Executives of the four-star Robin’s Bay Beach Village and Beach Resort are hoping to have everything in place for the hotel’s grand reopening by October.

That is why the company has stepped up its efforts to spruce up the attractive St Mary seaside property, which is an hour’s drive from Kingston and 35 minutes from Ocho Rios, and plans a major marketing thrust that will project the entity into the annals of greatness that it always had the potential for, as described by some of those who have visited.

The hotel, which opened its doors to the public in September 2003 with 43 rooms to choose from, ran a thriving operation for over a decade, then scaled down to attend to the expansion of another, more elaborate wing opposite to the beachfront property and focus on rectifying the challenge of controlling rust caused by the salty air.

The facing property, a 74-room investment by the hotel owned by veteran businessman Everoy Chin, has made considerable progress with some of the rooms nearing completion.

But it is the already established flagship property that is the centre of a buzz of activity in recent months as Chin and his employees focus on offering specials to the public again.

“We will be having special packages for everyone,” Chin told the Jamaica Observer.

It was a sentiment shared by the company’s Assistant Managing Director Sherryl Ferron, who was equally upbeat about the possibilities that lie ahead.

“This is a family-oriented hotel which offers deals to church groups for things like conferences, wedding ceremonies and receptions, fun days, office functions for use by private sector and Government agencies, seminars, discounts for teachers, civil servants and diplomats,” Ferron said.

Hotel officials, who said that the property has in the past received “satisfactory” support from residents of the parish of St Mary, underlined the “strong” support that those who live on the outside of the parish’s shores have given to it over the years.

The management has now been strengthened by the acquisition of well-known marketer and event planner Dawn Young, who joined earlier in June as the hotel’s new marketing executive.

“There is a niche for the kind of tourism that the property has to offer … it’s a special kind of tourism, with all markets in mind, but with a focus on getting more Europeans here,” Young said.

“This special kind of tourism is for those who would want to enjoy a bit of everything that this hotel has to offer, including catering to the corporate customer, the wider Jamaican public, zooming on the schools for tours, and the churches for regular trips and conventions. It can also be used as a property for just a plain getaway,” said Young, who worked for several years at Jamaica House, Office of the Prime Minister, under Prime Ministers Michael Manley, PJ Patterson, Bruce Golding and Portia Simpson Miller.

The hotel will, at the end of the refurbishing exercise, operate a fully furnished gymnasium and a spa to fulfil the needs of those wanting manicure and pedicure pampering.

“At the height of our operations we used to offer a boat service which would take guests out to sea. Now, we want to get that up and running and establish a jetty so that guests can do fishing,” Chin said.

The hotel, which boasts of its impeccable security for guests in a community that is not known for high levels of crime, also plans to reintroduce its highly successful ‘Friday Night Jam’ session, which formerly brought out hundreds of community folk in the Robin’s Bay area and beyond for fun and frolicking.

“We are spending a whole lot of money to refurbish the hotel and make it far more hospitable and acceptable to the public,” Chin stated.

“So far we have put a lot of work into improving the hotel, and as soon as the first phase is out of the way, we will turn our attention to getting the 74 rooms at the other end of the property finished, and to complete what for us is a theme park which will have many amenities that will make the project the envy of hotels in the established tourism zones of Ocho Rios, Montego Bay, and Negril,” Chin suggested.

When the first phase of the refurbishing is completed, which officials expect will be before the end of August, or at latest the middle of September, the hotel intends to employ around 25 people, a figure that will be significantly increased upon the completion of phase two.

Mere days after the opening of the hotel, well known shorthand writer Samuel A Fitz-Henley, who introduced shorthand into Jamaica’s courts, wrote about his experience at the resort, in a letter to the editor of a local newspaper:

“Four days ago I was asked to give the blessing at the introduction of a new hotel in Robin’s Bay, St Mary. This new hotel was being introduced to the community of Robin’s Bay in the form of a ‘Community-Get-together, and persons from all walks of life were invited, including children.

“Interestingly, because just one hour from Kingston, and one mile from the Agualta Vale crossing, and a mile or two along the Robin’s Bay road, we wondered what sort of hotel could possibly exist along this country road.

“As we watched, to our surprise, out of the lush surrounding vegetation there emerged, like an El Dorado, an impressive spread of buildings This quickened our eagerness to arrive, only to discover eventually, that there was a spacious 43-room, three-storey modern hotel, a large conference room and ballroom, which seemed the perfect place for rest, relaxation, and convivial gatherings.

“Looking out from the front of the hotel, the 180-degree seascape and mountainscape was simply breathtaking. It was a delight to sit in the dining room or on the patio below, and watch wave after wave lazily coming to shore, which cast an hypnotic spell on one’s senses and spirit.

“St Mary is beautiful, and is taking its place among attractive resorts available to our own people, as well as to visitors,” Fitz-Henley wrote.

The resort has also been featured on TripAdvisor, with most of the visitors who commented on it having favourable utterances about the property. Of 15 people who commented on the TripAdvisor website, 10 viewed the hotel as either excellent or very good, with others rating it lower.

With its three-bedroom and two bedroom suites, regular rooms and gazebos, the hotel’s executives are adamant that greater things are in store for those who want to make the property their ideal getaway experience.

Robin’s Bay is usually regarded as the ‘jewel’ of St Mary, a parish that is not known for an elaborate rollout of tourism products, but which has always held its own with resorts that have earned acclaim from near and far.

The Central St Mary community of Robin’s Bay, is predominantly a fishing village, was once the home of present Governor General Sir Patrick Allen and his wife Lady Allen, when the GG was Principal of the Robin’s Bay All Age School, and his wife a teacher on the staff of the institution.

Now, the community has been attracting scores of people who are originally from outside the area, many of them from countries overseas like Sweden, Germany and the United States, who have either built or are in the process of building permanent homes in the community.