It has been a struggle for all of us during these past months. When we are forced to live on a “day by day and week by week” motto, it is certainly good to know that there are some things that you can be totally certain about. By being “Strong Today and Extraordinary Tomorrow” we know that our guest experience will be better than ever when our guests are able to come back from all corners of the world.
Here are five things that you can count on when you come back to one of our hotels and lodges in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama.
Sanitary Measures & The Cayuga Safety Seal
We have been researching this topic very carefully and implemented measures that take into consideration the guest’s experience, health & safety as well as sustainable practices. We are taking this very seriously. And we know that our protocols work since we have already had a few incidents. We have been operating for almost three months now in Costa Rica. Just recently, a hotel guest tested positive and informed us 10 days after departure. We also had a massage therapist test positive. As you can imagine, this was quite stressful for all of us. But the virus did not get transmitted to any other guests or employees. We believe that this was because of the rigorous implementation of our sanitary protocols and all the training we have invested in our staff on this topic.
Total Flexibility
We realized early in this crisis that it will be extremely hard to plan vacations several months ahead. That is why we changed our pre-payment and cancellation policies to “Zero Risk – Zero Hassle”. This allows for short term cancellations without penalties and ease in rescheduling in case of unforeseen events. We also made sure that we offer the best value possible to our guests without getting involved in heavy discounting. Heavy discounting could jeopardize our commitment to our people, quality & luxury, and effective implementation of our sanitary measures. Read more about this in our blog about “not squeezing us please”.
Our People Focus
At Cayuga, it is about the people. It always has been and always will be. We are passionate about giving professional growth opportunities to our local staff. We love seeing housekeeping staff and receptionists become managers. We are passionate about guest service and making people happy. Just before the pandemic, we implemented a training program for our staff called “I am service” (Soy Servicio). During the closure period, we spent a lot of time on virtual training and staff development. And we can see the results today. The guests that have come back to the hotels and lodges are amazed by the friendly, efficient and authentic service they receive. It is the Cayuga Way.
Sustainability
Sustainability is in our DNA. Since 1995, we have been implementing sustainable hospitality practices in Costa Rica, long before it was a trend. We will not cut any corners and continue to look for the perfect symbiosis of sustainability and luxury. And this crisis might have given us the opportunity to become even more focused on “everything local”. We are working on merging our sustainability focus on the concept of “Experience – Learn – Connect – Relax”. New well-being elements, important to our guests during this Pandemic, will be introduced. Stay tuned for updates on this topic.
Luxury & Quality
When you close a hotel for several months, it is amazingly easy to let things slip. In a tropical climate, like the one in Central America, you “cannot give in an inch” in terms of maintenance of buildings and equipment. Therefore, during the temporary closure of our hotels, we doubled up our efforts on maintenance to make sure that our hotels would look “like new” upon reopening. It has worked very well in the hotels that are up and functioning. We are still investing in substantial improvements in Isla Palenque and Jicaro. We strive to be a ‘transparent’ hotel and hope that our back of the house tours will continue for our guests. Read more on this topic here.
Count on the staff of the Cayuga Collection to be there when you come back. Be certain that we will give it all we got. We suffered when we had no guests at our hotels. We are hoteliers at heart and love seeing the happy smiles on our guest’s faces again. #strongtodayextraordinarytomorrow.
