The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

SANDALS Royal Bahamian’s general manager yesterday estimated the resort would spend just under $1 million to carry out repairs to areas damaged by Hurricane Sandy, telling Tribune Business that its occupancy levels were near 80 per cent at the time of the storm.

“The main damage that we got was to the two piers of the hotel; one houses our Gordon’s restaurant and the Sunset Bar, and that one is pretty extensively damaged,” said Patrick Drake.

“The other one is an area we use for a lot of our spa treatment and functions. That is also extensively damaged. We have already started the rehabilitation work on both areas. We need to push fast because we have a pretty significant event coming at the end of November. The [Sandals] island has also suffered some damage from the sea surge, so there is a lot of clean up work, but again we have had our work crews get over there.”

Mr Drake added: “I think the total costs of repairs will come in just under $1 million. There is a significant workforce needed to get the place cleaned up and landscaping in order.”

Mr Drake said that clean-up and repairs were being expedited, with the resort set to host the Star Awards in a few weeks for its top travel agency partners from the US, Canada and the UK.

“We have what we call our Star Awards, when we celebrate all the travel trade persons who are our top producers group wise, so they all come down,” Mr Drake said.

“We have not hosted it here in the Bahamas for about five years. It’s a pretty significant time because it allows us to showcase the improvements and renovations that have been going on this past year. It’s a good opportunity for public relations, marketing and showing off the Bahamas, which we are always trying to do. We are looking at close to 400 participants for that.”

The event, Mr Drake said, will provide a significant boost in occupancy. “We will be at 100 per cent at that time,” he said, noting that the resort was running at just under 80 per cent during Hurricane Sandy.

“We did something that we don’t think any other hotel has done, that is we actually gave back the stays of all the guests who were in house during that time,” Mr Drake said.

“We don’t mess around when it comes to our customer satisfaction, and we just figure that whenever we are unable to deliver that sort of flawless type vacation, regardless if it’s in our control or not, we figured it was prudent to allow them to come back next year and give them credit or future stay travel. All the restaurants are operational. There was a lot of beach clean up that had to be done. There were about 30 coupes who left before their stay was over. Some people stayed through it and have been enjoying themselves. We had almost 80 per cent occupancy at the time. It’s a good problem to have.”