Coco Reef Resort - Review Page 5
Children
The Coco Reef Resort is not a ‘family’ resort. Having said that, I’m sure the hotel does everything possible to welcome youngsters and make their stay enjoyable. Baby-sitting services are available, at extra cost, but this is the limit of childcare facilities.
I appreciate that the following comments will be unpopular with some readers, but I'm sure there will come a time when they understand what I mean. The letters and emails in support lead me to repeat these comments. I would also declare that we are the loving parents of four wonderful children and five grandchildren.
Resorts like the Coco Reef are not ‘family’ hotels. Study the hotel’s marketing. They may not actively refuse or discourage young children, but they certainly do not make any effort to attract or encourage them. Consider the hotel’s pricing policy. Why do they charge for young children rather than allowing them to go free, or very cheaply, as at most true 'family' hotels?
Tobago is a chill-out destination. The Coco Reef is a chill-out resort. How can anyone chill-out if children are running about screeching? Don't get me wrong; there is nothing more endearing than watching well-behaved children at play. But, ‘well 
behaved’ (by traditional standards) is surely the critical element here.
Everything about the Coco Reef Resort is focussed toward couples. Not just the middle-aged and elderly, but also the numerous young honeymooners. What about the couples who have left the children at home and are trying to spend ‘quality time’ together, possibly trying to keep their own relationship on track? By taking babies and young children to this sort of resort, parents are in danger of destroying the very type of hotel that they will one day desperately seek for themselves.
Weddings
It is little surprise that the Coco Reef Resort is such a popular wedding/honeymoon destination. After the stressful lead-up to the happy event, the quiet calm of the hotel must be a tonic.
The hotel’s Social Director will make all arrangements for the ceremony, either directly or through the guest’s tour operator. A minimum of three working days of residency on Tobago is required before the wedding. The hotel can provide the necessary two witnesses. Weddings at the hotel are performed by a priest or minister. Civil weddings (without a priest or minister) can only be conducted at the Registrar’s office in Scarborough.
On your first day at the hotel, you will be taken on a tour of the property so that you can choose a spot for the ceremony. Most couples opt for the beautiful gardens with the ocean as a backdrop. The hotel then decorates the wedding area with palm branches and colourful tropical flowers. Subject to weather conditions, couples may prefer to have the ceremony on the beach, or on one of the jetties overlooking the sea, although this can be a trifle windy. The private veranda of Sunset Villa makes a wonderful venue, but this can only be arranged when this exclusive suite is unoccupied.
The hotel’s Wedding Package includes a one-layer wedding cake, a bottle of champagne, a bridal bouquet plus all official arrangements and costs. The hotel can also arrange a still or video photographer, extra flowers and even musical entertainment in the form of a steel band.
Staff
With all due respect to the Coco Reef Resort and other hotels on Tobago, I would suggest that few people come to the island for the efficiency of service, the wonderful restaurants, the coral-sand beaches or the range of activities and sightseeing options. There are finer destinations for each of these features. How and why is it, then, that Tobago seems to have such an innate ability to exceed the sum of its parts?
The answer is the Tobagonian people. In the context of this review, it is the staff at the Coco Reef Resort. No other large hotel on Tobago comes anywhere remotely near in terms of the overall excellence of their staff.
John Jefferis, the hotel's owner, once told me that the main characteristic they look for in front-of-house staff is personality. They are actors, playing a part in someone’s fantasy holiday show. As he so rightly said, you can teach anyone to lay a silver service place setting but you can’t teach them to smile from the heart.
This ethos shows and is clearly endorsed and practised by Executive Director and General Manager, Eric Feniet. Eric demands and gets the best from every employee. It is the reason that so many guests leave with tears of sadness and join the hotel’s remarkable and constantly expanding happy band of ‘repeaters’.
Eric is remarkable. Morning, noon and night, seven days a week, he can be seen, buzzing around the hotel checking that everything is running properly and chatting to guests. Eric is an old-fashioned hotelier – his primary focus is the guests, not the balance sheet. Leading from the front, he wins the respect of guests and staff alike. He has trained his staff to perfection and they exhibit a wonderful combination of service, 
courtesy and friendliness. Within a day or two of arrival, guests are laughing and joking with the staff. This, in turn, breaks down barriers between the guests themselves.
People sometimes comment that the service is not up to the standards of top hotels in some other destinations. To be sure, the nature of Tobagonians mean that local staff will never become bottom-kissing performing automatons. They are an extremely proud people and no matter how professional their training, will find it near on impossible to hide their feelings should you upset their sensibilities. Clicking a finger is a guaranteed way to cross that line, for example. What you will get, however, is true and genuine Tobagonian warmth and friendliness; the very characteristics that cause so many visitors to fall in love with the island.
NEXT: Meal Plans, Shopping, Communications, Repeaters, Conclusion
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