February 2017 |Business View Caribbean

50 51 Chabil Mar Resort Belize so they could sun out on the pier, and it gave us more space for dining activities and private res- ervations.The area that we call Café Mar,which is a decked area right on the beach, seated about 20 people when it was originally built, and we doubled the size of it, so it seats close to 40,with one area carved out as lounge. Last year,we add- ed outdoor showers.We also expanded our bar and lounge area that originally seated just eight people and we expanded it to a seating of 15 and then added a lounge attached to the bar.Those were the major projects.” France says that Chabil Mar closes down each year, for the month of October, which, along with September, are the two slowest months for tourism in Belize. But that doesn’t mean that the staff goes home; employees are kept on the payroll and shifted into other jobs, in- cluding major maintenance work–painting, or rebuilding, or expanding different amenities of the property. “Every two years, we have pow- er-washed all the buildings; repainted them, re- finished all the woodwork and wood furniture,” he reports. “Every villa has a personal veranda, so we end up sanding those down and refinish- ing all of our verandas every other year. Inside the villas, we have various types of tile so we have to clean all the floors and re-polish all of them. So, although we’re cleaning every single day with our housekeeping staff, it’s important for us to do heavy maintenance once a year.” Chabil Mar’s clientele mirrors that of Belize’s overall tourism ratios –75 percent of them come from the U.S.; about 15 percent from Canada; and the rest from the rest of the world, primarily Europe. France tries to capture his share with a three-pronged approach: “First on the list is that we are a luxury property mean- ing that I would classify us as a four-star prop- erty out of five stars,” he states. “But we believe we always deliver five-star service. For instance, when people get to the area airport, we provide round-trip transportation for them.We greet them, not only at the airport, but, when they arrive, our staff is out there greeting them with a cool towel and a nice cool drink, and then we give them a private tour of the property.When they arrive in their villa, they have a fresh vase of flowers, a welcome card, chocolates from Belize, and those kinds of things. So, five-star