Hotel refutes guest’s charges

Owner of the Crane Resort, Paul Doyle has dismissed reports that guests at the hotel are not being made to follow COVID-19 protocols.

Responding to an email that was sent by a male guest staying at the St Philip resort to Barbados TODAY, Doyle said the claims were simply not true.

In the email, the guest contended that the Crane was not “quarantining, separating, or enforcing” the mechanisms they’ve said they would put in place.

“People with red and blue wrist bands (meaning they have not had their second negative COVID tests and or have been exposed) are wandering all over the property as well as down to the beach – some without masks.

“The Crane is also putting newly arrived guests in all buildings at the Crane and not in a separate area,” the guest further charged.

“This morning we watched as people with blue wristbands walked in front of buildings 8 & 9 (on the grass) and went down to the beach – some without masks on. I called down to the front desk. It continued so I called again and security called me back. He was surprised when I told him people with blue bands were going down to the beach.”

The guest also alleged that an ambulance came to the hotel yesterday and took a family to the island’s isolation facility at Harrison Point, St Lucy.

He charged that the Crane was putting not only its guests and staff in danger but also the entire country.

“Barbados has worked so hard to get this virus under control. We cannot allow the Crane to run rampant with the rules as they are currently doing – that is if they want to be a “quarantine” site for the MOH [Ministry of Health]. I also do not want to see the Crane adversely impacted further, especially employees,” the guests wrote in the email.

But in an interview with Barbados TODAY this afternoon, Doyle said those reports were not in line with the hotel’s operations.

He maintained that all of the COVID-19 protocols were being followed and that the guest was misinformed at the time he sent the email.

“He was misunderstanding what the rules are and what the protocols were in Barbados…Most definitely we’ve been following the protocols,” Doyle said.

“We’ve been working extremely closely with the Ministry of Health right from the get-go and our folks are very well trained and they follow it to a T. I won’t say that there’s never been a guest that’s tried to do something and I don’t even think it’s intentional. There’s maybe a lot to learn but they’re [the rules] are being followed. We’re following them and we respect them.”

When contacted, head of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit Ronald Chapman said he had not received any recent reports of the Crane Resort not adhering to the protocols.

However, he admitted that investigations into the flaunting of protocols at some hotels on the island were being carried out.

“We have had some reports which we are investigating right now but with reference to the Crane I haven’t had any complaints lately.

“But there are some hotels that we had some complaints about and we have already started to address those complaints,” Chapman said.
(randybennett@barbadostoday.bb)