MANDEVILLE, Manchester – Back in March, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of the 75-room Golf View Hotel here.

But there is a bright side.

Peter Campbell, who along with his wife Kemilee, bought the property from the James family last year, says the break allowed major renovation which will make the hotel an even better facility, in time for its planned reopening on June 8.

“It has been a trying time, but Golf View’s approach is to use whatever downtime and turn it into some form of creative avenue, so that we can better position ourselves, that when this onslaught [of COVID] has passed, we will be in a better position than we were before,” Campbell told the Jamaica Observer on Friday.

He said that regular operations were initially halted to ensure the safety of the hotel’s staff.

“The vast majority of our staff uses public transportation, so we thought it was best to not expose them to COVID. I am very close to my staff and I take their interests at heart,” he said.

“Going forward with us being in a better position than we were prior to COVID in terms of our infrastructure, we are now poised to make overall function and operation of the hotel more seamless and easier for our staff and our guests… we have to be extremely creative and innovative to incorporate all the social distancing and the necessary changes to make the property COVID- ‘friendly’,” Campbell said.

He disclosed that staff members had been briefed about the necessary changes, including the establishment of an entry point where they will be temperature checked. Hand sanitisers will also be installed at the gate of the hotel.

“When persons get in— as it relates to our staff — they have their respective changing rooms. We are now putting in measures for those areas to also now be ready, so that no one has to overlap or get too close to each other,” he said.

Campbell said staff will return to work in a systematic manner with enough personnel being on the hotel grounds to serve all needs until there can be a full recall of the work force.

Measures are also being implemented to safeguard guests.

“As it relates to our guests, we are putting in the necessary infrastructure to make social distancing applicable right throughout the lobby, pool area, dining area and our gym… We have already briefed our staff as to the sanitisation exercises that we will be carrying out right throughout, going forward,” he added.

A deep-cleaning exercise is scheduled for June 6 prior to the reopening of the hotel.

“Each department will be equipped with the necessary gear to do their respective and collective sanitisation as per schedule,” Campbell said.

The hotel is also investing in cutting-edge communications’ technology to assist individual guests and also to provide online virtual capacity for conferences and the like.

“Our position is to always increase and go with the flow of technology, so as the times change, we want to be on the ball as to the latest technology that is accessible and offered to us. Already we have increased our Internet speed throughout the entire property. We are now putting in the mechanisms in place, so persons can have the conferences with the necessary Zoom infrastructure in place. We have also been changing to bigger windows and doors in our conference rooms to allow for greater ventilation and to give persons the option of whether to use the air conditioning, based on the number of persons per room. In the main auditorium the smallest window is six by six feet,” Campbell said.

He revealed that the hotel will continue its renovation in phases for the next four years.

“We have already [renovated] 12 rooms, different categories of rooms…. The conference centre has been renovated. The dining area also got an upgrade… We will continue to renovate, that is an ongoing process for the next four years [by then] we would have completed the entire renovation of the hotel,” he said.