Letter to the Editor
Dear Sir,
It was with great sadness yesterday that I walked down the beach past the Jolly Beach Hotel where my family have thoroughly enjoyed our holidays over the last 20 years.
It is now falling into disrepair. It was even more distressing to learn that over 400 of the staff have received no financial support from the Management Company, Blue Diamond Resorts, since March 2020, and that no one seems to know who actually owns the hotel.
I should like to put forward a proposal to quickly get the Hotel back into full service as quickly as possible. Blue Diamond Resorts is a large hotel management company which will have set up a local operating company with little assets, but which employed the staff.
Almost certainly there are insufficient assets to meet the outstanding liabilities to staff and other creditors. At some point the local operation company will be put into liquidation and it is most unlikely that the staff will ever be paid.
The solution is for the Antiguan Government to nationalise the Hotel (giving the staff shares in the new entity for their outstanding payments) and bring it back into operation as quickly as possible.
After the hotel is re-established, the Government should then seek a new reputable hotel group such as Sandals to purchase the hotel as a going concern. Europe and the USA are now over Covid and travelling again, Jolly Beach Hotel has a fabulous beach, is easily accessible and should be strongly contributing to the Antiguan economy.
Paul Murphy
Newmarket
UK
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I totally agree with your proposal. My husband and I have been staying at Jolly Beach for over 10 years. We consider the staff there our extended family whenever we’re there, which is 2 to 3 times yearly 4 to 6 weeks each time. The staff has and is still suffering with many unable to find work. And when they do find work elsewhere, their pay is barely enough to pay their bills.
This sounds like another HMB debacle in the the making !
People from England and other nations just do not understand, if the writer has a desire to see the resort back to its former days, let him bring his money to purchase it and run it !
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