of it.
Lots of other issues with so many new people moving to the island, looking for construction, builders, etc., and expecting nothing to happen quickly. I have a lot of people I know who are going through this and benefiting from it. Looking for jaccuzi spa I can say that Premium Pool are the type to miss, my friend had to fight to get his money back, which took over a year and sued them, then won, owner still hasn’t paid until 6 months after, after more threats, and this is a big island business that you would think you could trust.
Airbnb and other accommodations are also another issue, rental prices have doubled in many areas, and there’s simply nothing available if you like to catering to a vacation home, unless you only pay full price for what is available.
So I think a lot of people left during covid, and found a better life and didn’t come back, those here want the best paying jobs, so everything else is just going to suffer. Now with extortionate prices and some of the lowest salaries in Europe it will be interesting to see what happens to Madeira in the future, the good service is gone and the island is getting too busy making it a unpleasant trip for newcomers wanting to do all the tourist things.
It will be very interesting to hear from you in the comments below, as this is just my personal opinion from what I see happening.
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