At Parker Cottage B&B, we are passionate about the people of South Africa and the beauty of our natural environment. We show our commitment to both in several ways:
At Parker, our staff are actively involved in several community projects. Some of these we support financially and some of these we work in ourselves.
We aim to use the purchasing power of Parker Cottage to support businesses from less affluent areas and owned by historically disadvantaged families and individuals. In this regard, we:
We have our own driver and guide at Parker Cottage, Chris Hannival, who we encouraged and supported to start his own transport business. He grew up in District Six (an area of Cape Town that was bulldozed under apartheid) and now runs his own transport company, of which Parker Cottage is the major client. Chris is now able to offer work to a further drivers as a result of his affiliation with us who are all, like him, historically disadvantaged individuals.
We encourage our guests to walk to local restaurants and to spend locally. We have developed a list of local restaurants of high and consistent quality. For example:
Miller’s Thumb - A small family-owned and operated restaurant less than two minutes’ walk from Parker Cottage, using fish caught by local fishermen.
We also support several small local businesses in the hospitality and tourism industries. For example:
Camissa Tours - A small tour operator specializing in the township tour market with a particular focus on walking through the township, not just driving through and thereby engaging with the local environment and people. Samantha and Khonaye guide guests through the area they actually live in.
Parker Cottage B&B is located in a heritage building (it was completed around 1895) but our aim is to try to make it the greenest heritage building in the country. We want to show that not only new build properties can be sustainably run. In this regard, we have:
Our permanent staff at Parker Cottage both benefit from at least 50% more than the minimum wage for the industry and many much more than that. Our temporary staff also receive at least 25% higher wages than the minimum wage for the industry. We also offer our most loyal staff permanent contracts not seasonal ones, so our staff are guaranteed work for twelve months of the year at full pay.
Our staff are actively encouraged to try their hand at new areas of the business, such as stock taking, linen control and so on. Our aim is to turn our cleaners into housekeepers into supervisors and eventually managers. When we find staff have strength in a particular area, we organise more training and build on their success.
We pay for and send every member of permanent staff on at least one training course a year in an area directly related to their daily work. As such, they are upskilled on an annual basis.
We guarantee above inflation pay rises every year. We also guarantee a Christmas bonus every year.
Parker Cottage Bed and Breakfast in the Cape Town City Bowl is, in fact, two magnificent Victorian houses. The houses are now joined to form one grand guesthouse.
Parker Cottage is named after a rather enigmatic and multi-faceted figure, Scottish architect John Parker. This original Victorian cottage was not only designed and built by him but he also lived in it for a while. He was also very briefly the first mayor of greater Cape Town (1913 – 1915). Numbers 1 and 3 Carstens street were completed in 1895.
John Parker was active in civic and church affairs. He became mayor of Cape Town in 1913 and was a founder member of the South African Society of Architects and the Cape Institute of Architects. He designed many of Cape Town’s landmark buildings, particularly schools. His firm (Parker and Forsyth) designed and built the Observatory Girls School, Rhenish School Stellenbosch, Sea Point Girls School, Sea Point Boys School, the South African College School (SACS), Hugenot School Wellington, and the Wynberg Girls School. When the British Hotel was completely destroyed by a fire in 1841, the design was done by John Parker, with construction completed in 1897.
One of his most famous buildings is the Great Synagogue in the Company's Gardens.
Parker was one of the first architects to use locally dressed Table Mountain sandstone as a building material. This is evident in the Observatory School. Parker made his name by managing to fit a lot of space into urban buildings, while retaining impressive frontages. The long corridors, halls, and high ceilings he used are similar to other Victorian buildings of the time.
Meet Tomas Kucer, one of our two managers. Tomas is a Capetonian, originally Croatian
and used to work for other guesthouses and restaurants in Cape Town until a few years ago when we snapped
him up. He is our 'mother hen' with all the guests and knows all the insides of Cape Town. He is
definitely a food specialist and can recommend the best bites in town!
Tomas lives in Sea
Point.
Jameson joined us as Donovan's right hand man. He started as our Assistant Caretaker
but ends up doing all sorts of things he didn't ever imagine he'd be doing! Originally from Malawi, he
came with his brother a few years ago, who works at a neighbouring guesthouse.
Jameson's
working his way up the ladder at Parker Cottage and now is an excellent waiter and guest entertainer, he
has the most beautiful sense of humour and the nicest smile in Africa.
Originally from the Eastern Cape, Bongi lives with her family in Nyanga and has a
lovely daughter of 21 ! Bongi came to us from another guesthouse when they decided to downsize and their
loss has been certainly our gain.
Although she is the quiet one in the team, every now and then
she surprises us with her beautiful sense of humour and dance moves in the kitchen when she thinks no one
is watching!
Chris Hannival was born in what is now called Zonnebloem, then District Six, a district
of the City Bowl that was levelled during the Apartheid years. He now lives in a guesthouse he and his
wife run in Oranjezicht but his tour company, Hannivals Tours, has been the bedrock of Parker Cottage
since 2009.
Chris started his company with an old BMW he borrowed from a friend: now he has
four drivers and guides working for him and five luxury vehicles to show Parker Cottage guests the best of
the Cape.
PARKER TOURS
Parker Cottage now offers tours & transfers
Explore Cape Town and beyond with Parker Tours. Choose from shared and private tours, transfers, Garden Route adventures and safaris.
Explore Cape Town with Parker Tours. Shared and private experiences available.
You don’t need to stay at Parker Cottage to book.
Opens our dedicated Parker Tours website in a new tab
Opens Parker Tours in a new tab