In December at Sandals annual STAR awards (Sandals Travel Agency Recognition), our agency was awarded for the 3rd year in a row as a Sandals and Beaches “Best of the Best” agency. To top that off I was personally inducted into an elite group of top-selling Sandals agents, the “Sandals Chairman’s Royal Club”, which has less than 100 agents worldwide. Quite an honor, but also big responsibility.
The owner, founder and Chairman of Sandals resorts, Mr. Gordon “Butch” Stewart, is a huge advocate in the use of travel agents. As such, he highly respects the ideas, input and opinions of those agents that are well versed in his resorts. Approximately once a quarter, Sandals hosts a “chairman’s retreat” for top agents and they are invited for a “think-tank” weekend.
I traveled to Sandals Royal Bahamian for my very first retreat recently, and really got a much better picture of the inner workings of the company. We spent a very long but productive day in intense discussion over things such as promotions, resort updates, new ideas, marketing, client feedback, suggestions for changes and the like. Not only were Mr. Stewart and his son, Adam (CEO of Sandals resorts) present during the event, but every single department head throughout the company was there as well.
And you know what? They listen to what we and our clients have to say, which is one of many reasons I love their resorts so much. They care about the opinions, concerns and praise we bring from our many clients we send there, and they are willing to make changes that continually improve their properties and the guest experience.
