Gay Nagle Myers
Striving to grab headlines while advertising a lodge renovation with a reopening day of Oct. 1 in the midst of a flurry of article-pandemic Caribbean reopenings, stacks up to a bit of a challenge.
Increase to the obstacle a rebranding of the assets below a new identify and its repositioning as a new entry in the luxury boutique sector.
Enter Patricia Affonso-Dass, team standard manager of Ocean Accommodations Group, three attributes on the south coast of Barbados. (She’s also the former president of the Caribbean Resort and Tourism Association.)
The Barbadian, loved ones-owned lodge group entered the hospitality small business in 1992. Its portfolio involves the obstacle: The quickly-to-open, all-inclusive O2 Seaside Club & Spa, the previous Ocean Two Vacation resort & Residences on Dover Beach in St. Lawrence Hole.
Affonso-Dass explained that the team was “assured” that O2 Beach Club and Spa would “choose heart stage in Barbados’ luxury boutique offerings with customized services, upscale lodging, world-course eating and the enjoyment, casual vibe of the south coast.”
The O2 identify, by the way, is a nod to the image of oxygen, “an element as purely natural and as lifestyle vital as the act of respiration,” she said.
The transformation of the Ocean Two Resort & Residences involves modern design, upgraded facilities, luxurious accommodations and heaps of community spaces in which to take it easy and lounge. O2 will welcome all ages.
“We want our attendees to truly feel like they’ve just turn out to be VIP customers of the coolest beach club in Barbados,” Affonso-Dass mentioned.
“We are marketing O2 to vacant nesters, our consumer foundation of guests from the U.K. and North The us and younger industry experts and people who want to experience the active, entertaining vibe of the south coastline,” she stated. “You will find plenty of vitality listed here, and we are putting our own spin on the vacation encounter with curated things to do like hiking, catamaran sailing and windsurfing lessons.”
O2 will have 130 rooms and suites, together with swim-up rooms and a new 9-story, 42-suite tower topped by a rooftop pool and wonderful dining cafe 3 pools (two are adult-only) 6 dining choices 7 bars (two are swim-up) Acqua Spa fitness centre with rooftop yoga classes a teenager lounge and every day lessons with topics these types of as making ready area recipes, participating in the steel pan drum and learning the fine art of taking part in dominoes like a neighborhood.
Accommodations fall into 3 Collections: Club options 18 significant oceanview or oceanfront hotel rooms with balconies Concierge delivers 70 one particular- and two-bed room suites with kitchens and add-ons these types of as personalized grocery services and complimentary spa therapies and Luxurious has grownup-only suites that include things like swim-up rooms with obtain to the river pool.
“Our reservations textbooks are open up, and we are offering for the Festive [holiday] period and winter season,” mentioned Jacqui McDermott, revenue and internet marketing supervisor of Ocean Inns Team.
All-inclusive charges at O2 get started at $482 for every space, for each night time, double in a Club home and at $963 for each area, per night, double in a Concierge Assortment 1-bedroom suite.
The Ocean Inns Team also consists of the all-inclusive Sea Breeze Beach front Property and the all-suite South Seaside Lodge in the vicinity of Rockley Beach. The 3 houses in the resort group adhere to rigid health and security Covid protocols, and Affonso-Dass mentioned she hoped to offer you on-web page testing for friends when they return to or enter the U.S. soon after their stay.
“Our information for our O2 visitors is that they are coming to a excellent desired destination and remaining at an all-inclusive luxurious property with a seaside vibe and really feel, with loads of notice devoid of pretension, in a pleasurable place of Barbados,” she explained.
McDermott mentioned that advisors are crucial to the results of the resorts. “We shell out commissions from 12% to 14% furthermore included incentives these types of as room upgrades and area welcome deals for their consumers,” she mentioned.
Ocean Inns Team has a loyalty benefits software for advisors. Those who register by July 15 are entered in a raffle to acquire a 7-evening keep at O2.