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Sandals takes a bite out of the 'Big Apple'
By Keith Collister Observer writer
Monday, March 03, 2008
It's inevitable. Soon now more New Yorkers will be escaping the icy chill of their northern climes to cavort in the warm blue waters of the Caribbean Sea and laze away on its sun-blessed beaches. Happens every time.
That is, every time that the formidable tag team of Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, Sandals Resorts chairman and his CEO son, Adam Stewart take on a North American city and roll out the Sandals and Beaches resorts marketing machine.
The dynamic duo of Gordon 'Butch' Stewart and his son, Adam Stewart pitching Sandals/Beaches Resorts to their New York audience recently.
It's the same pitch - Sandals/Beaches is about a "luxury-included vacation" that features watersports, spectacular suites, mahogany four-poster beds, plasma TVs, private plunge pools and jacuzzis, exclusive dining options, celebrated partnerships, lavish spas and even "the messiah" of English Butler service, the exclusive Robert Watson.
But New York's top travel media, and some of its key financial counterparts, turned out in impressive numbers to hear the message once again and enthusiastically pass it on to their readers and audience. It's something advertising dollars cannot buy.
Sandals' latest media assault began with a luncheon with senior travel and finance editors from the likes of Conde Nast Traveler, Citi Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and CNBC, among the always sought after media.
Philadelphia travel agent, Jennifer Doncsecz talking about how her life changed after her home-based travel agency placed first at the Sandals and Beaches' 2005 STAR Awards.
In his presentation at the Lever House, one of New York's trendiest restaurants, Adam Stewart struck a chord, saying for its luxury offerings, Sandals had tried to act as though it was starting with a "blank piece of paper", spending US$250 million over the last four years on their existing product. This meant a sharp increase in the size of their luxury rooms from the normal 300 to 400 square feet to 1,200 square feet.
"Butch" Stewart appealed to the entrepreneurial spirit of his American media audience, sharing his attention-grabbing story of how he started his first business, Appliance Traders Limited.
He noted too that his first Sandals hotel, purchased whilst run down and partially collapsed in 1981 amidst an economy "in wrack and ruin", had "good bones" from its original structural design by the great American architect Edward Durell Stone.
About the same time, he had taken a Club Med vacation, and being unimpressed by the small size of the rooms and Club Med's standard of only one restaurant, Stewart decided that his hotel should differentiate itself by being a true all inclusive and for couples only. He employed the same strategies of service exceeding the customers' expectations that he had used to build his air conditioning business.
Stewart shared with his rapt audience that the editor of a leading German travel magazine had recently told him that whenever they interview the CEO of an all inclusive chain, they always say they are better than Sandals. It's the quality by which they judge themselves.
"There is no point in building a $100-million hotel on a silly beach," is Stewart's philosophy.
Seven years ago, and especially in the last three to four, Stewart said he had decided that luxury was the way to go. For Sandals this had meant not just giving guests a multitude of restaurants, great bedrooms, scuba diving, tennis, squash etc, but the creation of new even higher end "Royal Plantation" luxury brand. Their original Ocho Rios, Jamaica property has been joined by their new Bahamian private island, whilst the former Dragon Bay in Port Antonio, Jamaica will be their third Royal Plantation when it is reopened.
One of the marketing coups of the trip was the father-son interview on Fox Business news, which was promoted by the network as an interview with the "Cupid of the Caribbean", valued because it gave the Stewarts coveted reach into the milieu of financial professionals and businessmen and women on a day when they might be more inclined to book a vacation.
The highlights of the marketing trip included a day spent with hundreds of travel agents who form a critical part of the Sandals/Beaches sales force.
Philadelphia travel agent, Jennifer Doncsecz held the audience with her inspiring story about the fortunes which followed the singling out of her home-based travel agency at the Sandals and Beaches' 2005 STAR Awards, where she placed first in the nation for group sales. That literally changed her life.
CNN Headline News picked up the story and did a profile on her company, VIP Vacations Inc, followed by her local paper. A month after receiving the award, she was asked by her local TV station to come in and host a monthly segment called Ask the Travel Agent. Now Doncsecz is the Philadelphia travel correspondent for Fox News, raising her profile and that of her agency to a national level, and providing her fellow travel agents with an inspirational example of what could be achieved through selling Sandals.
By Keith Collister Observer writer
Monday, March 03, 2008
It's inevitable. Soon now more New Yorkers will be escaping the icy chill of their northern climes to cavort in the warm blue waters of the Caribbean Sea and laze away on its sun-blessed beaches. Happens every time.
That is, every time that the formidable tag team of Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, Sandals Resorts chairman and his CEO son, Adam Stewart take on a North American city and roll out the Sandals and Beaches resorts marketing machine.
The dynamic duo of Gordon 'Butch' Stewart and his son, Adam Stewart pitching Sandals/Beaches Resorts to their New York audience recently.
It's the same pitch - Sandals/Beaches is about a "luxury-included vacation" that features watersports, spectacular suites, mahogany four-poster beds, plasma TVs, private plunge pools and jacuzzis, exclusive dining options, celebrated partnerships, lavish spas and even "the messiah" of English Butler service, the exclusive Robert Watson.
But New York's top travel media, and some of its key financial counterparts, turned out in impressive numbers to hear the message once again and enthusiastically pass it on to their readers and audience. It's something advertising dollars cannot buy.
Sandals' latest media assault began with a luncheon with senior travel and finance editors from the likes of Conde Nast Traveler, Citi Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times and CNBC, among the always sought after media.
Philadelphia travel agent, Jennifer Doncsecz talking about how her life changed after her home-based travel agency placed first at the Sandals and Beaches' 2005 STAR Awards.
In his presentation at the Lever House, one of New York's trendiest restaurants, Adam Stewart struck a chord, saying for its luxury offerings, Sandals had tried to act as though it was starting with a "blank piece of paper", spending US$250 million over the last four years on their existing product. This meant a sharp increase in the size of their luxury rooms from the normal 300 to 400 square feet to 1,200 square feet.
"Butch" Stewart appealed to the entrepreneurial spirit of his American media audience, sharing his attention-grabbing story of how he started his first business, Appliance Traders Limited.
He noted too that his first Sandals hotel, purchased whilst run down and partially collapsed in 1981 amidst an economy "in wrack and ruin", had "good bones" from its original structural design by the great American architect Edward Durell Stone.
About the same time, he had taken a Club Med vacation, and being unimpressed by the small size of the rooms and Club Med's standard of only one restaurant, Stewart decided that his hotel should differentiate itself by being a true all inclusive and for couples only. He employed the same strategies of service exceeding the customers' expectations that he had used to build his air conditioning business.
Stewart shared with his rapt audience that the editor of a leading German travel magazine had recently told him that whenever they interview the CEO of an all inclusive chain, they always say they are better than Sandals. It's the quality by which they judge themselves.
"There is no point in building a $100-million hotel on a silly beach," is Stewart's philosophy.
Seven years ago, and especially in the last three to four, Stewart said he had decided that luxury was the way to go. For Sandals this had meant not just giving guests a multitude of restaurants, great bedrooms, scuba diving, tennis, squash etc, but the creation of new even higher end "Royal Plantation" luxury brand. Their original Ocho Rios, Jamaica property has been joined by their new Bahamian private island, whilst the former Dragon Bay in Port Antonio, Jamaica will be their third Royal Plantation when it is reopened.
One of the marketing coups of the trip was the father-son interview on Fox Business news, which was promoted by the network as an interview with the "Cupid of the Caribbean", valued because it gave the Stewarts coveted reach into the milieu of financial professionals and businessmen and women on a day when they might be more inclined to book a vacation.
The highlights of the marketing trip included a day spent with hundreds of travel agents who form a critical part of the Sandals/Beaches sales force.
Philadelphia travel agent, Jennifer Doncsecz held the audience with her inspiring story about the fortunes which followed the singling out of her home-based travel agency at the Sandals and Beaches' 2005 STAR Awards, where she placed first in the nation for group sales. That literally changed her life.
CNN Headline News picked up the story and did a profile on her company, VIP Vacations Inc, followed by her local paper. A month after receiving the award, she was asked by her local TV station to come in and host a monthly segment called Ask the Travel Agent. Now Doncsecz is the Philadelphia travel correspondent for Fox News, raising her profile and that of her agency to a national level, and providing her fellow travel agents with an inspirational example of what could be achieved through selling Sandals.
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