Business View Caribbean - April 2016 103
grade and upscale. It provided more luxurious rooms,
painted in warm, natural colors, added decorative
artwork, four-poster beds, upgraded bed linens, new
drapes and cushions, and a choice of pillow fills: feath-
er, cotton, or down. All guestrooms have flat screen
TV’s, complimentary high-speed, wireless Internet ser-
vice, direct dial telephones with voice mail and speaker
phone, cable television with premium sport and movie
channels, a work desk, an in-room coffee/tea maker,
a clock radio/alarm, an iPod docking station, and a
refrigerator. Bathrooms have been re-done to include
floor-to-ceiling marble tiles, glass-encased showers
with extended massage shower heads, decorative art,
oversized plush bath towels, a beveled, oversized mir-
ror, a granite basin counter top with mahogany frame
and recessed face basin, Kohler bathroom fixtures,
and a complete line of up-scale Bath & Body Works
amenities.
“Once you’re in the hotel industry, you’re always up-
grading,” explains Hendrickson. “We’re at the tail end
of installing new windows. Like most hotels, a lot of our
exterior walls are glass. So, we’re now in the process
of finalizing the last two floors out of eleven. The glass
has been ordered - double pane, energy saving glass
which is also soundproof.”
In Hendrickson’s case, in addition to upgrading the
Courtleigh, he has also been upgrading his portfolio
of hotel properties, having made an impressive series
of acquisitions over the last several years. “There has
been quite an evolution within the group,” he begins,
modestly. “In 2002, we opened the Knutsford Court
Hotel, with 143 bedrooms; in 2008, we acquired the
Holiday Inn Resorts in Montego Bay, and that’s 510
bedrooms; in 2011, we acquired a majority share inter-
est in the Jamaica Pegasus, right beside the Courtle-
