New Property makes Eco splash in Antigua

Despite being open late and only October 2007 the new Verandah resort in the south east of Antigua has already caused a great deal of excitement and satisfaction in the Caribbean Hotel scene. Set within the boundaries of a national park, the famous Devils Bridge is just a short walk away, the property, part of the Elite Resorts Group, set out from the beginning to offer high quality, good value accommodation in an eco –friendly environment. Combine this with high levels of service, food and entertainment and the theory is you have a winner.

The Verandah consists of 200 well appointed rooms all with generous living areas that allow guests a high level of independence should they so wish. The final 50 rooms will be finished by the end of the first quarter 2008 and all the rooms’ have either a poolside location or Seaview. Water to the rooms is supplied by a high tech low energy desalination plant that allows the resort to produce sufficient product for now and well into the future. Plans have even been discussed to examine the possibility of the hotel supplying other residents within the area.

Heating of the water is another area in which the resort excels. Each room has a device that allows the sunny warm conditions of the island to be maximised and allows the water to be heated to a level at which nobody could complain of ‘cold showers’. In the event of any shortfall in local electricity supplies the resort has its own low emission generator which again could if required produce sufficient energy to be used elsewhere on the island. The generator automatically kicks in at any time that the national supply fails and is frequently used during peak time demand.

The resort has deployed a number of other measures to ensure that it sails through the ‘Green’ certification it is currently applying for. These include using Electric cars on the estate, recyclable straws and other paper products (the straws are made from Corn!), high level sewage filtering (carried out on site) allowing all watering to be done on site without the need to use valuable drinking water and finally the resort has a very high level of sustainable plants and flowers that have been cultivated not only to be attractive but to ensure low levels of erosion occur.

Local food and drink is used wherever possible which includes the wonderful range of fish dishes on offer at the three restaurants. Service levels are of the highest order and delivered by locally employed personnel who are also given a high degree of training and awareness, especially of the environmental issues facing a modern establishment. The no-smoking advice in place throughout fits in with the modern policies of most leading resorts.

Despite the late opening occupancy levels have remained on plan and during December exceeded the 70% planned for. The vast majority of the business comes through the travel trade and of this 60% is from the UK and 40% from North America. Property Manager Cedric Henry is also planning to attract the MICE market and already has some considerable successes within his portfolio including meetings of Tourism Ministers in the Caribbean and local trade associations. In 2008 a number of major weddings have been booked (eight have already been handled in the hotels short history) including two whose numbers exceed 125 each.

Henry is the epitome of a modern property manager and makes good use of the web. He listens to what people are saying about his hotel and indeed makes some decision based upon these comments. Because of Trip Advisor feedback more beach facilities have been added, more poolside umbrellas purchased and better information provided to the hotel guest to let them know the contribution they are making by staying at an eco friendly hotel.

Its early days but the staff, the management and its clients are beginning to establish the Verandah as a model for other Caribbean resorts to follow.