A seaside resort south of Halifax stayed afloat throughout the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic by serving up gourmet food to guests staying in its seven cottages and offering virtual check-ins and check-outs.
“We were one of the few resorts in Nova Scotia that remained open during the pandemic,” says Robert Goldsworthy, Oceanstone Seaside Resort’s vice-president of operations and general manager.
The cottages are self-contained. So, Oceanstone’s management kept them open throughout the pandemic and created a system to allow guests to check in and check out without having to come into contact with staff.
Goldsworthy didn’t want to provide too many details of that check-in process for security reasons, but did say guests were sent e-mails with a map of the property, their receipts and instructions on how to pick up and drop off the keys to their cottages.
Guests were also able to order their meals ahead of time and have them delivered to their cottages before their arrival.
“We cooked meals and sent them to their cottages,” says Goldsworthy. “They would order. We have a menu of items that they can heat up or finish cooking in their units.
“All of the in-cottage dining options are something that we added just recently,” he says. “It was on our radar but when COVID-19 came along we accelerated the rollout.”
With its 24 rooms, cottages and suites, restaurant and meeting space nestled on the waterfront in Indian Harbour, Oceanstone’s bread and butter during the peak tourism season is the wedding market. In a typical season, the resort hosts roughly 40 wedding receptions.
“Throughout the summer to the end of September, weddings are the primary part of our business. For a wedding, they would take the entire resort,” says Goldsworthy. “It’s magical. Every wedding takes over the entire property and it becomes its own seaside village.
“We had 42 booked for this season,” he says.
COVID-19, though, put an end to that.
Fearing for the safety of their guests, the resort’s owners, Dean Leland and Tim and Lizzie Moore, had all of the wedding receptions scheduled for this summer cancelled or re-booked for next year.
The resort’s rooms and suites were closed, leaving only its seven cottages for guests.
Business plummeted. Although the privately-owned resort’s general manager refused to divulge revenues or profits, he did admit revenues fell by roughly 90 per cent from March through to the end of May this year compared to the same period last year.
As dismal as that sounds, it’s still better than many other businesses in the same sector. As hotels, motels and resorts were starting to ramp up again in late May, IBISWorld industry research analyst Eva Koronios wrote many hoteliers would have to be content with re-opening with as little as five per cent occupancy rates.
Oceanstone was operating at about 10 per cent during the worst of the crisis.
That economic fallout was primarily the result of government restrictions on all but essential international travel.
By the end of August, though, it was clear Oceanstone would not be one of the pandemic’s casualties with its revenues back up to about 70 per cent of its usual volume and its staffing levels back to normal.
“Since June when the economy re-opened, we have had our suites and rooms back,” says Goldsworthy.
Oceanstone has held the line on its room rates throughout the season but offered incentives to lure people for staycations. The resort’s Rhubarb restaurant is open again for diners to sit down for a meal. The wedding business is trickling back in with Oceanstone accepting bookings for small weddings with a limited number of guests and social distancing. The extra cleaning and disinfecting of high-traffic areas and the wearing of face masks by all employees remains in effect.
Even though it has made it through the pandemic and its room occupancy is almost back to normal, Goldsworthy admits Oceanstone will not see the revenues this year that it has in the past because of the loss of much of its bookings for weddings.
Despite that, the resort manager is bullish on the future.
He won’t give details until the big unveil but hints a major investment is in the works for Oceanstone.
“We’re looking at quite a significant investment in our resort and amenities and it will certainly have a health and wellness component,” says Goldsworthy. “It would be a new facility.”
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