42 July 2016 - Business View Caribbean
In 2002, the Destangs acquired the property next door
- a small establishment called the Palm Tree Hotel -
which had gone into receivership. They rechristened
their new purchase, the Bay Gardens Inn, and added
another 33 rooms to their portfolio. The final addition
to the Bay Gardens hotel chain was the addition of
the Bay Gardens Resort and Spa, which the Destangs
built and opened in 2007, on property they acquired
in 1999, on Reduit Beach in the Gros Islet part of the
island. With the establishment of this four-star hotel,
and its 78 luxury rooms, the Bay Gardens group was
complete and now totals 198 rooms along with 4 res-
taurants, 5 bars and 5 conference rooms.
Sanovnik Destang, the son of Joyce and Desmond, is
the Executive Director of Bay Gardens, having taken
over the family business in 2008 – just as the Great
Recession was poised to wreak havoc on the tourist
industry throughout the Caribbean. For the next few
years, the resort lost money. But under Sanovnik’s
