The management system, open to the owner
Granting bodies can view our management system in read-only mode and see availability and bookings in real time.
Method
How we run a public facility
Hostels, guest houses and event venues owned by municipalities, universities and public companies. We run them under concession, knowing they belong to someone else and that the owner must be able to see how they are doing.
A proposal for that facility
We take part in tenders and public procedures with a management plan written for the specific facility: the services, the staff, the guests to address, the work on the building, the way we keep the owner informed.
There is no single model. A university guest house with only institutional guests and a hostel in an archaeological mining park need different kinds of management.
The people
The Cooperative’s own staff provide the main services in our facilities. Where the facility needs it, one of us lives on site: at the Gowett staff live there from April to September, and at Le Benedettine night-time presence means guests can arrive at any hour.
Many of the Cooperative’s staff work at more than one site, following the seasons: at the Gowett in summer, when the hostel is full of schools and hikers, and in Pisa in winter, during the academic year. That way facilities with opposite seasons stay open with people who already know the job.
Our relationship with the owner
Our facilities record more than 60,000 overnight stays a year. The body that entrusts them to us must know how they are doing, without having to ask every time.
A report for each facility
For each facility we keep a detailed report of arrivals, overnight stays and guest nationalities.
The annual report
Every year we present each body with a report on how the management is going.
Communications in copy
At the University of Pisa’s guest house, every request we receive is also copied to the University.
Relationships that last
The Estense since 2008, the Gowett since 2009 and now in its third consecutive concession, the Ghiara since 2011 under a twenty-year concession.
The facility as an outpost
A public hostel is not just a place to sleep. The Gowett is also an information point for the San Silvestro Archaeological Mining Park, the Rocca and the Villa Lanzi Documentation Centre. The Chiostro della Ghiara is a place open to the city, with a restaurant, concerts, exhibitions and markets.
We work with local associations and businesses. In the Val di Cornia, for example, with the AmaCampiglia and La Bifora associations, with the Cave di Campiglia quarries, with the valley’s farmers and tourism businesses and with the Municipality of Campiglia Marittima.
Rules, buildings, cleaning
Hospitality facilities have precise obligations, and we handle them within the Team System Hospitality management system used in all our facilities: guest registration with the police, statistics for ISTAT and the Region, calculation and reporting of the tourist tax. For guests of the Pisa guest house we also help non-EU citizens with paperwork before they arrive.
Several facilities are protected by the Soprintendenza, Italy’s heritage authority: every intervention takes the building’s constraints into account.
For cleaning we use certified professional Ecolab systems, with controlled dosing of products.
Do you have a facility to entrust to an operator?
Write to us to get to know the Cooperative, discuss a collaboration or ask for our references.
Let’s talk
Or write to amministrazione@ballaro.org or call +39 0522 452323