The Bahamas has a Small Hotel Association which covers all of the out Islands or The Family Islands as they choose to call them. I was employed by this Small Hotel Association in the Bahamas and went to many of the islands. The problem I felt with the Bahamas, and particularly Nassau was that they were mostly used to the very very rich people hiding money there and really were not terribly interested in the average tourist.
My first property in Nassau was a horror story. It was so dirty I took one look and said: “I will work with you but I cannot stay here". I left and checked into the Hilton!
I did find some of the smaller islands is a little bit more interesting one that I particularly enjoyed was the island of Andros. My client, there was a very sweet lady who had actually been a maid to the owner and when the owner died he left her the small hotel. I’m sure she was a wonderful maid but she hadn’t a clue about running hotels. I worked with her a lot and I think by the time I left she was much more knowledgeable and hopefully had a profitable business.
My second client was the main hotel on the island and they mainly needed marketing help. There is a batik factory in Andros and most of the hotel uniforms were dyed there. I decided to start a quilt club in my spare time as there were a lot of great fabric scraps available. It was very well received and some lovely quilts were made.
Quilt club ladies
Class in progress
Now that's creative