Lyle - March, 2015
Trip Report
Hedo 09 – 20 March 2015
I visited Hedo 09 – 20 March 2015 and a brief summary of the travel
details is provided herein.
The flight route from St. Louis to Montego Bay was on American / US Air
via Charlotte. Charlotte is
a good connection choice and outbound flights all operated as planned
and the trip was smooth. My
experience with the return flights through Charlotte were as expected
and both Immigration and Customs were essentially empty when I arrived,
so it was very smooth and speedy getting processed for re-entry to the
USA.
Arrival at Montego Bay went as planned and there was very little delay
or congestion in Immigration and Customs.
The folks that were in line for Customs were mostly unhappy about
the Club MoBay folks bypassing them for immediate processing by a
separate Customs agent.
I used Rocky’s Tour & Taxi service out of Negril for my ground
transportation. I made all
reservations online using their website at
http://rockystaxiandtourservice.com/
and received a written confirmation from them of my reservations well in
advance of my trip. As
expected, they were ready and waiting for me upon arrival and delivered
their usual excellent standard of service.
The management team was visible and always appeared to be very focused
on what they were doing.
They’re accessible and available whenever necessary, but always appeared
by be busy.
I had one small mechanical problem in my room when I arrived.
I reported it to Lorna Brammer and she said she’d send someone
down to fix it. I walked
directly back to my room and a maintenance person arrived at my room
less than 5 later. The
problem was corrected right away and there were no additional problems
with the room. Nobody could
expect better or more effective response to something like this.
My impression is that Winston continues to be doing an excellent job
with the EC staff. He’s
taking the job very seriously and it’s obvious he’s working very hard to
make their operation as good as it possibly can be.
The staff, in general seem to be happy and upbeat, and always seemed to
be fully engaged in their jobs.
They all appear to be trying to do things right and in a timely
manner. That’s a good thing
and it reflects well on how things are going, from a guest’s
perspective.
Housekeeping looked really good to me and I thought they were doing a
great job. Bar, kitchen, and
dining room all look like they are all working very well.
Service was excellent, food quality was good, and I was happy
with all of it.
Food and bar service were both excellent and I was always satisfied with
the variety and selections of food available and the service in both bar
and food services.
All of the bartenders were doing a great job during this visit and all
of them were right on top of things.
There was a large group in house (approx. 230 people in the group) when
I arrived and another larger group (approx. 310 people in the group)
arrived before I left. While
I think large groups do influence the environment a bit (how could they
not?) I didn’t find any of it problematic in any way.
My observation is that the folks in groups tend to socialize
together for the first few days, and then tend to mingle more with the
rest of the guest population after that once they’re ‘caught up’ with
the rest of their group. I
know not all groups have similar ‘personalities’ but these groups were
easy to be around and fun to socialize with.
Departure from Hedo on the 20th was exactly as planned and
Rocky’s arrived exactly as promised for transportation to the airport.
Check-in and processing at the airport was smooth and without
problems.
Despite the physical improvements, I’m even more pleased and happy with
the changes I observed in the owners, management team, and staff.
People really seem to have found a very good operational tempo
and all seemed to be very focused and intent on doing their best
possible to make things work right.
From a management perspective, that’s an excellent place to be
and I’m glad they appear to have found ‘the groove’.
If that’s truly the case, and they’re able to maintain that, then
that’s a great thing for all of us.
I can honestly say I’ve never seen Hedo in better condition than it was
for this visit or operating as well as it was.
If there were something wrong or not working right, I’m certainly
not shy about saying so.
During this visit, however, I can’t think of anything that the
management and staff needed to do to make it better.
As a point of reference, this observation is based on experience
with Hedo spanning 32 years, and I’ve never seen it this good before.
I’m going to keep returning………………