“Afternoon tea is the best marketing tool we have, and over 90% of the average-240 covers we serve every day are not staying in the hotel,” said Patricia Duarte, public relations manager of the 169-room Belmond Reid’s Palace, Funchal, on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
The hotel was built in 1891 by William Reid, a one-time Scottish cabin boy who did well and became a successful trader (it has been 100% owned by Belmond since 1997).
Reid served afternoon tea from the start, and it has continued ever since. Today’s hotel guests automatically, it seems, take tea. Other afternoon tea customers might be staying nearby, in other hotels or in timeshare units, and every day, especially during the October to May high season, there will be at least two significant cruise ships in Funchal cruise port, five minutes’ away. Tea at Reid’s is the highlight of offered tours.
Arrive for tea any time from 3 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. and your table is, if weather permits, on an outside terrace looking far down, near-vertically, to the ocean. Finest linens are complemented by floral Wedgwood china. A menu booklet includes colored illustrations of things to eat. You can add a glass of Pommery Champagne, poured at table, for €18.50 (US$21). The basic €36 (US$41) menu lists finger sandwiches, scones, pastries and choice of 25 teas or infusions with more than half choosing Reid’s Blend, composed by La Via del Tè. Your tea comes with leaves, in a big china pot, and is poured into the cup through a silver strainer.
You are brought a three-tier etrangère, or curate’s stand. The top layer holds butter, clotted cream and Madeira preserves. The middle layer is for crust-free sandwiches, white bread avocado-tomato and Portuguese cheese, and brown bread cucumber-chili, prawns, and smoked salmon. The bottom later holds pastries, including a dark brown muffin known as a Madeira cake, made with cane sugar, dried fruit and spices. A separate plate holds warm scones. Success is such that last year Belmond Reid’s Palace added, summer-only an Evening Tea, with extended beverage choice and tapas.
General Manager Ciriaco Campus hosts a weekly cocktail every Tuesday for guests, and he knows how they love the hotel and its gardens, and Madeira’s renowned temperate weather. He also hears about their favorite tea blend.
An afternoon tea manager, with the hotel 33 years, said the most often asked question is where Winston Churchill sat as he stayed in the hotel in 1899 and again in January 1950. Also, anyone who has a camera takes at least one photo and it is the most-often posted moment from the hotel, even by hotel guests. In 2018, the hotel saw 61% average occupancy, with five-night stays, and 40% repeats. The UK has traditionally remained the top market, followed by Germany, Netherlands and Scandinavia. The U.S. is growing.
Mid-March this year the hotel launched its Ambassador program with 35 of the 240-strong employee team invited to send out hotel news via social media. Sessions have trained them in what and how to post. “It is too early to get definite results but so far I am really encouraged,” Durate said. “They are spreading the word of Reid’s Palace to the island, and the world.”