Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa has received a huge positive response to its decision to reopen for business on December 19.
For those guests who will get to book into the resort over the festive period will be privileged knowing that they would be the first to experience the $45 million refurbishment and new facilities.
Resort General Manager Vincent Macquet, while confirming the reopening, says there would also be special packages offered for those looking to spend the festive season in true luxury.
Located on beautiful Denarau Island, the five star resort is on its completion stage of the refurbishment before the reopening, Mr Macquet said.
Reopening
“Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa, and AccorHotels have a strong base in Fiji.”
“Obviously a lot of locals have been waiting with anticipation for the reopening of the flagship property.”
“I must say that within the last few months we’ve been having a lot of requests for hosting events or even just opening for business on weekends.”
Challenges during pandemic
“The hotel has been in refurbishment for two years now.”
“We’ve spent a large sum of money to ensure that this hotel becomes a leading entity within the Fijian hotel landscape.”
“We’ve had some great designers, with some unique concepts on offer and it’s been two years which has been a long time. With that we had to also deal with something that we were not expecting which is a pandemic (COVID-19).”
“We have had to unfortunately shut down the hotel at the end of March this year hence, it has been a very long journey.”
Mr Macquet said on a personal note, his biggest wish was looking forward to actually welcoming back a large number of the resort’s ambassadors – its staff.
“Reopening the doors for us is also getting back our teams into jobs and that is the belief from our ownership group, BSP Life and Fiji Airways.”
“I must say it was very warming, this morning to walk into the room and from a very small team for quite a long time to seeing some key managers came back to work and it was a very special moment.”
“We will be having ambassadors coming back to work, but this would also entail a week of full training before actually resuming work.”
The new norm and protocols
AccorHotels, has developed its own COVID protocols in partnership with Bureau Veritas. Sofitel is part of the French basedglobal AccorHotel group.
“We’ve invested heavily in being ready for the new norm and every ambassador that will be coming back to the hotel will actually grow from a very rigorous classroom training and on the job training, and then will be certified to be able to go back into their working environment.”
“You might be saying that we’re a COVID contained country right now and I fully appreciate that, but we also need to be ready for when things would start moving and we want to put the right protocols in place to show to the world that we are ready for them when the borders open.”
What will be on offer
“We are going into the festive season.”
“We are opening 150 rooms of the resort fully refurbished with all its entities and all its offerings.”
“We spent in excess of $45 million on the refurbishment of the hotel.”
“I want to stress it was needed because the hotel has been in operation since 2005. It has been a long time, 15 years of operation and so this has been done to suit the expectations of today’s travellers.”
“What I mean by that is if you look at our room configuration we’ve got 298 rooms in this hotel.”
“This has changed quite drastically and again in line with today’s demand.”
“The resort has also upgraded all its restaurants and bars to be in line and opened a new nightclub called Republic.”
“Guests will be able to enjoy it once the resort opens – but only for those who stay in house, because of the curfew in place.”
There are two beach clubs in the hotel but the latest one is for kids which is located right on the beach with a trampoline, splash and play wet area, a zip line, just to name a few of the seven zones on offer at Nui Beach Club.
The resort also has a brand new attraction for teenagers.
“We have decided to create an adolescent room because we believe that there is a gap in the market.”
“We cater very well for adults and young kids, but there is that adolescent phase of 13 to 16 years that are left out.”
“That adolescent zone will have arcade games, X Boxes just to name a few.”
“There won’t be any other offering like that in Fiji where one will be able to come and get on the motorbike – father and son and virtually drive on motorbikes and race, or air hockey, and so forth.”
“We’ve got over 12 different games on offer to that adolescent group and it will be free of charge to our guests as well.”
“So, once again, bring a new dimension to the hotel offering where we have a Kid’s Beach Club, Adolescents Centre while the parents enjoy themselves which means really is catering for all the needs of families.”
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