Below is our newest feature in Travel Weekly Magazine commenting on the expansion at Beaches Turks and Caicos
Building on the momentum of its flagship brand’s Sandals 2.0 enhancements, Sandals Resorts International is now shifting the spotlight to its family-friendly Beaches flag.
Earlier this month, the company detailed plans to pour nearly $1 billion into doubling the Beaches footprint over the next five years, with the brand’s latest addition, the 101-room Treasure Beach Village at Beaches Turks & Caicos, set to begin welcoming guests by next March.
Sandals also said it expects to break ground on the long-anticipated Beaches Barbados later this year, concurrent with plans to begin transforming the Sandals Emerald Bay in the Bahamas into the Beaches Exuma. Development of the Beaches Runaway Bay in Jamaica is also in the pipeline.
According to Addison Jaynes, founder and CEO of the Sandals and Beaches Resorts-focused concierge service Reliant Destinations, many Sandals loyalists transition to Beaches properties once they have children, underscoring the need for Beaches to maintain comparable standards with its sister brand.
“As guests experience the new state-of-the-art innovations at Sandals 2.0 properties and then find themselves over at Beaches in future years, then the most important element here is raising the bar, as those Sandals guests [will expect] a similar quality of experience on a Beaches side,” he said.
Demand for multigen suites
Sandals plans to raise the bar at the Treasure Beach Village at Beaches Turks & Caicos, especially when it comes to accommodations.
Treasure Beach Village will feature expansive two- to four-bedroom units, including three-story, beachfront Treasure Beach CrystalSky Reserve Villas able to accommodate up to 10 guests.
Jason and Karen Cavadas, co-founders of Ohio-based Twinsburg Travel, said multibedroom room categories are in especially high demand. In order to snag these types of accommodations, the pair typically have to book their Beaches clients one to two years in advance.
“We do a lot of the multigenerational trips to Beaches Turks & Caicos and have a lot of people that like to book the highend villas,” said Jason Cavadas, adding that when it comes to four-bedroom villas at Beaches Turks & Caicos in particular, “there’s a shortage of those.”
Katie Lynn Reynolds, an Ohio-based travel advisor with Travelmation, also has seen high demand for villas across the Beaches brand.
“At least once a week I get a request for a villa, because families want to stay together,” Reynolds said. “Many other brands and resorts don’t have rooms that can even sleep a family of five. Beaches is meeting that demand.”
Treasure Beach Village will join the resort’s Caribbean, Seaside, Key West, Italian and French villages and grow the property’s total room count to 858.
It will also grow the resort’s culinary offerings. Treasure Beach Village will have seven restaurants, including the first Beaches-based outpost of Butch’s Island Chophouse, a signature dining concept at several Sandals resorts, and the Pinta Food Hall, a new concept serving a diverse menu including tacos, ceviche, dumplings and pizza.
These upscale food and beverage options are in line with what Karen Cavadas would like to see more of across the Beaches portfolio.
“They’re on the right path, and if they up the culinary, it would make them perfect,” she said.
Benefits to a slow expansion
Beaches’ investment represents a major milestone for a brand that has maintained a devoted following despite a relatively limited footprint.
The Beaches portfolio currently has just three properties: The Beaches Negril in Jamaica and Beaches Turks & Caicos both opened in 1997, and the Beaches Ocho Rios originally debuted in Jamaica as the Beaches Boscobel Resort & Golf Club in 2002.
The new resorts are good news for Harmony Skillman, a Long Island-based travel advisor with Paradise Travel, who said her agency gets a lot of Beaches guests “who have ‘been there, done that,’ and they want new or off-the-beaten-path destinations.” She added that families are increasingly seeking “smaller, exotic islands, but they want waterparks and the restaurants, too,” a combination Beaches is positioned to deliver as it grows.
But despite Beaches’ slower pace of expansion, some advisors view the brand’s measured approach as a competitive advantage.
“They’re finding the best beaches, the best locations, and they’re not building like conglomerates,” said Karen Cavadas. “And that is a leg up. They’re going to be focused, and they’re going to stay true to their name.”
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