Management of the Courtyard Marriott Hotel announced Friday it is closing down the hotel ‘for an extended period’ due to extensive water damage caused by Hurricane Paloma.
About 100 guests were transferred to the Marriott Beach Resort and other hotels, as construction experts and insurance adjusters evaluated the extent of the damage, according to the hotel’s general manager Dan Waters.
So far, no staff have lost their jobs, he said, and the hotel management is trying to place employees in its sister hotel or with other hotels.
Minister of Tourism Charles Clifford, along with representatives of the hotel’s owners and management, and officials from the Ministry of Tourism, Department of Tourism and Department of Employment Relations met Friday with staff to brief them and answer questions, according to a joint press release from the hotel and Department of Tourism.
‘The staff meeting focused on staff welfare which is the top priority and the Department of Employment Relations and the Ministry of Tourism will be continuously monitoring the situation,’ the press release stated.
Mr. Waters said on Friday: ‘As of right now, we don’t know the extent of the damage. It is very early in the process. We have construction teams and experts who are evaluation that.’
Insurance adjusters are also evaluating the damage.
‘We have relocated all the guests. The hotel is not in any shape to provide the services necessary to give them the experience they expect from the Cayman Islands,’ Mr. Waters said.
Mr. Waters said the hotel had taken in a lot of water through its roof, and hotel guest rooms and common areas had been affected.
The Gecko Beach Bar and Grill, across the road from the hotel on Seven Mile Beach, remains open.
Mr. Waters said that until the assessment of the damage was completed, no timeline for re-opening the hotel could be given.
The Caymanian Compass previously reported that the hotel planned to close for major renovations next year and its online reservation system was not allowing any bookings with a check-out date later than 28 June 2009.
Mr. Waters said that report was speculation and arrangements for any renovation of the hotel next year had not been finalised.
According to the press release circulated on Friday: ‘While the closure is regrettable, we recognise that the refurbishment of this property brings with it a real opportunity for a new and more competitive tourism product that will benefit employees and the destination in the long term.’
The five-storey, 204-room hotel was bought last year by Atlanta-based real estate development company Thomas Enterprises from the previous owners Columbia Sussex Corporation in Kentucky. It had operated in Cayman for seven years, first as a Holiday Inn and then as a Courtyard Marriott.
Thomas Enterprises, on its website, features a retail project consisting of 40,000 square feet on Seven Mile Beach, which it describes as ‘Luxury retail and dining surrounded with exclusive hotels and residences’. It states the site will offer an ‘excellent consumer draw’.
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