The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

A Green Turtle Cay hotel operator yesterday said the property is losing $30,000 in room revenue per month after Hurricane Dorian’s devastation forced its likely closure until late summer 2020.

Molly McIntosh, general manager of the Bluff House Beach Hotel, told Tribune Business: “I don’t have any water and any power, but Bahamas Power and Light (BPL) has made some progress and there is some power on the island but it has not gotten by me as yet. They have power in town, but only for a few homes. I am guessing late summer we will be open.”

She added that the hotel was losing “in room revenue about $30,000 a month, and that is not including our restaurant or our marina”, as a result of its Dorian-enforced shuttering.

“The people of Green Turtle Cay are really working together, and I think the Green Turtle Club will be open on March 1. That will be great for the whole island,” Ms McIntosh said. “Bluff House will be back; we just got a lot more damage.”

Speaking to the property’s insurance claim, she said: “The owners are negotiating with the insurance companies, but when they are done with the negotiations we will be able to rebuild our marina.”

“Our people come from South Florida. At least 70 percent of our visitors are from South Florida who want to get away from the heat and come to our marina to relax and cool off. But our heavy season starts February, March, April and then June and July it gets very busy; you can’t find a room or golf cart or boat or anything.”

Dr Larry Carroll, managing director of south Abaco’s Sandpiper Inn at Schooner Bay, told Tribune Business: “We’re doing well. Things have finally settled down with Bahamas Power & Light. They have gotten their functioning right. The power cuts have gone from seven a day to maybe one every three or four days, and the last one I experienced was only a half an hour.”

While he has not tried to forecast what the Christmas season will look like, he added: “We’re just looking to see if we can get bookings every week or so. The restaurant is now open, and people that have second homes there and have come down from the north, they are now starting to come back and have lunch and dinner as they used to.”

Expressing optimism over the short-term outlook, Dr Carroll said: “We are also getting travellers who are home customers still coming down and wanting to go fishing, so we are getting bookings from them. Hopefully as we go into December we will start seeing more.”

The Sandpiper Inn is marketing more than in the past, he added, while saying: “I’m concerned that Bahamians, for whatever reason; we have been advertising for years that Bahamians can come to the Out Islands, stay in our hotels and get us to pay for their airfare.

“But the average Bahamian, if you ask them about the ‘two fly free’ programme, they don’t have a clue. Maybe as a result of the storm more of us became exposed that maybe they can decide to come to Abaco or go wherever. The foreign tourists know about us because we are on Expedia and Tripadvisor and Google travel, but the locals don’t have a clue.”