‘HOPE AWAY FROM HOME’: Ilongga hotelier settles in Boracay amid pandemic

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

Hotel manager Tiffany Somes was supposed to go on leave from her work in Boracay Island in Malay, Aklan and go home to Iloilo City to commemorate the first anniversary of her father’s death on March 17, 2020.

Somes was already working in the island for more than three years. Fresh from her graduation in Iloilo, she worked her way up from Marketing Assistant to being at the top of the management.

Instead, she found herself staying because the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and tend to guests and workers who would ultimately be affected.

As a world-renowned destination, Boracay Island was one of the first to be hit by the pandemic’s economic effects.

Somes, who manages two hotels, said many of their reservations for Chinese New Year were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Many of the hotel’s reservations at the time were from China, which was then the global epicenter of the virus.

She estimated that the two hotels she manages – Ferra Hotel and Garden Suites and The Ferra Premier – lost around P77 million in income as of September 2020 due to COVID-19.

“As early as January we were already encountering cancellations and problems related to bookings, especially with those coming from China because we had a lot of guests coming from those areas. We met a lot of cancellations already, especially it [started happening] on a Chinese New Year, so we were not able to maximize Chinese New Year for us,” she said.

 

Things became worse for the island when it was announced on March 12 that Metro Manila was to be placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ).

Less than a week after on March 18, Malay acting Mayor Frolibar Bautista placed the island on an indefinite General CQ from March 19 onwards.

This was upgraded to the stricter ECQ by Aklan Governor Florencio Miraflores on March 22.

This was the second time the island had closed to tourists, the first being from April to October 2018 due to rehabilitation works.

The lockdowns were a “sad” moment for Somes and her staff, as this was just a few weeks after they were a “high”.

They had been featured in two television channels for their early response to the pandemic.

“During the pandemic, before we closed, we were on a high, because Ferra Hotel was featured on PTV4 and I was interviewed here. We were also featured on TV5 because we had protocols in place even before it was instituted [in other hotels], so we were already checking the temperature, we already had non-contact sanitizers, our restrooms were also already non-contact with faucets and toilets working on sensors. Maybe around last week of February to first week of March, we already had them,” she added.

As she was supposed to go home to Iloilo City on March 17, things changed not only for Somes, but her whole staff teams and the entire island as well.

Apart from her father’s death anniversary, she also missed other important family moments, such as her sister’s graduation from college and her mom’s eye diagnoses.

“I was here in the island, that was the day we closed the hotel. Supposedly, I was to go on leave, because it was the first death anniversary of my father who died of cancer who died on the same date the year before. So I was not able to come home, I was also not able to attend my sister’s graduation from [college]. I also missed my mother’s eye operation, or supposedly even just a check-up, because she has a cyst in her throat. Also, because of the protocols and the lockdowns, it’s a bit difficult to take risks and schedule because she’s already 75 years old,” she said.

She also talked about their experiences in the early days before the pandemic, where the whole island was still boosting itself even further to attract tourists.

“We already had a campaign together with other establishments, it’s the Boracay Best Time Now, but suddenly, everything just closed. When the announcement came that Manila was being closed, there were already many calls. We had to stay overnight at the front desk with the marketing, sales, and reservation teams, handling all the cancellations, rebookings, and refunds,” she narrated.

The hardest part of the pandemic’s effects in those early days were the part where Somes had to gather the staff and inform them of the bad news.

They had decided at that point that they had to cut down on staffing schedules and that some had to be sent home.

Until now, according to Somes, they had not laid off any staff and none had chosen to resign.

Instead, most had gone on voluntary leave, and can return when they chose to do so or when the situation gets better.

“The hardest part was, I attended a briefing, and when I came back, I called a general meeting for all the staff. We have 75 staff for both hotels. That was when we announced that we were to close, so everyone needed to go home. We started to discuss which staff we could assist to go home, assist to the port, and decide within the core team who should stay here. We had to sacrifice going home,” she said.

While they took the news with heavy hearts, the staff were still eager to help out the hotel.

“After our last general meeting her, at our restaurant area, we cried. We prayed, because it was essential to our success, and then we sent many of the staff home. I asked the staff why they were okay with the voluntary leaves, and they told me that the hotel helped them grow professionally and personally. For them, it was worth the joy and sacrifice,” Somes explained.

She said that the hardest part in going through the pandemic was the mental anguish that they had endured because of the things that had been happening in their own hometowns.

“It’s the hardship, the mental hardship, which we found more diffcult. Every time our area in our hometown has a positive [case], it’s the worry part, because we cannot go home, all we do is video call. That is the hard part, because we chose the road less travelled,” she said.

Comparing the closures in 2018 and in the pandemic, she said that the current situation was “definitely worse” now.

“Between the closures back in 2018 and now, this one is definitely worse. The difference between the two is the uncertainty. Back then, we knew that we would reopen again. This time, we expected in March was that we would reopen by April 14, so we renovating, and suddenly it was extended, until it got to the point where we were unsure when we would be able to reopen. Not only that, we are fighting a silent enemy here, unfamiliar to us, so we have to beef up our defenses, not only in our hotel, but to our staff’s own bodies as well,” she said.

But not all was down time for Somes and her team.

During the pandemic, their hotels and resturants still received awards such as Traveler’s Choice for 2020 from TripAdvisor, one Top 3 Best Hotels for Honeymooners in Boracay from Travelmyth, one of the Top 100 Best in Customer Service in the Philippines from Ranggo Magazine, among others.

When they heard that the national government was already advising that the island may reopen by June, they started upgrading the minimum health standards they already had in place.

They made the necessary physical renovations to meet the national government’s requirements, and they had trained all of their staff for emergency situations, including COVID-19.

Boracay Island was opened to swimming for island residents on June 1 and was reopened to tourists from Western Visayas on June 16.

The island on reopened to domestic tourism from other GCQ areas in the country on Oct 1.

The Department of Tourism issued Certificates of Authority to Operate (CAO) for tourism-related establishments that complied with minimum health facility and practice standards.

“Around June, there was already advice that we could reoperate but with health and safety protocols. We settled our team first and then we worked on the preparations. We placed barriers on the front desk, prepared our QR codes, non-contact sanitizers, and [social distancing] stickers,” Somes said.

A significant part of their preparations was the training for their staff under a Business Continuity Plan in case a member of the management or the staff had to go on quarantine.

“We had training for our staff that we get to be prepared for this pandemic. We don’t know what we’re dealing with, an invisible enemy, so we had to come prepared. If in case I will go on quarantine, so there will be an OIC. If in case the front office will go on quarantine, there’s a replacement. If in case we will have guests, there’s an on-call [staff] who can return immediately, who are just within Kalibo, back-up staff in case untoward incidents will happen. This is sort of a Business Continuity Plan,” she shared.

She said that the hotel did not rush to get their CAOs because the staff had to be prepared.

“We didn’t rush to have ourselves accredited. Our purpose was not just to be accredited for the sake of being accredited. We put in mind that first and foremost is the welfare of our upcoming guests, and of course, the welfare of our people,” she added.

What kept them going in the island despite the uncertainties of the pandemic were hope and faith.

“What keeps us going here is two things: faith and hope. Faith in knowing that things will get better soon as long as you don’t give up, and hope that when better times come, we will still be here. The team will still be standing. It’s the joy and the beauty despite the struggles we’ve had since Typhoon Ursula in December, we didn’t back down as a team. I, as a manager, faced struggles myself. This is not a time to give up and lose hope,” Somes said.