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Jolly Beach Resort & Spa has recently undergone some big renovations. Gary Noakes outlines the changes and notes what’s yet to come at the island’s biggest hotel.
It might not have the kudos of Barbados’s Sandy Lane and there are definitely no celebrities staying there, but Antigua’s Jolly Beach Resort & Spa is arguably just as important to its island’s tourism industry.
The three-star property has 464 rooms – almost a quarter of Antigua’s 2,000 total capacity under one roof– and accounts for 30% of all UK bookings. After a period of closure due to the financial difficulties of one of its investors, it is now back in operators’ programmes and, since January, has been managed by Elite Island Resorts.
Antigua is in the throes of doubling its room stock, but until it does, Jolly Beach is simply too big to fail. “If this hotel had closed down, I’m almost certain we would have lost the British Airways and Virgin Atlantic flights,” says Brian D’Ornellas, Elite’s director of development. “It’s a very valuable property in that sense because it fills the back of the plane.”
Elite stepped forward to save Jolly Beach. The hotel group now boasts 67% of Antigua’s room stock, having just purchased the island’s Pineapple Beach Club from Sandals, adding it to a portfolio that includes the Verandah Resort & Spa, St James’s Club Resort & Villas and Galley Bay Resort & Spa.
D’Ornellas, an architect, is in charge of revamping and upgrading Jolly Beach. He oversaw a similar renovation at the property 15 years ago, but this time, the job is much bigger.
One of his first tasks was to upgrade the beach area, and D’Ornellas points out that it is in fact the oldest hotels in Antigua that feature the best beaches. Walking the vast 2,200-foot-long stretch of white sand, it’s easy to draw the conclusion that while Jolly Beach might be three-star, its beach is firmly five-star, particularly now work is complete.
“The beach was a free-for-all for vendors – they’re now in new shops that we’ve built and only licensed traders are allowed. It will be policed and there will be no more driving on the beach,” he says.
The focus on the beach area is understandable as this is what most clients come for. Likewise, the hotel’s gardens have been given a makeover, with hundreds of diseased coconut trees removed and new plantings made. The rooms are equally important and D’Ornellas has a big task on his hands.
“Our main goal is to get 400-odd ready by the end of the summer and the other 68 by the autumn.” Those last 68 are not in use at the moment, and bringing the whole property back online will be a considerable investment. Rooms will gain new bathrooms, new TVs, soft furnishings, patio and balcony furniture. The first phase is costing $2 million, but there is more to come.
Elite’s management contract is only for 12 months, but a 25-year lease is being negotiated. And once finalised, heavy maintenance – such as new doors and windows – will be carried out. A block of 78 larger rooms in the original building may be upgraded further to offer an upmarket option. “We think it’s going to cost an additional $6 million over the next 18 months to two years,” D’Ornellas says.
He believes that Antigua’s pipeline of new hotels will mean the island’s industry will be “in a totally different situation” in only a few years, but says that Jolly Beach’s popularity will be unaffected, as new developers will always favour higher grade properties. “If you try to build one of this size, it won’t end up being a three-star.”
He adds: “We’re going to make this a solid three-star– and one that’s on the best beach in Antigua.”
