What benefits does the Elegant Resorts Barbados Office offer clients? Our proximity to the hotels and villas means that any issues or requests from clients can be dealt with quickly. Clients can come into the office when banking or shopping, which allows us to find out more about their likes and dislikes and get some general feedback on their holiday, the hotel or resort they’re staying in - we can even discuss plans for their next trip. Because we have storage for supplies we can present gifts, at short notice, for clients’ birthdays, a honeymoon or anniversary and we can order Valentine’s Day flowers or arrange Christmas decorations - for those villas that will allow it.
What sort of services can be pre-booked? There is no ‘typical day’ - every day brings different challenges and experiences. Each client has different expectations and we have to be extremely flexible and tailor each situation to meet them.
What’s the best part of your job? We can arrange just about everything from car hire, restaurant reservations, spa treatment reservations, catamaran cruises, island hops, island tours – taking a private island tour with a personal driver is very popular with our guests, so we recommend this quite a bit - to tickets for one-off events such as cricket, Holders Season, Gold Cup races, one-off concerts and the Harbour Lights show (a fantastic beach extravaganza with barbeques, local bands and entertainers, it’s great for the whole family). We can also arrange access for our clients to the Jet Centre (although this is on a first-come-first-served basis, as there are limited spaces available).
What sort of arrangements can you make? Some of the requests we’ve dealt with include: sunrise picnics (East or South Coast) and sunset picnics (West Coast), flowers or Champagne for special occasions such as a birthday, a honeymoon, an anniversary or a surprise engagement (we’ve had a couple of those), horse riding, parties for adults as well as children – we’ve arranged for a magician to attend a children’s party on one occasion - photo portraits for weddings or families, tickets to one-off events and even custom-made island tours.
Is there something particularly extra-special that you have arranged? Well, in addition to arranging the magician, we’ve organised a pirates’ birthday party in the Grenadines, sourced thirty-five roses for a wedding anniversary, had a client’ preferred wine delivered to him at the hotel, helped out a family who had an emergency, by negotiating with British Airways to waive the change of date fees and we also regularly liaise with the airlines so that on the days when they have to upgrade for overbooking or operational reasons – it’s our clients that benefit from the upgraded seating.
What activities and attractions do you recommend for the first-time visitor to Barbados? For such a tiny island we’ve got plenty to offer: catamaran cruises are great - Seaduced offer a customised cruise with a private chef, so that’s a great option for couples and families – the Atlantis submarine day or night dive is a “must-do” undersea voyage, the submarine can take you to a shipwreck 130 feet deep and the night dives use high powered spotlights to present a completely different view of the coral - Harrison’s Cave, is a mile long series of caverns filled with unusual stalactites and stalagmites formations, which you get to see as you travel through the caves by tram; at Earthworks Pottery the artists will happily stop and chat to you about what they’re making and the ceramics make lovely souvenirs to take home; there are tropical gardens to visit and an Open Garden Programme (it runs at certain times of the year but we can find out where and when and arrange a driver for those clients who want to visit). At St Nicholas Abbey you can take a tour of the great house (home to some beautiful antiques) visit the rum and sugar museum and a steam mill and rum distillery - the Morgan Lewis mill is the only mill on the island still in operation but it’s only open from the end of January through to March. Island tours with our driver are popular whilst the Wildlife Reserve is a great option for families (feeding time for the green monkeys, is usually between 2pm and 3 pm). The Harbour Lights and Dinner Show held on a Monday and Wednesday, is a great way to appreciate our island’s rhythmic and party roots.
What activities and experiences do you recommend for repeat visitors to Barbados who may have already visited the main tourist attractions? For those guests that have been before and want to experience something different we can arrange private polo lessons at Apes Hill, and the Seaduced catamaran with private chef, is a recent addition so perhaps not everybody’s experienced that - we can also alert them to special exhibitions and one-off events at the art galleries, car enthusiasts might like to attend the Sol Car rally, the event has played host to more than 350 drivers and co-drivers representing nearly thirty countries and is seriously competitive, as is the round the island yacht race (held in May), it’s definitely one of the best regattas in the Caribbean, with a host of social events before and after sailing, that we can arrange for our clients to attend.