Hotels accused of turning down local trade
(CNS) Grand Cayman residents have been venting their frustrations on social media over the last few weeks because some leading hotels, especially in Dart’s stable of tourism properties, have begun refusing service at beach bars, restaurants and other amenities to people who are not guests.
Even though local people kept the hotel sector above water with staycations and regular patronage during lockdown, getting a table at some Seven Mile Beach hotel restaurants or a weekend resident rate for a room is now getting very difficult.
Responding to questions from CNS, the management team at the Kimpton Seafire, which said the resort is still welcoming staycationers, explained that their reduced service to residents at the restaurants and other amenities was primarily due to staff shortages and the “rapid return of overseas guests”.
“After the announcement of reduced Covid travel restrictions, effective 18 February of this year, we’ve seen a rapid return of overseas guests as well as continuing demand from our local guests for weekend stays,” the Kimpton management told CNS.
“We are currently operating with around 170 less staff members than we had in March of 2020. While we’d love to welcome more guests, we are at full capacity with visitors and staycationers, and our focus is on providing them with exceptional experiences.
“As we continue our recruitment for open positions within our team, we look forward to welcoming more guests as the season continues and tourism rebounds,” the hotel stated.
Meanwhile, some hotels are also refusing residency rate staycations and require local people to pay tourist rates, while others are simply not letting anyone other than overseas guests on the premises.
Tillie’s, a well-known beach restaurant at the Palm Heights Hotel, another of the Dart Group’s properties, has been the main target on social media after several people posted on various social media platforms that they were refused reservations.
The former Beach Suites restaurant at the heart of Seven Mile Beach has been a very popular location for residents over the last two years, but now they are turning locals away.
Some people on social media expressed significant disappointment that this happened so quickly, while others described it as blatant discrimination against Caymanians. However, the posts indicate that it is residents generally, not just Caymanians, who are being refused service and reservations, and staff are telling people that only those staying in the hotel are being served.
CNS requested a comment from Tillie’s management, and we are waiting for a response.
Some social media posters also claimed they were refused service at the beach bar at the Westin. However, the hotel manager, Jim Mauer, said all local people are more than welcome at all of the bars and restaurants at the hotel, as well as the spa, pool and beach bars.
He asked anyone who had been refused service to contact the hotel management and was keen to extend an invitation to everyone. He noted that most of the patrons for the hotel’s long-running Sunday brunch are residents.
He said that while beach chairs were no longer available for daily rental to non-guests, residents were more than welcome to bring their own chairs and enjoy the beach as well as the bars and restaurants.
Tourists are slowly beginning to return but there are still far fewer guests than in March 2020, when the borders closed due to the COVID pandemic. Even then, most hotels would find room for all patrons in their restaurants, resident and visitor alike.
While the hotels are hoping for a busy Spring break, numbers are likely to decline when hurricane season begins in June.
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Category: Business, Food and Drink, Tourism
Despite what the manager at Westin said, XXXX. I went to the Westin Pool 2 weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon and I asked to pay for 2 pool chairs like how it was before tourists got back. I was told they didn’t offer that service anymore unless I was a guess at the hotel. I was even called aside to talk to customer service in a little hut by the showers and she said that I can only rent the cabanas at the beach or use the restaurant but the pool was only for guests.
They stopped that months ago. I don’t understand your complaint? It is Complete.y reasonable that they don’t rent chairs to non guests now.
Did you read the article?
So I can go and use the bar and pool at the Westin but sit in the floor?
Some social media posters also claimed they were refused service at the beach bar at the Westin. However, the hotel manager, Jim Mauer, said all local people are more than welcome at all of the bars and restaurants at the hotel, as well as the spa, pool and beach bars.
He asked anyone who had been refused service to contact the hotel management.
You can sit at the pool
Restaurant tables but not lounge chairs by the pool as those have to be reserved for hotel guests- that’s not new and always the case when borders open- so no, you don’t have to sit on the floor. Smh
Bern there one too many service is absolutely dismal. Drinks suck snd are overpriced
What I want to know is what will happen in about 8 weeks time when the tourist season slows down? Will these places beg alienates locals to come back?
What do you expect when they delay work permits so have no staff?
Kenny can’t say he wasn’t warned.
What do you expect to happen when there are countless instances of an entire industry maligning Caymanians and refusing fair opportunity dating back to the closure of the Holiday Inn?
The service at Tillies is absolutely abysmal – disinterested, disengaged, inattentive, east Europeans who are all front and no substance.
Doing us all a favour by not “allowing” locals and residents to be exposed to such a substandard offering.
Sorry, I’ve been 5 times since the New Year – always hoping for better, always disappointed. No more self flagelation for me!!!!
Try Kelly’s. Probably more your speed.
Agreed, Tilly’s service is ridiculously bad, the staff have no idea what they’re doing, the managers sit around looking trendy but doing absolutely nothing, and on our last visit 2 days ago, the chef served us raw chicken which the waitress then offered to cook some more! – It’s pathetic and I won’t be giving them any more money.
Agreed. I see how the wannabe cool managers behave. It’s like they are rude and pompous as an intentional style. Like they have been told to behave this way. South beach wannabe cool
First – I am not condoning bad service, discrimination or blatant racism. However, I do get annoyed at the “we kept them in business during lock down” statements.
1. They were likley not making money, but were managing to pay the limited staff they kept on and to run the buildings and facilities.
2. Where else were we going to go? We had no where to go and spent our money at the hotles only because we could not – as we usually do – pack our bags and fly away.
It was a win-win scenario during lockdown. Now that tourists are coming back they do have to look after their paying guests. Refusing locals access to hotel ammenities which guests pay for is not wrong, but discriminating against paying guests is always wrong.
You’re right. We should have just let them fail and close. That would have been SO good for the island.
You forgot that Caymanians are notorious for not tipping, and are by far the most demanding and rude toward non-Caymanian service staff.
There are auto grats added to every bill. Most establishments and especially hotels will do 18% or higher if I’m correct. This isn’t the states.
You get rude demanding people ALL over the world. Stop generalizing based on citizenship.
What a broad brush statement. I am Caymanian and always tip an additional 10-15% on top of the built in gratuities when I’m out. My Caymanian and expat friends do the same.
This generalisation needs to end at some point. Caymanians this and expats that. Stop. It’s old now.
You better go above and beyond for that tip that you somehow feel entitled to!
This should not be a surprise to anyone. When Dart shut down Calico Jack’s the last Tru beach bar on the island things changed. If you can get service at the hotels along Seven mile be prepared to pay dearly. Bring back Jacks.
I see to recall service at Jacks being terrible unless you were a regular.
And the food was so bad
100%! Beardy Canadian bartenders standing around chatting to their buddies while you’re left standing waiting for service.
This is a fact. If you were not Canadian, you had to be prepared to pay full price (not even happy hour prices) and wait until their conversations were over until you got served, IF you got served.
Too busy giving out comp tabs to their pals… (also a fact)
Your money was better off staying in your pension during lockdown for those that didn’t need to withdraw. The Markets shot right up afterward providing more wealth for those that stayed invested. Ironically, that investment group would include the already wealthy owners of these establishments that are now shunning local dollars and discriminating against the people that kept them afloat during the lockdown.
It is not local’s dollars being shunned, it is the behavior of some of them.
No business wants to deal with loud drunks who pester tourist girls.
LOL. “Wealth” that you can never get back isn’t wealth!
What makes you think you’d have more access to it when it’s due if you had stayed invested ?
Made 4x more return outside pension than in it. I’d happily “liberate” another 20% out of our dead-end plans if I could. In fact, self-directing all of it would be a massive improvement!
All hotels have an enormous shortage of personnel. Hotels are not renting out rooms because of this shortage. The current government is on purpose slow walking hundreds/thousands of work permits for the hospitality sector. Shameful! Now it is also hitting locals as they cannot get access to the hotel facilities
Bullshit. The hotels have refused to employ locals for 2 decades. FACT. This is of their own doing. Too many of them have been making life hard for Caymanians for too long. What they have been doing more subtly is being forced into the open. They are showing their true colors, including disdain for their ultimate hosts. Let them be damned.
By the time you get out of John Gray you have been rendered unfit for tourist jobs. For many reasons. The number one reason is you consider it demeaning and act like it. Attitude is most important.
Fact? In your imagination maybe. Where are all these Caymanians desperate to work in the tourism industry? The number of people even turning up to the work fair was massively less than the number of permits awaiting processing. It’s always someone ears fair, but at the bottom of this are two unpalatable facts. One. Caymanians do not want jobs in the tourist industry at the wages and conditions on offer, and think that rather than adjust their expectations to the market price, the hires should adjust the wages to their expectations. Two. The government is desperate to stop paying Caymanians that are claiming the stipend, but to protect against fallout are trying to force the hotels to employ the stipend recipients, blindly ignoring the demand and supply fundamentals.
Fact: Caymanians have traditionally refused to go into the service industry because they believe it is a demeaning career.
However, many are not smart or reliable enough to be employed in their placement of choice. Blame port parenting, education, and personal accountability before blaming the employer.
“FACT” you say? Well case closed. Can’t argue with “FACT”. What are you, nine?
this mus be true because they said FACT
Its about time the govt took the stance they are now taking in relation to work permits. Kudos to them! Caymanians are entitled to a job in their own country and this discrimination needs to stop NOW!!
How is it discrimination if you offer a job to a Caymanian and they won’t take it because the wage isn’t high enough or they don’t like the working hours or expectations? Entitled to a job has now stretched to the job remuneration and terms being dictated by the employee not the employer? Where exactly do you draw the line?
As well, just because 300 people show up to a job fair does not mean 300 people are employable. Let’s be honest, if 20% are employable from the 300, that gives you a whopping 6 people! 6 PEOPLE! That’s what is being lost by government and people saying all these people are showing up for job fairs.
Ugh… maybe check your math. LOL…
So much for being employable. Hopefully you don’t work at a bank. 🤪
True such idiots posting on here. Foreign as well as our own.
Think it should have been 2% as what they typed!
“ Job fairs stink as a hiring source. They don’t even make it on Jobvite’s top 13 list of most effective recruiting sources, and typically they produce less than 2% of all experienced hires. HR executives rated job fairs as the least effective job-search method”
60 not 6 BTW. Hope you not in accounting ?
In the real world, no one is ‘entitled’ to a job. But the employer is entitled to hire the best person for the job, with the experience and skill lever he/she requires, and for the salary he chooses to pay.
Self-entitlement isn’t acceptable in any environment, and especially in the workplace.
The Covid-19 plandemic was an opportune time to carry out the much-needed great reset of the Cayman Islands, but we and our government lacked the courage to do what’s right for the future of generational Caymanians. If Caymanians were smart they would have not spent one dollar at any of those hotels, in particular, those along the SMB strip, we all knew over the past 15 years or so “locals” were not welcomed and if we did visit the service was let just different, also let’s not forget they employ very few Caymanians. Those that spent heavily to take selfies and live their best lives at DARTs hotels along the SMB strip are now angry and suffering from buyers remorse because they are once again just another local who’s not good enough to patronize their establishments, maybe the Caymanians with their annoying silly American accent can teach the others the American accent to ensure they are once again granted access🙃😀. The money wasted would have been better used investing to grow future wealth.
Absolutely 100% agree with you that’s why I choose not to support them at all.
One problem,the Government fixed it that the hotels dont have to pay the minimum wages of 6 $ per hour they only pay 4,5 p h plus tips. Tips does not come from the Hotels it come from the guests. The hotels/restaurants should have to pay the minimum wage of 6 $.plus the tios from the guests. Then more Caymanians will work there. It’s the Government fault why more Caymanians doesn’t want to work those jobs. Remember pension etc is not payed on tips.
All the money comes from the guests. The workers make well over minimum. If you want a bigger pension, put some tip money aside in addition to the employer contribution.
The hotels charge 15% on everything including rooms. That has to be split amongst the staff in their salaries?
You go to the US and work at hotels the pay is $6 US plus tips. What are you complaining about?
Zzz. Go to Sunset House and hush.
Its beautiful there but their food is sub par. Why haven’t they updated their menu yet? It’s been the same as it was for the past 10 years.
Chronic Complainers. Sunset Hosue caters to certain demographics (locals included) who have no problem with the way the resort is set up. Hence why it has been supported all these years. Why does everything HAVE to change in this place ?
Better food would seem uncontroversial.
Was there last night. Food not 5 star but three, maybe 4. (4 food, 3 amenities, 4 vista.) Menu is eclectic but saying it needs to change is like complaining that an Indian restaurant serves Indian food or a beach bar serves burgers. 😉
Apparently, the beds are even older. I want to help them out, but I don’t sleep well on a bowed mattress.
Yet supposedly required to be inspected annually by the Hotel Licensing Board….
here we go again….the usual nonsesne…like years back at the westin when people thought they had free access to private beach land and their faclities….
@8:48am There is no such thing as private beach in Cayman..
Yet FINN has a sign on the roadside mentioning private beach. South Sound MP what have you to say?
Because it’s ironshore and owned by the property?
Prescriptive rights exist all along the iron shore.
Everyone has access to the beach. Everyone. Right back to the vegetation line.
Not everyone. Some bloke piled rocks up to block access on south sound road and far too many private property warnings on sands everywhere.
It is private property. That does not mean the public cannot enjoy it and use it.
A few years ago a few posh Caymanian female friends and I (along with a few of their very well mannered American family visiting the island) rented 4 wave runners at the Westin for at least an hour. I then immediately purchased over CI$100 of drinks at the pool bar and carried them over to my friends standing not far from the Red Sail counter (primarily because the pool bar was full and we knew they’d get fussy if we went by the pool or beach chairs).
Almost immediately (even before I could hand out the drinks) an Eastern European bar staff ran up to us yelling and pointing well down the beach past the Governor’s House demanding we vacant the entire stretch of beach in front of the hotel and before I could even argue he ran off. He did manage to tell us we weren’t even allowed to stand *in the water* in front of the hotel.
Having just spent hundreds of dollars in an hour, everyone being extremely well behaved nearly 30 year olds, and having tourist guests who had just arrived and now thought the worst of Cayman the Jamaican security guard came up to us and apologized repeatedly saying he told the bar staff he was wrong (and had done so multiple times already) and to calm down but that fearing for his job the best the guard could do was allow us to finish our drinks at the edge of the property (while he hovered over us) and then ask us to move on immediately. Completely turned off we said never mind, dumped the drinks, and immediately left and spent another hundred or so dollars at Legendz – which is always much more inviting.
Before I even got into my car to drive across the street I called the management of the hotel to complain and let drop I would be telling my firm (who had just spent thousands of dollars in convention space and rooms the week before – a regular occurrence) not to use Westin again, and that I had significant history with the hotel and would be mentioning the experience to a few key individuals (which I won’t go into to avoid revealing who I am).
The manager all but cried for me to simply chalk the experience up to a well-meaning but misguided employee, repeatedly apologized, etc. but I can tell you I have never set foot there again and neither has anyone with me that day. Ironically the manager claimed the staff should have instead offered to sell me a day pass (which was supposedly a new system which allowed you to use the beach chairs – which we weren’t – for a fee frankly not much lower than a room) and then tried to sell me one over the phone 😂. I laughed and told her that I had planned to get 2 hotel rooms after we had the drinks but after that experience I’d never set foot on the property again so if she wanted to look out her window I’d wave goodbye.
Given they were closed for the entire pandemic they probably never learned to even feign kindness towards locals, but from the sounds of things even if they did for a time, they have only gotten worse since the borders reopened.
All this simply because when asked for my room number when I ordered the drinks I said “I’m a local” – which I can promise you I have had people call me liar for saying in the past, even by other Caymanians (I guess I don’t fit whatever stereotype has been ingrained).
Clearly to some people “local” automatically means banned no matter what you sound or look like.
I think I know what the issue is. Everyone has a nationality that labels them in Cayman instead of just being a person it seems. They are “ Jamaicans”, they are “ Americans”…WE ARE CAYMANIANS. They are expats. Why can’t it be we all live on the Cayman Islands and be working as one unit? It’s always THEY are doing this or that. You all live on the island together. Maybe try it as these are the people in your neighborhoods, your offices, job sites, etc.
We pulled our events from the Westin after their despicable behavior towards us as well. My sister and I took our kids there for lunch, we ordered over $100 worth of food, and we were told we could not sit at a table, nor use their chairs. We we told we had to sit on the ground? It was so embarrassing, they were flat out rude. So, we have never given them another dime, nor ever will.
And just in case anyone from Westin is reading this, I’d like you to know that in the handful of years since this event occurred I have personally stayed in hotels for 120 days and not a single one was spent at your hotel thanks to your shocking and illegal behavior that day.
Now add on the wider loss of business from my friends you likewise mistreated (and everyone we told) and you can start to get an idea of how much that day has cost you.
I had the privilege of working (at the old Hyatt) and living in Grand Cayman some 30 years ago… it was an incredible opportunity, and one which I am eternally grateful for. I loved Cayman and it’s people! For me, that mostly meant MY neighborhood in West Bay…and to this day, West Bay IS what I think of most fondly.
Wifey and I returned to GC for the first time since I left back in January 2020…right before the you-know-what hit. Yes, I was surprised, and in some cases, mildly shocked at how much Cayman had changed, particularly SMB area. But, one look in the mirror reminded me that I TOO had changed!
Still, at the core of it all, I found the people to be as wonderful as I remembered: perhaps a bit standoffish at first, but quickly to warm up to visitors…especially ones who treated the island and it’s people with respect. We had a wonderful time.
In a few days, we will return once more. Wifey has not yet ventured past SMB, but this time, I have vowed to show her the Cayman I fell in love with… but after reading some of the comments herein, I regret booking at the Westin! Shameful behavior!
In the meantime, I dream about savoring grouper at the Heritage Kitchen, and taking my wife to see the East End, North Side, Boddentown, Savannah, and more! Save a conch fritter and a Red Stripe for me, soon come!
Every time I’ve been to Tillies recently it’s been jam packed. Maybe, just maybe, if you can’t get a reservation it’s because it’s full. Jeez the self importance of some people!
Tillies ? 🤷🏻♀️ – sounding like a good fit for an Anna Delvey crowd
lol
What does that even mean?
Perhaps the restaurant is full, but even when the beach bar isn’t full (on the other side where red sail used to be) it is now off limits to anyone other that ‘guests of the hotel’
We were convenient for them when they had no foreigners though.
Put the governor somewhere else. Governor’s beach club, opening 2023.
Just saying..
Ummm, unlike many hoteliers, the Governor respects the public’s right to enjoy the full width of the beach right back to the natural vegetation line. The public have full use without having to move his Excellency.
I want to use the pool and get served drinks and food. I don’t think his excellency is up for that. That compound would serve the public better if it were somewhere else.
Ummm, His Excellency has no pool, and there are numerous occasions throughout the year that you can go there and be served food and drink, at no charge, particularly if you are active in charitable causes bettering the community.
So I’m reminiscing a little here but can’t help but think ‘what was the magic that made places like the old Holiday Inn and Beach Club so popular
Because it was for everyone on island- tourist & local residents alike. The pool, bars, restaurants, beaches, accommodations, local live-band performances, party/night life were there for all to enjoy. Everyone spent money & made unforgettable memories.
Nowadays, every hotel/resort/condo complex has a restriction on local residents, locally-owned gift shops, their arts & crafts and local talent gigs.
This Era of Cayman Islands tourism is bias, selfish and astonishingly racist.
Great days they were but I was surprised at some of the poverty. There was a local singer who was having problems making it. He was so poor he went without footwear. I wonder what ever happened to him.
🤣☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼
They were all there was.
Beach Club even had a separate roped off section for non-guests WITH chairs. Okay they may have been rusty but I didn’t mind.
Ernie had an even more ‘Separate’ section for the girls wearing shiny dresses & dem’ tings.
Caymanian servers.
Not when I stayed at the Beach Club in ‘98.
Here I am still wondering where we are going to accommodate the cruise shippers. I’m guessing DART will reopen Coral Beach to them. In the end it is always him taking the Lions share of the money.
We have one little piece of beach left on Seven mile Beach for us and it will once again be decimated by hundreds of tourists everyday together with a bunch of higglers, many of them without Trade and Business licences or Caymanian for that matter, renting rusty old lawn chairs and hassling our visitors with trinkets and hair braiding..We have lost our distinction from other Caribbean Islands and for what??
Cool story except Coral Beach is leased to some Caymanian businesspeople I believe.
I won’t go there. Is there even a beach there anymore?
Well Mr Dart has ensured that there is nowhere else for cruise tourists to go …
As far as I’m concerned it’s still associated with Mac so I won’t touch it.
He still owns a slice of it as well ….. probably why he felt comfortable beating the sh%t out her there in front of everyone.
‘Exclusion from beach bars, restaurants and other amenities,’ – yeah, and look at the bigger picture, this is just a precept for the later coming exclusion of the quasi gated community from the tunnel down of SMB. This guy’s a disaster for the harmonious fabric of a culture, community, and previous beheld way of life, – over to you CI Govt.
yawn…wha..wah wah….
rukes are rules…if you don’t like it don’t go.
I thought rukes are rukes.
A crazy idea came to me. If all us locals put in 300 KYD each say 40,000 of us that 12M. We can buy the Whitehouse in BT. We will then have a little section of beach and pool just for us to use, not taken away from us. No tourists and a bar/restaurant with reasonable charges nothing fancy. Charge say 10 dollar entrance fee per person to keep staff and maintenance and profit from the restaurant goes to the same pot. It would be a safehaven and piece of paradise left for the people to enjoy. Not affilated but just a stupid idea or is it? Lol
All beaches a public property as far as I know.
Except Balboa Beach according to the sign.
I thought they removed that sign after being called out?
Many signs need to go NOW. Stand up for our rights!
Not relevant anyway. The Appeals Tribunal closed them down. The CPA has to review a new application. So far after a year they have not done it. Typical CPA. Useless.
Not a bad idea actually…except how do you expect 40,000 people to share that tiny space. Not all at once of course, but with any significant utilization it will be overrun.
6.18am there are only 15,000 locals at best. I for one wouldn’t want to hang with the riff raff we have given status to. I would put in more than 300 if we kept the members to persons with one Caymanian born parent and one Caymanian born grandparent which is what a Caymanian should be. This should have been enshrined in our Constitution.
Good grief. Would love to see you if everyone who doesn’t have a non Caymanian born parent or grandparent left Cayman.
Don’t know how many of the local men would show up if it was exclusive.
Isn’t that called apartheid, bigotry, or just plain ol’ racism?
They have the beach club concept in many other countries and it works. Obviously the beach here would remain public but the members can use the other amenities like pool and nice bar. It’s also cool because you get to see the same people often and you make new friends
Just wondering how this is different to having the hotels making their pool and bars exclusive to those renting a room? Don’t get me wrong, I would join a beac club in a second, but I have no I’ll will to hotels keeping the space for the hotel guests.
And that why I didn’t spend one dollar at any of these establishments when they were crying for local guest. Typical hypocrites.
Boycott them all and go back to the days of family and friends gathering at homes and beach BBQs. Oh wait! Where on beach can go now??
You can go anywhere you want. And you can take your barbecue. Just be peaceful and respectful, and leave no mess. It is your right and you should enjoy it. Amongst the best spots would be the areas in front of Tillies and Kimpton. Enjoy!
Their Liquor Licence will clearly state that they are licenced to sell alcohol to the public. They simply cannot refuse on the basis of not being a guest of the hotel.
It will also state that they “shall” be open during the prescribed hours. That means they are required to be open at times for which they are licenced and not at their own convenience.
It is high time that these requirements were adhered to. Most of the premises do not even have the Licence on display which is also a requirement.
Enforcement! Enforcement! Enforcement!
Hotels and bars are private property, they can refuse you access and service if they choose. No one has the right to be served anything, including in retail stores. Entitlement doesn’t work when you don’t own the property. The liquor license only authorises the licensee to sell alcohol, it’s his choice who he sells it to.
more populist waffle…..zzzzzzzzzzzz
how about being grateful for the employment they provide and the fact that many places stayed open during covid when it would have been easier to close???
Businesses that remained open did so to make money, patrons paid for services rendered. Please remember the hotels and restaurants around our island employ a small number of Caymanians aka “locals”. We needed a great reset of Cayman but we were cowards to not take the step.
No, they stayed open to survive and to keep people in employment. The wages, taxes, and duty’s they paid went back into the economy so that Caymanians could reap the benefit of the stipend and other government services.
You all do realise what the hotels are doing, right? They’re not getting work permits because CIG wants them to hire Caymanians. Quickest way to get work permits? Start pissing off residents by refusing them service claiming “lack of staff”, outcry from residents and voila CIG starts approving work permits.
hmmm… this is just one way of thinking….
Subpar services at 5stars hotels will deter visitors from the Cayman Islands
No, the prices for air and hotel will deter visitors to the Cayman Islands enough before they even get the service.
Or maybe they really can’t get enough staff because WORC have decided to slow track permits to force then to employ Caymanians who don’t want those jobs, and they really can’t service both local and tourist demand. Your theory means that in an industry focused on customers they are knowingly offending their repeat and slow season crowd – and losing revenue doing it – just to provide a point of leverage of questionable value against government? hell, PACT doesn’t listen to us at the best of times on issues from roads to mask wearing to cruise ship tourism. Do you honestly think that CITA would believe that people ringing up to complain abut not getting into Sunday brunch would have an impact?
Beach suites mgmt never wanted low brow locals. Horrible vibe there.
Their target market appears to be young, drunk, white-collar workers in their 20s and 30s.
Yuppies.
We got all the disposable income and fun stuff baby!
But just because I am 60, doesn’t mean I don’t drink…. I am just old an unfashionable
That’s because they have a lot of disposable income, and are not afraid of spending it. It’s happens all over the world.
It’s sad to see all the comments of locals who disparage companies who are open to hire. Then complain that they can’t get hired when they don’t show up for the interview. Then expats defending the staus quo. Cayman… you are a mess! You depend on expat $$, but resent expat $$. You want to retain your historical heritage, but sell your beaches inch by inch for the highest price. You have no one but yourselves to blame for this situation. You want to be welcoming, but have laws that exclude people. Plain and simple, you are a territory in infancy. You do not have enough of a history to lean on your own countrymen/women for educated guidance. You are selling your soul for a generational sale. Your children and grandchildren have no future in your homeland. But, you know all this. And you continue to elect corrupt ministers. You have no eye to see that you don’t want to elect ethical officials. You can’t manage your island, but you complain that matters are unmanageable. Cayman…Wake up.
Sad but true.
We thought we did vote for change – but the new boys sold us out Big Time!
Good. This is what we get well done. We knew long time ago this was going to happen. Cant wait for him to close off 7 Mile beach too. Soon come.
All the places where locals were welcome on 7MB – Hemingways, Royal Palms, Calicos – all taken away by guess who? Can’t you people see what is happening? And now we ain’t welcome at their overpriced, pretentious establishments? Where the heck we supposed to go, the soulless empty Camana Bay? The joke is on us, but Dart is the only one laughing. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me time and time again? SMDH
So you didn’t qualify to get past the interview prerequisites… Cry me a river – get up to specs. No free load these days Bro!
Did you go to the job fair? Did you apply for a job? Or did you sit on your couch typing your comments in your underwear after cashing your CIG check?
8:50 & 9:25 – where does the OP even mention about employment? Your tirades seem a smidge presumptuous
OMG call the police – DART “took away” all these places. Where is the Kirkconnell family? Sold Royal Palms to DART, cashed a fat check. Same with all the other locations. I didn’t see any big name Caymanian families step up to buy the old Hyatt when it sat empty for the first 10 years. Crabs in a bucket.
the irony with your post 4:53 is that the law has been effectively called on Dart with the sale of the Hyatt for ‘taking away’ the facilities in the covenants of the Britannia owners
Hahaha! Thanks for your help now off u pop!
So Caymanians not applying to work in the hotels is actually discrimination against Caymanians because there aren’t enough Caymanians to serve Caymanians?
What actually happened was probably Caymanians didn’t apply to these jobs because our minimum wage is basically slavery so only ex-pats got the jobs and now since they mass hired their work permits are taking longer than usual to be approved.
So if a Caymanian declines those jobs it’s because it’s’slavery,’ but if an expat accepts it it’s taking a job away from a Caymanian?
Sorry, Caymanian logic is not logical.
The job should go to a Caymanian at a wage a Caymanian can live on.
yes we want $20.00 per hour but complete pension and health insurance paid by employer, 1 month paid vacation, 30 days sick pay without a doctor letter. We deserve it as all businesses are making a fortune here.
And of course the right to only turn up to work when we feel like it.
Don’t forget that one.
And days off when it rains
How about CI$50 per hour? And at least 3 hours a day set aside of scrolling instagram?
When will people grasp the fact that the hourly rate is NOT what hotel employees end up getting paid!!! I’m so sick of this comment! There’s between 15-18% grat added to restaurant bills, hotel bills, resort fees etc- all that gratuity gets divided up amongst the employees and that’s what makes their salary. So realistically a bartender or server at one of our hotels can earn between $4-5k a month, easily! Departments like housekeeping also are included in hotel grats and when it’s full and the room rate is over $1k per night, they end up making a lot more than $6 per hour too.
But we are fine with expats working for what amounts to slavery in your view?
It’s not slave labor it’s the wage pretty much for what a server makes. It is the tips where you bring in the money if you work hard,but first you must show up.
It’s a pity that know one in the Tourism Industry and that includes the Ministry of Tourusm, understands thr crucial role DOMESTIC TOURISM plays within a country.
COVID 19 and the many issues that have come with this Pandemic, has not taught anyone in the Tourism Industry a lesson and if any lessons have been learned, these have been short lived.
What a pity!
Cayman is certainly becoming a them verses us and this mere fact is going to be the straight that breaks the camel’s back.
Want to compete for jobs? Learn how to spell and basic language skills.
you could also “use” basic language skills.
Well no surprise their, it was only a matter of time that this would start back but let me ask a quick question, Do the Hotel owners really think that the Tourist want to be amongst their kind 24/7 even on vacation ? Whenever I go on vacation to Miami at a hotel I’m looking forward to mingling with the locals whether if they have a room or not. If we paying for your expensive ass service their shouldn’t be no problems!
You make little sense. What’s your point? Going to Miami to ‘mingle,’ not my kind of working class Caymanian. I don’t ‘go to a hotel in Miami’ for vacation. Obviously not my class of Cayman.
No I make a lot of sense ass face, my point is the tourist come to mingle with the locals when they come to these resorts/ hotels and vice versa for us when we go overseas. This ain’t nothing about class, alot of caymanians have stayed in a hotel in Miami. I was using that as an example.
No they don’t because the locals do nothing but talk s#it on CNS about how much they don’t like tourists and expats. Let’s add a little homophobia to the mix and put woman beaters in parliament and yeah…they “come here for the locals”. No they don’t. Sorry
They really don’t. You are quite delusional.
“ mingle with the locals…”. Yeah right. The average tourists idea of mingling with the locals being served their cocktail by one whist sitting in a beach chair or being served by one at a SMB restaurant. Hers an idea – why don’t t you offer waking yourself of GT, stopping off for a bite at Champion House and a drink at Wellys and see how many takers you get.
Dem’s not local places Bobo. Sort of frightening that you cannot tell Jamaican from Caymanian, but so it go I guess.
Just make sure you have your flak jacket on 😉
When I pay $1000 a night, I do want my own kind…people from wherever that can afford it, are not there for all you can drink, people who are respectful, responsible and have some decorum
CITA, care to comment?
Can’t hear them they’ve fallen into a sinkhole, ahem, I mean his pocket.
CITA is like Chamber of Commerce, useless.
CITA is no different from DART. A couple of token Caymanians on the Board to make us feel good.
Money can pay for anything including people.Remember that!
Its about time the govt took the stance they are now taking in relation to work permits. Kudos to them! Caymanians are entitled to a job in their own country and this discrimination needs to stop NOW!!
Too busy wasting water to give return8ng planes a shower
Just go to a certain resort in East End and see how staycationers and non-residents are behaving.
If these same people are there when owners and vacationers return there will be trouble for the management who seem blinded by the easy money made available from pensions. Sure, they’ve sold plenty of time-shares, but at what long term cost. What happens when the lack of guaranteed tourist income forces them to pay their own strata?
Bet the slick sales people didn’t cover that inconvenient detail.
Man just shutup! The locals are just having a blast up East and so are the tourist. Yea it might get a little rowdy every now and then but suck it up. I’ve never read an article reporting that someone died there or that a stabbing and or shootout took place ther ever!
Sounds like the truth just stung a little. You may like anarchy, but I can guarantee that owners and guests won’t want to pay for it in their strata. Have a blast, but do it on your own bank roll.
Hard to disagree if I’m honest. Every week someone gets stabbed or shot on the prime strip that is 7MB (mostly at the Strand but still), and I’ve yet to see any reports from the Morritts – it’s a bit rough for my liking but you’re right, nobody seems to be getting robbed and shot.
That’s primarily because it doesn’t get reported. All sorts of nefarious activities going on up that way regularly, just no once really looks into it.
Yes, there will be trouble when the CIG ‘easy money’ runs out. “Sh.t, do i really need to work for a living?” That’s not fair. I deserve free $$$.
Can personally attest to experiencing what was going on at a resort in the East End over recent months. Open drug taking, large groups using rooms for all night parties, fights in the communal areas. Wouldn’t want to judge whether is was locals, expats or more likely a combination of both but it was pretty much out of control on some weekends.
It’s Jamaicans, just say it’s Jamaicans. Because it is.
Interesting as I was refused service at the Westin pool bar in late December for not being a guest. Bar man said policy recently changed and I couldn’t sit there anymore. Literally nobody else around me and I was by myself (weekday late morning). I might have understood if the place was packed or if I was with others leading to high chance that guests would not be able to sit there but how about some discretion / common sense. Left and spent $100 somewhere else.
Your story may be true, maybe not! Nice try!
Maybe you should bathe more often?
You were at a bar by yourself drinking in the morning and spent $100? If think you have a bigger problem than being refused at the Westin. That sounds like alcoholic behavior to me. (son of an alcoholic father).
A similar thing happened to me, but it was before lock down. Walked out and never went back.
Can’t blame them, no one wants the riff raff
TRUTH!
@6:07pm You mean people like you, right?
The management, ownership and staff have consistently displayed their poor attitudes and policies that prove they merely tolerate Caymanians but do not respect locals. It is overt and they do not fear consequences unless CNS or Marl Road get after the story.
The blatant discrimination is real and the excuses are pure bollocks!
Care to document your accusations? I didn’t think so.
Same crap!
Stop your whining folks and vote with your feet. Boycott these places during hurricane season when they need our dollars and they are on their arse again.
Hey Anonymous. Do you have any idea how many work permits are not being processed for jobs that Caymanians haven’t applied for? You need to stop speculating.
Refusing service to non guests is a blatant breach of liquor licensing requirements, designed and intended to prevent private clubs. The law exists to ensure Caymanians could never, without cause, be denied service in their own land. CLOSE THE BASTARDS DOWN!!!
Impossible, too many people in his pockets now.
Dart is not your friend….it is your country’s boss
Someone needs to go with a covert camera and record this despicable practise. Heads needs to roll at the top if this is truly happening. On the surface I looks like Dart is essentially trying to make his resorts “gated” and locals are treated like trespassers. Spiteful because of the ever growing backlash against his exploitation, can’t be for that either can it?
Ow snap, such language – meant for others to follow up. Why NOT YOU to get out your camera if you feel so abused. Do what you suggest yourself.
Would you take a long hike off a short pier if I suggested you do? Well I am suggesting you do if you’re afraid of getting caught on camera. Oh and snap, there goes your job & WP too if you have one😂
You people better give the Dart Group all the permits they need because they operate most of the tourism accommodations and without them we are thru. Stop being so negative towards this wonderful company who supports Cayman and has led in all the quality developments. Thank you Mr. Dart!
Mhhmm let me guess you live in a gated community right ? Don’t answer that just shutup. I shouldn’t be complaining though because it’s mostly my kind that made it get this worse but then again you guys could do the right thing but choose to make it worse for us I sware!
Others ran it in the past and can do so again if provided with the opportunity.
Lol ok bot
You are so right, we should be proud to have a great company like the Dart Group here in Cayman!
Like being grateful to have cancer?
You are a very disturbed person, we benefit greatly by all the wonderful things the Dart group has done and are doing in Cayman. Praise to all the upper managers at Dart!
“…we’ve seen a rapid return of overseas guests as well as continuing demand from our local guests for weekend stays,” the Kimpton management told CNS.
So Kimpton management, you’re acknowledging that any lack of availability of services or poor service to locals, or the perception thereof, is because your focus is on the “rapid return of overseas guests”.
What, that caught you off-guard after most of CITA pressured Govts for over a year? Seems more like you’re effectively admitting that your local customers aren’t as important.
How quickly we forget!!
Palm Heights/Tillie’s/Coconut Club is trying to be some exclusive private elite members only Soho house club. It is being marketing in every international upmarket luxury magazine. No better way to scream privilege and wealth then by banning us mere peasants. This a Dart’s world and locals are NOT welcome in it. His daughter-in-law has spent an eye-watering amount on social media influencers, faux-wannabe celebrities, imported “authentic Caribbean” decor… nothing about this place is for the benefit of Cayman or its people.
It’s actually one of the dullest venues on the island. And vastly overpriced too.
So, don’t visit! I will happily come and not have to see you. I’m sure you will be happier elsewhere. All is good.
Hysterical much? They’re just trying to take care of their hotel guests while things get back to normal.
What guests?? You give their bartenders no credit! Being turned away at Coconut club during the day because “it’s just for guests” as the staff stand around twiddling their thumbs with no guests to serve won’t pay their rent! Anyone should be allowed to walk up to any bar on our beach and get a drink- period!! Enough w the “we are understaffed” BS! The manager of PH clearly stated coconut club is NOT open to the public until 6 pm… I’m afraid that’s against liquor license policy and CITA or Kenny Bryan should really pay them a visit and straighten this out!
Taking bets he won’t be granted an audience unless he publicly puts his usual BS spin on this
you should buy a place in Brittannia. they have access rights to beach and all the facilitys on the property. Court said so.
It’s a Hotel !! who wants to hang round a hotel , unless your a paying guest. Is it just to let everybody know how well your doing, and you are so much better, than the rest of the so called peasant’s, aren’t you . It’s a business , you were useful for a while. Now the higher paying tourists are back, you are no longer required. Get over yourself, and get back to places the other lesser peasants frequent. Looking forward to seeing you !! Not !!
Notice the theme..not enough workers..yeah right! Just another attempt to force the Governments hand to give them more work permits and just like the farce hiring fair they just did to make us believe they were doing something..
Glad this Government has put the pressure on these hotels..These hotels are busy but not packed by any means. They had two years to hire and train people. Np more excuses!
The locals (expat and Caymanians) were welcomed when they had no guests and suffering financially but not now since visitors are returning… Just tell the truth and move on..
I remember the Westin used to offer last minute weekend staycation deals prior to covid to locals when they new they wouldn’t be full, which included breakfast
..Will they be doing that again?
It’s difficult to read your comment without being shocked at the ignorance in almost every line. The reason the hotels are without staff is because Caymanians are not applying for those jobs, despite multiple efforts to recruit and train them. The hotels and restaurants cannot get foreign workers because the government is trying SO hard to get Caymanians off the government tit and into work, that WPs are being refused or there are delays of several months before they will consider them.
And still you aren’t happy and complain that foreigners are stealing your jobs, while complaining that businesses don’t have enough staff to serve you, or won’t give you discounts on your stay.
290 caymanians went to the job fair for Dart properties. How many were hired? I heard that Dart group thinks the Ritz and Kimpton are “too high level” to hire inexperienced staff. Why are their lower level hotels not used to train people. Government needs to stick to their guns with permits. After 5 years being open no need for there to be work permit holders opening the doors and welcoming guests to these places
Exactly. 2 years experience to be a doorman? Government needs to stop this crap once and for all.
Are you sure you understand the level of service at a true 5 star hotel? It’s much higher than most people think, and if you fake it, the experienced guests see through it immediately!
Waaah waaah. What a cry baby victim. Who would put on a job fair just to show face? That costed money to do, it was farce because nobody showed up. They are businesses at the end of the day buddy make your own breakfast
The fair was a big farce..It was a necessary cost expended by DART to make the Government think they were doing something to hire Caymanians. If anyone believes that opening a room a throwing a couple of people in there to go through the motions with the Caymanians that showed up and they have no intentions of hiring.
Why is it so difficult to find out numbers of people that were hired out of the 300 that showed up? It would also be interesting to see how long the hotels keep them before letting them go and saying they need a work permit.
Where does it end? We cannot just keep throwing the gates wide open and continue to import poverty. For the prices per night that these hotels are charging and with the type of guests they attract, why is it so difficult to pay a living wage and make these jobs more attractive?
The problem is here that when Tara Bush and the PPM set up this minimum wage it was a license for the hotels to start importing poverty. Paying people $4 an hour and having them live 6-8 person in a one bedroom slum is not what should be expecting of Cayman. It is not our culture nor should it ever be.
Tara Bush?
Well… If I were paying the kinds of rates hotels are charging tourists right now and wasn’t able to get a reservation in the hotel’s restaurant because they were booked out by locals, I’d be pretty pissed off.
You are talking utter nonsense, when has any hotel restaurants been full of locals except when they paying for and hosting an even and leasing the restaurant out? That is just a useless excuse.
I can make reservations at any hotel restaurant in the states whether I am staying there or not and be welcomed without any hassle.
My family stayed at the Kimpton for a long weekend and paid over $350 per night during covid and their employees there were on us like white on rice and I tipped well. I took good care of the suite I stayed in. They charged my American Express for all the drinks at the pool and at Coccolobo when I was at the beach and my dinners in Ave. We did not leave the property for 4 days for any meals or drinks and spent somewhere near $6K for those days..I’m sorry if that wasn’t enough and that the Kimpton was not grateful for my money during a time of financial need for them.
Aren’t you great. Completely irrelevant to the post you replied to though. No doubt you would have been even more irritated if whilst staying there you couldn’t get a table at Ave because it was full of non guests.
Every person that tried to get served at PH (mainly at coconut club) we’re turned away when the place was either empty or had a few guests. Even when the Ritz was 100% occupied they don’t turn outside guests away at the pool bar or restaurant tables. That’s bad business.
Selfish and utterly arrogant. Have they forgotten who kept them afloat during lockdown? How thoughtless can you possibly get? Us locals not good enough for you or something? The last time I checked money is money. Who cares who it comes from. This makes my blood boil…
Uh, if you were an owner, you would do the same! Cater to those in the past who supported you, cater to those in the present who will support you, cater to those in the future who will support you! Simple. Get IT!!! Common, grow some bal.s, this is reality, not fiction.
No. If I was an owner I would take care not to offend my hosts, on whose foundation my investment is built, and would also do all I could to ensure compliance with the requirements of my licensing.