The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net MEDIUM-sized Nassau hotels have seen business levels exceed expectations, with occupancies up between 4-7 percentage points, and exclusive properties such as Graycliff and the Paradise Island Beach Club enjoying between 75-90 per cent yearly averages. Baha Mar's senior vice-president of government and external Affairs, Robert Sands, said medium-sized properties such as his company's Sheraton Nassau Beach Resort & Casino and Wyndham, plus the British Colonial Hilton, have seen an unprecedented level of business - exceeding initial projections - since December. "The medium-sized hotels, the Sheraton, the British Colonial Hotel, the Wyndham have seen unprecedented levels of business exceeding forecasts since December, and certainly during the first two to three weeks of January, which is a very encouraging sign," Mr Sands said. "We are hoping that the amount of inquiries to our call centres continue, because that all bodes well for an industry that has been somewhat stagnant for a long period of time, so we are very encouraged by those results." He told Tribune Business: "These hotels may have seen an increase in terms of occupancy levels of 4-7 percentage points." The British Colonial Hilton's marketing and leisure sales manager, Latoya Moxey, while not divulging figures, told Tribune Business that the hotel had ended the 2011 fourth quarter strongly. She said: "So far, everything is looking very positive. We ended the fourth quarter very strong, and are starting very strong for the first quarter this year. We are really looking forward to a healthy 2012. "We are seeing growth all around in leisure as well as corporate. We have seen strong growth in corporate and steady growth in leisure." Ms Moxey said the hotel was in the final stages of refurbishing the exterior property. "We are getting ready to launch our beach club," she added. "It's going to be geared towards locals ,where we will be giving you a lot of amenities and features to stay on the property, similar to what you would expect to receive if you were a club member at one of the gated communities." Joel Grossman, executive director of the Association of Nassau Hotels, said many of the small hotels (90 rooms or less) in Nassau/Paradise Island have been performing well. "A perfect example of this is the Marley Resort," he added. "Only 14 rooms when it first opened, it was not doing well at all, and during the month of December they literally had no rooms available. I don't think they have any rooms in January. "Best Western does incredibly well because they have a good corporate base that has yearly and monthly rentals. Paradise Island Beach Club does well because it's timeshare and runs about 90 per cent occupancy." Mr Grossman added: "It's the same thing with Paradise Island Harbor Club and Marina, its occupancies are around 85 per cent year-round. Some of the larger hotels would love to be able to say that. Graycliff, it gets a lot of Europeans going there, and because it's downtown it's not on the beach. They average around 75 per cent year-round, but they more than make up for it when people have lunch and dinner at their restaurant."