15 Lessons Learned in 15 Years of Managing Sustainable Luxury Hotels & Lodges

On May 2nd, 2003, Andrea Bonilla and Hans Pfister launched Cayuga, a company dedicated to managing sustainable luxury hotels and lodges in Latin America.  15 years later, here are 15 lessons learned and an insight into what has worked and what could have been done differently. It is all about the people.  Always and foremost.  […]

Trends? Sometimes we prefer to stick to the Cayuga Way.

A few weeks ago, the New York Times published an article  in the TRENDING section of their newspaper under the title: “How Skipping Hotel Housekeeping can help the Environment and your Wallet”.  It explained how certain hotel chains are promoting sustainability by offering food and beverage credits and other perks for guests who forgo housekeeping services. Several readers responded quite […]

We did it! Cayuga won the National Geographic World Legacy Awards 2017

This award means a lot to all of us at the Cayuga Collection Hotels and Lodges in Costa Rica and Nicaragua.  We have been involved in sustainable hospitality since 1995 and really appreciate this recognition by National Geographic.  A special thank you to all of our staff members, our guests and the owners of the very special hotels […]

Sustainable Luxury Hotels: Why is there no competition for what we do? 

We are a management company for Sustainable Luxury Hotels and Lodges.  We often get asked who our “competition” is.  Who else in the region manages sustainable luxury hotels and lodges?  The answer is: Nobody.  We’ve almost created a “Blue Ocean Strategy” for ourselves without any competition.  Even after operating for nearly 20 years, we still don’t […]

Travel Safety – Check out this Map!

We now operate Cayuga Collection Hotels and Lodges in three different countries (Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama) and when talking to guests in one country about travelling to another, a prominent question is:  “Is it safe to travel there?” The US State Department came out with an updated website and an interesting map that shows the “risk level” per country by color.  […]

Common knowledge: Fish Starts to Rot from the Head

…  or how to have excellent managers and leadership at small sustainable luxury hotels in remote locations. Our guests at the Cayuga Collection Sustainable Luxury Hotels and Lodges rave about our staff.  They love the efficient and professional service and comments especially on how friendly, authentic and genuine the service experience is.  This is no coincidence.  We spend a […]