Every one of these sunsets is as evocative as the last for Adam Stewart, boss of Sandals Resorts International; as twilight dawned in the early stages of the pandemic, he would tear himself away from the rolling news telling him the sky was falling in and gaze out of the window.
“Everything was so picturesque and tranquil,” he recalls. “I got caught up in this euphoric world of beauty and thought: ‘There’s just no goddamn way people are going to stop coming’.”
He was right. Sandals began welcoming guests again in June 2020 under a comprehensive Covid protocol. “I’ll never forget our first positive case – in the early days, people were turning up in hazmat suits,” says Stewart.
“Today, Covid is part of normal life. The fear factor for the consumer is much lower. They’re actually part of the solution. They don’t try to flaunt or break the rules.”
It’s mid-April when we meet in London; nation by nation, the Caribbean is returning to “what was once normal”. “There’s been a shift in the past 60 days,” he tells me. “As the restrictions have lifted, there’s been a surge in people’s mental state, they feel they can safely commune again and be human.”
Every Sandals hotel, room and amenity, is open, and demand is fearsome. Sandals’ revamped Nassau resort, Royal Bahamian, reopened in January after a US $55 million renovation, while Sandals Royal Curacao opens on 1 June. “We were running out of inventory,” Stewart admits, a remarkable problem to have considering the Covid turmoil.
Thankfully, there’s more in the pipeline. “When Covid came along, I could see my father thinking: ‘What do we do now? Might as well buy some more hotels!” smiles Stewart (his dad, Sandals’ irrepressible founder Gordon “Butch” Stewart, died in January 2021).
And buy they did; besides Nassau and Curacao, there are several other properties in the works, including Sandals Dunn’s River and Beaches Runaway Bay. “My father grew up not far away [from Runaway Bay],” says Stewart. “One of our competitors had the resort there, and I could always tell Dad coveted it – not for the hotel, but for the beach. It’s one of the best in Jamaica.”
Sandals will demolish the current property to build the new Beaches resort, and the business also plans to take the Beaches brand to St Vincent and the Grenadines. The island, he explains, is broadly undiscovered by tourists as it didn’t gain an international airport until February 2017.
“It’s really boutique, just Mom and Pop’s family businesses and premium brands. We’re on the west coast – a magic trait of Sandals as the trade winds in the Caribbean are easterly so the west is always calm. When the sun sets, from a romance and family point of view, it’s what dreams are made of.”
Stewart previously revealed to TTG Sandals has the real estate to more than double in size. It’s apt, in Sandals’ 40th anniversary year, that Stewart characterises the firm’s new product – Nassau, Curacao, Dunn’s River and Runaway Bay – as “next-level”. His current focus is Curacao, which is already on sale through the trade in the UK.
“We’ve done quite a lot of activity,” says Karl Thompson, managing director of Sandals’ UK tour operator Unique Caribbean Holidays Ltd. There’s new online training for agents, plus e-guides on Curacao and KLM flight options. The brand’s on-the-road team will be delivering training too.
Thompson praises the closer relationship his team now share with their US counterparts. “It helps us be more agile and quicker to market. Everything we put out to agents and customers in the US is available in the UK,” he explains.
“We know we’re expensive, particularly in the all-inclusive category,” Stewart continues. “Dad took the view you wanted product where the customer goes back to the agent to thank them for recommending it, even if it was more expensive.
“I remember when everyone was talking about agents disappearing. During Covid, people who booked through an agent spoke to a human being. Try speaking to a human being at a bank. It’s almost impossible. In our world, we’re people-powered.
“The more complicated we make our product, the more relevant agents become explaining it. We love our agents being in our resorts so they’re able to talk first-hand about it. We still believe in the agent community and the power they have.”
Stewart’s stance breeds confidence. “It means agents have better earning potential,” he says. Average booking values have increased to £6,700 for a 10-night stay, up by a night versus pre-Covid levels. People are upgrading too, says Thompson, and there are more multigenerational bookings. “We’re regularly getting £50,000-£100,000 bookings. For agents earning generous commission, it’s serious money to them.”
Sandals continues to offer price parity in the UK, while Thompson’s trade team of 10 remains intact. The firm’s trade business has increased during the pandemic too, up from 45% to 50%. “We’ve come out more robust,” says Thompson.
Stewart, meanwhile, reiterates the importance of agents. “I say to my team, ‘pick a place you know nothing about. Then try to figure it out on Google’. The power of the agent is when a client hears, ‘yes, I know this brand, I’ve been there, this is what you can expect’. They inspire confidence. What we’re doing in Curacao can’t be explained by a few pictures on a website.”
Sandals is working on 40 projects to mark its 40th anniversary, some leaning – Stewart says – into his father’s legacy. Perhaps the most ambitious is a Jamaica-based hospitality school in his name, bringing together institutions in the Caribbean and US while utilising the expertise within Sandals. “Some of the key guest lecturers will be Sandals’ leaders,” Stewart reveals.
Inheriting such a legacy is no mean feat, especially during a pandemic, but Stewart is unfazed. Like his dad, he derives as much confidence from his team as he instils in them. “My dad used to say there are dreamers and there are doers. Lots of people have ideas, making them happen is another thing. Elon Musk had a huge dream, he saw stuff so far away – and yet he did it.
“The greatest ideas cannot be actualised without people and teams. We’re on a major growth trajectory; as the company gets bigger, it feels like the management team is acting more as one. I’m incredibly confident about the team leading Sandals into the future.”
