PLANATATION Bay Resort and Spa current manager Efren Belarmino has been with the company for 17 years. Thus, he is well versed with the history of this resort and spa. Over 20 years ago, he recalls that this 11-hectare resort used to be nothing but rocky terrain with just five trees and a bit of beachfront. The rocky terrain, owned by lawyers Joben Jalandoni and Manny Gonzalez, was bought on speculation in the hope the place would rise in value, which did not happen. The bit of beachfront was owned by Consuelo Cuenco Reyes who happens to be Gonzalez’s aunt.
When one lunch brought Gonzalez and Reyes together, they found out their lots adjoined each other and presto! Plantation Bay was soon born, on July 17, 1996, to be exact.
The resort, describes Belarmino, is built around a man-made salt-water lagoon with a cluster of low-rise buildings, named from A to Z (Alcatraz to Zanzibar). This, says Belarmino, makes the place easier and simpler to maintain; one building will not disrupt the activities and guests of the rest of the hotel.
Belarmino is a Manileño turned Cebuano. He used to work as executive housekeeper in a Manila hotel and one day, decided to apply for the same job in Plantation Bay. He was accepted and a year later, he became general manager.
He says resort owners, represented by Gonzalez, are very caring about their employees so they feel they are one family. As manager, he tries to keep them happy so they can make the resort’s guests happy. In this hotel, Belarmino says, the employees are allowed to eat at the dining outlets, as well as to book rooms for themselves, both at very reasonable prices. He says he wants them to experience also what their guests are experiencing.
Plantation Bay has themed buffet nights from Monday to Saturday featuring dancers who are hotel staff. Belarmino recounts that this started sometime during the Christmas season in 2008 when he and the food and beverage manager decided to have a luau at the resort buffet. They hired a dance troupe but it was a failure: Costumes were bad, performers unattractive and choreography so-so. They thought they could do better and hired a director and a costume designer and looked to their staff for dancers (they knew some had talent because they danced very well during office parties). And so the resort’s dance troupe was born, specializing first in Hawaiian dances.
Now, they have different themed performances from Monday to Saturday: Hawaiian Luau, Filipino Fiesta, Brazilian Fever, Arabian Nights, Viva España and Rockin’ USA. The dancers are paid for their performances, like a regular dance troupe. They have also been asked to perform for other functions elsewhere. Plus, the resort has taken them to Japan and Korea for the resort’s marketing activities: They get to travel free, see different places and experience other cultures, and get paid for their dancing, too.
Managers of the hotel get perks, too. In 2001, when the hotel finances allowed, Belarmino said it sent a group of them to take short courses in Cornell University. The first batch was so good they got hired elsewhere.
But this did not discourage the hotel owners. They have been sending five to 10 office managers to Cornell every year since then, as well as well as to cooking schools in Napa Valley, Melbourne, Barcelona and Florence.
The idea is to upgrade the knowledge and skills of the resort staff. Beyond upgrading knowledge, hotel management also acquiesced to sending staff to other places, stay in hotels at company expense, to experience what other hotels have to offer in different parts of the world.
Belarmino is very upbeat about these experiences of the hotel officers and staff. It gives them a better sense of belonging, of being appreciated and being cared for. It makes them happy, and for Belarmino, his task is just that: To make them happy so resort guests will also be happy. Though he himself looks serious most of the time, he thinks “Be Happy” is the best way to manage the staff of Plantation Bay Resort and Spa, so they will do their best to keep the hotel running smoothly.