06-05-2025
Manager of a luxury hotel reveals how to get a suite upgrade and what really annoys the staff
The manager of a luxury hotel in Barbados, has lifted the lid on how to get upgraded to a top class villa, and has also revealed what rubs staff up the wrong way.
Christopher Pitt, 56, is guest services manager at the Royal Westmoreland, a luxury resort covering over a square mile of the Caribbean island, where he has worked for 19 years.
He told there's no such thing as a standard day for him, but his most important task making sure his staff 'are ready to face the guests with a smile and do an outstanding job'.
But while Christopher 'loves his job', his least favorite task is 'dealing with disgruntled guests'.
And he explained his greatest 'bugbear' is 'when you spend an hour or two trying to get a booking for them and calling all your contacts, and then the guest cancels'.
Another cheeky guest behavior, according to Christopher, is when they try to depart their villa after their scheduled check-out time and 'pretend that it's normal around the world'.
But he warned there's one key mistake guests can make in Barbados that's unlikely to impress their hotel staff.
'Barbadians are usually very polite people,' explains Christopher. 'So when a guest enters an area and doesn't say "good morning/good afternoon/good evening", it sometimes comes over as unmannerly.'
On the question of upgrades, Christopher reveals he's had turn down requests in the past. But he said guests who 'complain about a maintenance issue or construction' are those most likely to get better accommodation.
Despite the bugbears, Christopher says he would never want to 'trade' his job for anything else.
He said: 'I love meeting new people and creating special experiences for guests. No two days are the same and I love chatting with people.'
