THE 168 ROOMS to be utilized at the Almond Resorts property while construction plans are ongoing will be available to tourists from January 16, says Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy.
He informed the House Tuesday that the same operator working with Government to run the Hotel & Resorts Limited (HRL) properties, Savannah and Time Out At the Gap, had entered into a deal with Government involving 168 rooms in a management arrangement led by the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc.
This arrangement would last until Town and Country Planning permission is given to begin reconstruction on the Almond property.
Sealy, speaking on a resolution to approve a guarantee by the Minister of Finance of $5.55 million to be borrowed by HRL from the RBC Royal Bank (Barbados) Limited to facilitate debt repayments, said $5 million had been made available to the operator of the 168 rooms, which would be in operation from January 16.
“So we will get a good chunk of the winter season,” he said, noting that a conference slated for April was also being discussed, with the possibility of 100 rooms being utilized at the Heywoods, St Peter venue.
“It is a case where, for a minimal level of investment, you will have use of these rooms. We haven’t had to fork out $300 million in debt to get these rooms,” he emphasized.
Regarding the HRL properties, he said these were some of the worst on the South Coast, with a debt hovering around $300 million, along with money unaccounted for in relation to the dilapidated Eastry House, when the present Government came to office in 2008.
He said that with HRL, commonly known as GEMS, Government had decided to “end the rot” and to use an experienced hotel operator to run Savannah Hotel and Time Out At The Gap.
This had resulted, he said, in Savannah Hotel now employing 136 people and enjoying rates of US$270 per night and occupancy percentages in the high 80s, compared with the 20 to 30 per cent occupancy in previous years.
He said Government had responded well to the lament about “tired” hotel properties, and he was therefore firm in his belief that Government should get into creative arrangements with the private sector instead of trying to run hotels as the previous administration had sought to do.
Regarding the current Sandals “sweet” deal, he said the main issue of contention was food and beverage since all the other things that Sandals was getting with respect to operational concessions and construction inputs were already being enjoyed in the tourism sector.
He also reminded that “you couldn’t want a better sweetheart deal than Sapphire, prime beachfront property, $1 for 99 years, in the dark of night, in the dying stages of a Government”.
Expressing full confidence in Government’s decisions on the hotel sector, he added, “if you’re being criticized by the Barbados Labour Party, then you are right on the side of history”. (RJ)