Opposition Leader questions sale of gov’t-owned hotel 6 months after it opened 

Opposition Leader Godwin Friday is calling on the Unity Labour Party (ULP) to explain “what exactly is going on” at the state-owned Holiday Inn, which head of the state agency Invest SVG, Glen Beache, says is for sale, six months after it opened.

Beache did not say whether it was the building, the franchise or both were up for sale when he made the announcement to Vincentians in Washington, DC, during a forum aimed at encouraging the Vincentian diaspora to invest at home.

When the hotel opened in November, Minister of Finance Camillo Gonsalves had said that the government did not intend to become a hotelier.

“We want to become developers of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and we believe that when the opportunity presents itself, we hope that we can find an appropriate private-sector marriage for this hotel sometime in the future,” Gonsalves had said.  

“I’m not putting it for sale today, but I’m simply saying that we don’t want to be having cabinet meetings about staffing and equipping and running hotels,” he had said at the ceremony at which the contractors handed over the hotel building to the government. 

In June 2022, the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines signed an EC$52 million contract for the construction of the 92-room hotel.

The money came from the National Insurance Services and a grant from the CARICOM Development Fund, which contributed US$10.7 million.

Speaking at the forum in Washington, Beache, a former minister of tourism, said the Argyle International Airport, which opened in 2017, has attracted hotels to the island.

He mentioned Sandals at Buccament Bay, adding that Adam Stewart of Sandals Resort International had recently announced that a Beaches Resort would be built in St. Vincent. 

“We should have Marriott coming on stream,” Beache said, referring to the hotel that the government has said it would build in Mt Wynne, but on which little work has been done since the signing of a management deal in 2019. 

“As many of you know, we have Holiday Inn Express, which is running at, I think it’s something like 98% occupancy rate and full for carnival — well, always, right?” Beache said in Washington.

“And I should say that hotel is also for sale, for any of you who are interested, because I see a lot of money in this room…” he said, noting that the government built the hotel

“Now, let me say this. There are those who want to speak about ‘Why should the government be involved in a hotel business?’ Government is not really involved in a hotel business, but we need to get the room rate up,” he said.

Beache said this was the same strategy that the Barbados government has used to increase its hotel room stock.

“Government had to get involved because you have to show your potential investors that you have confidence in the product,” he said of the SVG government.

Meanwhile, speaking on his radio programme, Friday noted the reports in the media saying that the Holiday Inn was up for sale.

“… the government will have to explain what exactly is going on there. I know that driving by, usually you pass by and you’re wondering if anybody — if the place is open,” Friday said, adding that he has remarked about this a number of times. 

“There are no vehicles in the parking spaces, the windows are all blacked out and no lights in there. So you’re wondering what’s going on,” the opposition leader said. 

“But in any event, it’s built. It’s a facility that can provide service to a growing tourism and business sector. But … government must say why and what exactly is going to be better about it,” he said and spoke of the opposition New Democratic Party’s plan to accelerate growth of the tourism sector. 

During the opening ceremony in November, Gonsalves had e said that the government had created a company that was staffed by Vincentians, adding, “and they are going to be the ones who take this hotel into the future.

“I hasten to add that in the case of this hotel, and in the case of the hotel that we’re building at Mt Wynne, the government, the cabinet, the executive, doesn’t want to become a hotelier. We don’t think that our skill set is in the operation of hotels.”

The finance minister had said that the government was seeking to add room stone so as to get more planes and tourists to SVG, so that tourism stakeholders could make more money. 

“We’re not interested in how many sheets to wash tomorrow, how many pillowcases, how many dozen eggs you want to buy, who is cleaning the toilet and who is and who is making the beds,” Gonsalves had said. 

“So while we own it and we run it, we are very much interested in offers from the private sector, ultimately down the road, who may want to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity that we’ve created.”