For nine years, Craig H. Roberts was the owner of a travel agency, 1-800 Take Off, before deciding to trade in his IATA card for a key card.
For the last 10 years, Roberts has served as the president/developer of the little known, family-oriented Bahama Beach Club in Abaco, The Bahamas.
And now the former agent and television news reporter is looking for some help from his old comrades. The little-known resort is a vacationing family’s dream, yet only roughly 15-18-percent of the 88-unit resort’s overall booking are done through agents.
Roberts is looking to increase that number significantly and offering a 15-percent commission is a good start.
“I love travel agents, I used to be a travel agent and now I need the help of travel agents,” says Roberts, during a one-on-one interview with Travel Agent on Thursday. “We are such a great resort, such a great place for families to come and enjoy themselves, to island hop, to take part in nightly events and water sports during the day, but agents simply don’t know enough about us.”
Allow us to fix that.
The Bahama Beach Club is located on the Great Abaco Island, which is part of the Abacos, a visually stunning chain of roughly 100 tropical isles known for soft sands, clear water and a laid-back atmosphere.
The Bahama Beach Club has four units (each roughly 1,650 to 2,700 square feet) per building with spacious floor plans that include living and dining rooms, dens, laundry rooms, fully-equipped kitchens and two, three, four or five bedrooms. Villa rates include daily housekeeping, services, cable television, free and unlimited in-room long distance calling to the United States and Canada and free WiFi.
“As a travel agent, I’ve learned that it’s those small things that get ignored at a hotel sometimes,” Roberts says. “I’ve had clients who were not pleased with the amount of channels they got on their T.V., that internet wasn’t free, the price of phone calls, etc. So I made sure my hotel took care of all of these things, of all the things I remember my clients being frustrated over. Being an agent definitely made it easier for me to know what we needed to include in the hotel.”
The Bahama Beach Club features two on-site restaurants, one that is upscale and another, casual swim-up bar/restaurants. The Pool Bar & Grill is open seven days a week and offers frsh lobster, fish, burgers, trooplical drinks and more. Clients can also enjoy The Pavillion, the resort’s fine dining restaurant that offers filets, seafood, assorted wines and impressive views of Treasure Cay’s beach.
The resort is also ideal for weddings, bridal parties, girlfriend getaways and family reunions. In fact, Roberts told us the resort usually does one wedding a week.
The resort is also offering a free night for all of 2012 for clients who book three.
Roberts says he is also looking to build another, smaller resort just a few miles away. That resort, the Banyan Beach Club, is expected to have just 12 rooms and open by 2014.
Visit www.BahamaBeachClub.com