Sandals All-Inclusive

Until recently, I never knew Sandals remains a private company.  I assumed the chain must be owned by some huge conglomerate, but the founder, Butch Stewart, still owns and runs the business, with the help of his 30 year-old son, Adam Stewart, who is now his CEO.

At the 2011 Sandals MORE Inclusions Spring Seminar which I attended at the Marriott in Manhattan Beach, Butch let Adam do most of the talking, but Butch was the star.  When he enterred the room, Butch received a standing ovation from the 400 travel agents in attendance.  If you click on his hyperlinked name above, you can learn more about this fascinating individual's amazing story, but he is reverred by travel agents for his  bulwark support of the travel industry.  We send our clients to Sandals knowing they will enjoy the time of their life, as their theme song claims, knowing Sandals NEVER undercuts the travel agent price to encourage direct booking.

Butch is from Jamaica, where he managed to build a successful distribution company despite disastrous socialist government that almost ruined the country in the 1970s.  In 1981, with the economy still in ruin and the future unclear, he bought a couple of run down hotels which he built into his first all-inclusive Jamaica resort 30 years ago. "If I had known what I was doing, I would never have bought those hotels."

At the time, there weren't many nice resort properties in Jamaica, but he did well, buying another hotel and converting it to Sandals. In 1988, a hurricane swept through Jamaica, and his properties looked as bad as the photos we've seen out of New Orleans and Haiti after their big hurricanes or the recent post-tsunami shots in Japan. One picture showed what looked like an upside down yacht laying diagonally through what used to be the ocean facing wall and ceiling. Because his had become the best properties in Jamaica, the news people swooped in and asked if he would rebuild.

"If?" he asked. "I will rebuild in 12 weeks." Everybody thought he was crazy, so the networks kept sending reporters to check on his progress. As the weeks went by, he proceeded to oversee the contruction and talk with reporters, who were doubtful right up to the point the resorts re-opened, 12 weeks later. What they saw as a disaster Butch saw as a challenge with the added advantage of free publicity. All the publicity made it the most successful winter Sandals had ever had to that point. Now, Butch owns 30 resorts in Jamaica, the Bahamas and St. Lucia.

He has expanded into the family market with Beaches, and recently introduced a cheaper line called Grand Pineapple.

At the same time, Sandals and Beaches keep being remodeled and refurbished, and they're also buying some from other operators, converting them to his successful model of the MOST luxury inclusive resorts on the planet.

Butch bought a Four Seasons Resort, which of course is already a brand known for quality, and then spent $80 million upgrading it. That is Sandals Emerald Bay Resort, and it has a killer Greg Norman desiged golf course.  That one charges green fees, but in Jamaica, you have free green fees on a great course with awesome views, although you do have to pay about $20 for a mandatory caddie and about the same for a motorized cart, if desired.  St. Lucia only has a 9 hole course currently, but it's beautiful, priced like the Jamaica course and scheduled for expansion to 18 holes.  Sandals has a philsophy of "stay at one, play at all" that expands to golf as well as restaurants, resort grounds, nightclubs, restaurants and watersports, so you don't have to stay at the most expensive property closest to the course.

They're still expanding in other ways too, including having cleared hurdles after four years of environmental review to start building overwater bungalows at some of their resorts, like in Tahiti and the Maldives, except his overwater bungalows will also have personal overwater swimming pools and hot tubs for the private use of each bungalow, and of course a butler to serve meals by course in their dining areas.

Recently they added Martha Stewart Weddings to the free inclusion menu for couples staying in one of the amazing suites.

In a similar vein, Beaches, which are their family properties, co-brands with Sesame Street and XBox to appeal to the decision makers in many families.  As Butch said, keep the kids happy, and you keep the mother happy.  Keep the mother happy, and she'll make the father happy.

And for those of you who don't think creating pleasure for your customers and creating jobs in an economy isn't enough, Butch also started and primarily funds the Sandals Foundation, which helps island children with tuition for secondary and tertiary schools or for special projects like Haiti post-hurricane aide.  He also sends Big Bird and other Sesame Street characters into Caribbean neighborhoods to teach poor children and their parents about good nutrition and not being litterbugs.

There are lots of all-inclusive resorts out there.  Some are, as Adam Stewart said, "solid two star" properties where the elevators and air conditioning break down regularly, while some are quite good.  But Sandals an Beaches have "MORE Luxury Inclusions than any resorts on the planet."