The Sandals Whitehouse Resort
The sociologists of the region were right in hailing Sandals Whitehouse, being an extensively spread resort place as mark of regional development making it a historically important happening located at Jamaica’s south shore, which was mostly unknown and had nothing of this sort in the past.
The opening of Sandals Whitehouse resort took place in the year 2005. It is having beach front measuring around 3.2 kilometers long. The size of the entire sandals whitehouse resort is 18 hectare around 45 acre tract and its massive size can not be imagined by persons inhabiting highly developed areas of Jamaica located on its north shore.
Even though Sandals Whitehouse Resort is relatively isolated from the highly populated areas ofJamaica, its location can be reached fromMontego BayAirport, by spending only 90 minutes in the drive. It is much shorter drive in comparison to any of the Sandal’s nearby resorts located at Ocho Rios or Negril. Nearly 75% of the clients of Sandals Whitehouse are American and the rest are from Europe.
During the activities related to Sandals Whitehouse opening 5000 candidates were interviewed for just 500 posts created in the resort. This resulted in making a team of very charming local without any experience, who had undergone training by Sandals Whitehouse and were advised to be highly attentive and behave sensitive looking after the needs of the guests. The attention was given to the fact regarding its isolation one has to remain confined to the local resources only.
Layout of Sandals Whitehouse Resort
The layout of Sandals Whitehouse is comprised of one big quite large public area called Piazza by the locals. The location has six resorts and seven restaurants.
Moreover at Sandals Whitehouse, there is a huge dining area complex, which is very exclusively specialized in the laying of buffets, the specialty restaurant existing on the site also has eating place concentrating on Italian, Asian fusion, Caribbean, grilled items and steak cuisine.
Sandals Whitehouse has built open to view kitchen making confectioneries for the coffee shop located on the site and its pastry bar. The presence of the pools are having theatrical environment and the living places are very distinctive three clusters of building termed as villages their location is just near the Piazza location.
Sandals Whitehouse villages
The theme of the Sandals Whitehouse villages has been taken from blue color painted French decoration, terra cotta painting reflecting Dutch decoration style and red with ocher colored Italian decoration of the village clusters.
True to the Sandal culture at other places Sandals Whitehouse also most suitable for lovers who get the perfect environment of isolation they need.
Sandal resorts & Martha Stewart Association Offer Customized Wedding
Sandal resorts are belonging to Sandals Resorts International and are operating its all inclusive resorts located in the Caribbean region. Sandal Resorts International is the parent company for Sandal Resorts, Beaches Resorts, Grand Pine Apple Beach Resorts and the Royal Plantation Collection.
Sandal resorts are operating from Montego Bay,Jamaicaand are having in all 15 properties with entry restriction of couples only out of which eight properties are located inJamaica, three of them are inSt. Lucia, two in Bahamas, one in Varadero atCubaand one atAntigua.
During July 2009 SRI joined hands with Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia with the objective of providing services of Customized Martha Stewart Weddings for the brides and grooms desiring to have wedding destinations among any of the 16 Sandals Resorts and Beaches Resorts commencing from January 1, 2010.
The company has also made the announcement, in respect of introduction of teaching classes at Sandals Resorts for adults enabling them to learn Martha Stewart Crafts besides arranging the Craft camps at beaches resorts for the benefit of the families in learning them.
During August 2009 the parent company Sandal Resorts International made the announcement related to purchase of Four Season Great Exuma, which shall be make its commercial debut bearing the name of Sandals Emerald Bay besides the launch of Great Exuma,Bahamas.
Involvement of Sandal resorts in Gay rights Controversy:
Since 1981 Sandal resorts have been following for very long time its policy, which was focused on banning gay’s entry to their restricted for “couples-only” resorts. The policy statement characterized the Sandal resorts living place as the resort meant exclusively for heterosexual couples only or simply Couples only.
The definition of the couple was one female adult and one male adult. The Sandal resorts policy required male/female couples only, i.e. couples of the same gender are not accepted. Sandal resort’s anti-gay policy got extensive publicity during the occasions staying at Sandal resorts was offered in the form of prize winning activities under large numbers of promotions being done by companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and US Airways during 1999.
Later on the reports revealed that Sandal resorts also were denying accommodations to the handicapped. This prompted the ACLU to give its opinion that companies which were offering Sandals resorts staying as prizes, or otherwise conducting business with Sandals resorts, may get involved as potential targets for lawsuits.
This made the companies involved immediately severing of the business relation with Sandals resorts, since earlier they did not have any inkling of Sandal resorts practices of discrimination. It was followed by the advertisements of Sandals getting banned by the London Underground during 2003 as a result of public objecting to the sandals discriminatory policy. This subsequently resulted in Sandals resorts ending its policy related to refusal of service to the gay couples with effect from August 2004 when the gays protested for their rights.