February 2017 |Business View Caribbean

64 65 Preferred vendors n WaterMakers Inc. www.watermakers.com n Tavares & Higgs Insurance Agents & Brokers Ltd. www.nagico.com/index.php/ home-thebahamas/item/1321- bahamas-agents n Global Services Bahamas www.kee-chanona.com to the region. “Because we’re not closing, we’re able to get some additional air lift to the island from Atlanta,” he says. “So two flights a week are going to be coming from Atlanta starting in December and the airlines have the expectation that there will be passengers year round. Germany wants to send an airline to the Bahamas once or twice a week, year round. That cannot work if the Out Islands are going to close for three months every year.” Spychalla is adamant about the benefits of year-round tourism, and uses his position as President of the Bahama Out Islands Promotion Board (BOIPB) to try and convince other hotels to stay open, too. “This business of closing for six or eight or ten weeks because it’s slow, is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we stay open, eventually people are going to understand that we are open year round, and we’ll benefit accordingly,” he maintains. Valentines Residences Resort & Marina Currently, Valentines has no major refurbishing plans on the books. “The property is built out,” Spychalla reports. “There is the opportunity to build a fifth villa, with eight to ten more units, and we do have approval from the government to do that. But right now that’s not something that we want to do; it might be something that we would consider in the future.What I’m trying to do here now, is just upgrade the landscaping and the infrastructure of the property–we just had the pool completely refurbished. It’s a large pool –80,000 gallons. It’s just beautiful and it’s the focal point of the resort.” In addition to its combination of modern ame- nities coupled with its rustic charm, Spychalla asserts that customer service is the key that keeps people coming back to Valentines, time and again. “At the end of the day,we’re here for the guests,”he says.“And there are no excuses.You either sink or swim based on the level of guest ser- vice that you can provide to those persons who are coming with very high expectations to enjoy what they believe to be a wonderful vacation.And, if you can’t meet that expectation, you need to revisit your basic operations model.My personal philoso- phy is ‘No excuses–solutions, only.’” Valentines Residences Resort and Marina offers its guests authentic island hospitality mixed with old-world charm, powdery pink sand beaches, world-class fishing and diving, a best-in-class marina, and oceanfront cocktails and dining, among many other experiences and amenities. Sounds like a pretty good solution. Don’t you agree?