The Tribune

By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The British Colonial’s general manager yesterday affirmed the resort is “being very conservative” following its re-opening so as not to “overwhelm our staff” with a sudden surge in visitor demand.

Dan McDermott said initial occupancies at the downtown Nassau property is where the resort projected them to be, but management remains keen to avoid selling rooms at the “wrong price point” until they better understand the market response.

He explained that staff are still being trained and using new software and, while daily room rates will likely increase, the resort is taking a “stair step” approach to ramping up its business following some $100m in renovations under owner, China Construction America (CCA).

Mr McDermott said: “We’re being very conservative. I mean, we could sell more rooms, but we don’t want to sell at the wrong price point. I mean, I could throw a $200 rate out there and I’d sell out every night. But I think, at the same time, we’re just going to be more of a stair step approach to selling rooms.

“We don’t want to go out there and overwhelm our staff. We want to make sure everybody’s ready on the training side, and then we also want to make sure all of our systems are in place, whether it be IT or any other variable items that may be affected.

“We’re being cautious and we don’t want to really throw numbers out there yet, because my owners may increase the budget. But I think occupancies are where we projected. I think the rates are probably going to be a little bit higher.”

Mr McDermott said the just-renovated resort includes a new pool area and outdoor meeting space, and he expects business travellers - its core market prior to closure in early 2022 - to return to the property so that it caters to both business and leisure guests.

He added: “I think the business traveller has always been the lifeblood of this property. I don’t think that goes away. I just think it’s much more of a resort than it ever was. The pool areas are entirely different. They added a new pool, they changed the entire pool deck. They actually added 15,000 square feet of outdoor meeting space, which adds another element to our group business.

“But I think the business travellers are going to come back. I think they’re missing this property. I think it’s an easier business hotel than some of the other properties around and, at the same time, business travellers like to come in a little bit early and they also like to leave a little late. So you’re going to create more of a business, or a business and leisure caste, which is a combination stat.”

Mr McDermott said additional restaurants, as well as the banquets and catering section, will be launched in February 2024 so the resort will not be hosting events until that time.

He added: “We do have some restaurants coming online early February, which would be like the sushi restaurant, the fine dining restaurant… and then banquets and catering is still trailing behind, and that’s also going to impact our group business because, if you can’t do the catering, it’s going to be hard to get the group business.

“It’s going depend a lot on the meeting space and more of the kitchens. We’re just finishing up some things there, which is really why we’re not selling more event space at this time. So it’s probably early February before we really get the events moving.”

The British Colonial will employ more than 300 staff, and Mr McDermott said that once the restaurants and events are online they will be “very close” to that number.

He added: “I think we’re getting there. I mean, we have some people on hold just because the restaurants are on hold and the event space. So, once the restaurants come back online, and those are new concept restaurants - these aren’t restaurants that were there before - and once the meeting space gets online we’ll be very close to that 300 number.”