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The Rotterdam opened its doors on 15 February 2010 to guests who wished to dine, celebrate, stay overnight, get married, attend meetings and shop for souvenirs. The ship is not always busy...
The housing foundation "Woonbron" bought the ship in 2005 for EUR 1.8 million and renovated it to become a hotel and congress centre. In 2006, the decision was taken not just to renovate the initially planned 10,000 m2 but to extend the plans to 40,000 m2, with the need to remove far more asbestos. This brought the cost of renovation up to EUR 248 million, as opposed to the EUR 25 to 30 originally budgeted.
The Rotterdam has now become a training venue for 450 apprentices, who acquire some of their work experience here. This may be clearly visible in the lacking skills and uncaring attitudes of some of the Lido restaurant staff and is reflected in the complaints received after the ship was first opened.
The complaints do not extend to the tour guides, who show visitors around the engine room and the beautifully restored public rooms. These are enthusiastic volunteers, most of whom used to work on the ship themselves.
The fact that four different companies are working on the ship, makes co-ordination and management very difficult and start-up problems were inevitable.
In the first 10.5 months, the ship had 579,000 visitors, of whom 250,000 came to have lunch or dinner on board. The initial plans had an objective of 750,000 visitors; later, this was reduced to 600,000. By way of comparison, the zoo of Blijdorp has an annual 1.5 million visitors (2010) and is Rotterdam's most visited public attraction. It has to be noted that each aspect of the SS Rotterdam is counted separately : this means that any visitor who comes for dinner, spends the night and takes a guided tour next day, will be counted three times towards the total of 579,000 visitors. The hotel must also seek to attract more visitors mid-week, when cabin occupancy is at about 35 %, while week-end occupancy is at 68 %.
One of the problems is that the renovation turned out to be so expensive -- this means that all involved want to make money above all else.
The future is uncertain. The foundation Woonbron has meanwhile written off EUR 125 million. The ministry has allowed a postponement of the sale -- 30 % should have been sold by last month, but investors are reluctant to come forward. Interviews by the newspaper brought out both pessimistic and optimistic views for the future of the ship.
