Claudine Housen, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE CONTINUING apprehension of potential guests has forced the management of Sandals Whitehouse European Village and Spa to offer rooms at heavily discounted prices, despite the hotel's completion, according to general manager Jeremy Jones.
"Sandals Whitehouse has to be selling at 50 per cent to attract the kind of business that we want," Mr. Jones said. "We have never really been able to sell the place at 100 per cent. Even now in the middle of winter some of the clients here are at 30 per cent off or 40 per cent off."
He added, "For us to get the forward bookings that we need for March/April/May we have had to discount the rates again to get the phones ringing in the department."
Mr. Jones was speaking recently at the hotel's first annual staff awards, cocktails, a day before the resort's first anniversary.
Recalling the shortfalls and broken promises that plagued the 360-room hotel, Mr. Jones said the incident has tarnished the reputation of the entity.
"When we opened on February 10, of the 360 rooms we only had 120 available to us and each day we were then able to add more rooms but at the same time the developers had told us that we would have all 360 rooms so we were taking reservations with that in mind," he recounted. "So for the first two months of the hotel's operations we were giving away holidays because we made promises that we were not able to deliver. That can hurt your image without a doubt."
A LONG WAY TO GO
One year after opening its doors, Mr. Jones said there was still a long way for the hotel to go as competition from other hotels was making it difficult for the resort to gain its foothold in the industry.
Mr. Jones said he hoped to have the hotel booking at 100 per cent by winter 2006.
Last year Government, at the insistence of the parliamentary opposition, ordered an investigation into allegations of massive cost overrun in the construction of the property.
