50th anniversary: opening day for 17 hotels
On 24th June 1969, Francisco Ferrer Juan led the official opening of Hotel Ánfora after a hard year of building and fine tuning. It wasn't the only hotel bursting with excitement that morning: another 16 hotels chose that very same day to open their doors on the island of Ibiza. According to this article from the newspaper library of Diario de Ibiza, the village of Santa Eulària des Riu was witness to the opening of the hotels Don Carlos, Atlantic, Mediterráneo and Ánfora Playa that same day. However, the arrival of the first guests had started a month earlier, on 4th May.
An entire retinue of authorities spent San Juan’s Day visiting the new hotels on the island and opening other important infrastructures, such as the road to Port des Torrent and the Promenade in Ibiza. They are also celebrating their 50 years of existence, as is the Modern Art Museum of Ibiza (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo).
When bookings came by air
In its early days, the hotel learnt about the bookings made through tour operators a week before the guest’s arrival in the way of a handwritten list sent by airmail. Last-minute bookings were quite a hassle as there were times when guests would arrive assuring us that they’d paid for a room and the hotel couldn’t check if it was true or not at the time. In fact, there was once when a man assured us that he was a guest and even pretended to be disabled. To solve this problem, hotels and tour operators created vouchers for last-minute bookings.
Interesting facts about 1969
- Back then, “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”, “Touch Me”, “Proud Mary”, “Sweet Caroline” and “Give Peace a Chance” were playing on the radio.
- The Oscar to the best film went to Midnight Cowboy.
- The phone numbers for Hotel Atlantic and Ánfora Playa were probably registered at the same time, because their numbers were consecutive back then: 971 330175 and 971 330176.
- The members of Pink Floyd visited the island in 1969 and even dedicated their famous song “Ibiza Bar” to the island.
Hotel Ánfora will be celebrating its 50th anniversary with you
During the next months, we will reveal more surprises, but for now we want to announce three novelties in honour of our 50th anniversary:
- Bottle of wine in your room when you check in: for you to raise a glass to Hotel Ánfora’s 50 years.
- Welcome gifts. Surprise, surprise...
- Late check-out: you can check out at 2 p.m. if you need to.
Book your room today!
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