The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Nassau Wyndham Resort’s “mid-$90s” room rates are “not good enough” and between 23-30 per cent below where they need to be, a Baha Mar executive yesterday conceding that the guest experience was being impacted by construction work on the $2.6 billion Cable Beach expansion.

Robert Sands, Baha Mar’s senior vice-president of governmental and executive affairs, told Tribune Business that the resort owner and developer had taken steps to mitigate the spillover impact from the construction, after “increasingly getting concerns” expressed by Wyndham guests.

The Wyndham’s room rates had averaged in the mid-$90 range for the year to-date, Mr Sands said, adding that for a property of its nature they should be in the $130-$135 per night bracket.

Occupancies at the Wyndham were running in the high 60 per cent-low 70 per cent range for 2012 to-date, rather than the target mid-80 per cent level.

And, while the Sheraton resort was insulated to a certain extent by the Wyndham from the Cable Beach construction, Mr Sands said that property’s room rates - currently in the $150 per night range - “should really” be $30 higher and closer to $180 per night.

“The Sheraton is somewhat protected by the Wyndham, but the Wyndham is increasingly getting concerns expressed by travellers because of the construction close by,” Mr Sands told Tribune Business .

In response, Baha Mar had moved the front desk location and taken other measures, especially as two accommodation towers at the Wyndham - the ‘F’ and ‘J’ blocks - were currently being taken down to make way for Baha Mar’s $2.6 billion Cable Beach redevelopment.

“It’s something that we have to work on, and are monitoring very closely,” Mr Sands said of the impact on Wyndham guest experience.

“It’s having some impact on the ability of the Wyndham to be as robust as we’d like it to be. We’re doing the best we can to mitigate it - the fact it’s next door to a construction site and there’s some noise at intermittent parts of the day.”

While occupancies for today’s July 4 Independence Day celebrations in the US and upcoming week/weekend were relatively strong, Mr Sands said the Wyndham’s rates for 2012 to-date - hovering below $100 at an average mid-$90s level - were “not good enough”.

“It should be at least $30-$35 higher than that for this particular property,” Mr Sands conceded to Tribune Business.

“The Wyndham hasn’t even hit the $100s, it’s in the mid-$90s in terms of the average rate for the year so far. With the Wyndham, I would say we wish we were doing better.”

While the Wyndham’s occupancy levels were trending in the “high 60 per cent-bordering in the 70 per cents”, the Baha Mar executive added that its “value-added proposition” meant occupancy rates needed to be in the mid-80 per cent bracket.

“To be down in the high 60 to mid-70 per cents, with a less than $100 room rate, is not the best position to be in at the moment,”Mr Sands added.

“The Sheraton is faring better, as it has a better average daily room rate and has seen some improvement over last year in terms of occupcny, in line with the trends taking place nationally.

“The Sheraton is part of that move, but even though it’s improved it still has larger room for growth.”

Mr Sands told Tribune Business that the Sheraton’s room rates were averaging “$150sh per night, but we really should be doing $180sh”.