Business View Caribbean - July 2015 71
get into the four-star market. We always said we pro-
vide four-star service but we charge three-star prices.
At least now we were able to offer that four-star service
and actually charge, at least for that property, four-star
prices.”
Sanovnik had returned to St. Lucia and the family busi-
ness in 2008, after working as a Chartered Accountant
and financial consultant at KPMG in Toronto, Canada.
The Great Recession was just beginning to wreak hav-
oc on the tourist industry throughout the Caribbean,
and for the first few years, the new Resort lost money.
But under Savovnik’s leadership the hotel group was
able to return to profitability using a combination of
innovative online marketing methods and its policy of
targeting specific groups of guests.
He explains: “When I came back into the business in