Belmond Cap Juluca has been the first hotel in Anguilla to reopen on Sunday, November 1, the same day of the Government’s reopening of the island’s tourism industry – the beginning of the second phase to reopen the ports to tourists. Two guests arrived at Cap Juluca and were warmly welcomed there.
“We are very proud that we were the first hotel to reopen as phase two began,” General Manager, Mr. Tiago Sarmento, told The Anguillian newspaper. “It was quite a lot of work and coordination with the Health and Tourism Ministries. Even before phase two was announced, we targeted for the reopening of Cap Juluca to start on that very same day. A lot of processes were crafted as we came along over the past two months, and our goal was to be part of the team which helped to craft this path.
“We were the first hotel to submit and invite the Ministries, in August, to see how we envisioned to open back Anguilla and the resort in a safe manner. Belmond worldwide has been running hotels and resorts since Covid came in March in a very safe way, so we had a lot of best practices – not only hygiene and sanitary practices – but from an operational standpoint in a 360 perspective that was tested in our properties. It is not just a theory. We had the benefit of having a lot of our hotels operating through the summer in many countries which have gone through Covid in a very successful manner. It is crucial to our economy to bring back our Julucans to work in a safe manner.
“We had two-check-ins on Sunday. People might think that is not very successful, but the way I measured success was to see the smile on the faces of our Julucans coming back to work, going through the training and getting this property to an immaculate condition – and that’s priceless – when you see your people you admire, love and enjoy to work with, being happy to be able to serve our guests again.”
Mr. Sarmento continued: “The Health Authority has been rolling out some fantastic training which we very much appreciate, and it helps not only in knowing what to do and how to manage Covid but, most importantly, educating the society. There are certain rules that you need to follow and, if you follow them correctly, then you are in a safe environment. So I think this training around the island that our Julucans have been part of, has been crucial to educate the society about something that is new to Anguilla. Of course, we have done our own training based on the Belmond standards, related to Covid and service standards. Having in mind that the property was closed for seven months, it is very important to refresh everyone’s memories in terms of luxury service standards and also Covid.”
Mr. Sarmento said that after the closure of Belmond Cap Juluca, there was a need to take care of Julucans. “Taking care of our staff and our people in the community is in the DNA of Belmond,” he stated. “I arrived in Anguilla just before Hurricane Irma and the months after Irma were extremely challenging. From an emotional standpoint, as the island closed, I right away reached out to my superiors in Belmond and told them I didn’t want to go through another year and our employees were not taken care of. Right away Belmond Corporate agreed that we had to find a way to take care of them financially. We got all the approvals done and we were able to do several things that I think were important to keep our people afloat. A lot of them stopped working on the 20th of March and, at the end of March, we paid them their full salary as if they were actually working. During the past seven months we had fifty to sixty staff members who kept on working to maintain the property. They were in landscaping, some were administrative staff and others in culinary. As we reopen now, we have amazing new menus and new beverage lists based on the market and what it really wants.
“As we could only reemploy fifty to sixty staff, throughout the closure period, we came up with a dollar-a-month that we could share with every Julucan to help them with their basic needs. We planned to give a financial contribution to all employees who were not working. That amount rose from 400 to 440 US dollars per month which was based on a 20-dollar per non-work day…That’s what we thought was the best way to take care of our people. I know it is not a lot and I wish we could have done more. We have already spent more than a million dollars just for this financial support.”
Mr. Sarmento added: “These are unprecedented times and one thing special about Anguilla is that we are all our brothers’ keepers; and I am so proud and honoured to be in a company that allows this to be possible in such unprecedented times.
“The economy is starting to be reactivated, which is very important, and I sincerely hope that, slowly, but surely, we all will find ourselves in a safe way to participate in the reshaping of the economy.”
