This Week We Feature Young Professional - Trefor A. Grant
As a young man who hails from Road Town, Grant followed in his father’s footstep, Arthur Grant, who has been in the hospitality industry for more than 40 years.
“He used to take me to work with him when I was in primary and high school and I would help him do different things and thought it was pretty cool and I watched how he would interact with people. He loves his job. He got me interested in it and I stick with it,” said the very jovial General Manager.
A former student of the St. George’s Primary and then the BVI High now Elmore Stoutt High School, Grant graduated in 1988 and took on his first employment with the Moorings where he worked in the front desk and reservations for one year.
He then went on to acquire his Associates Degree in Hospitality Management from the Hillsborough Community College of Tampa, Florida and then took on his first overseas job to gain international experience. For two years, he worked at the Club Med resort chain in Mexico as the Food and Beverage Director’s Apprentice.
Grant then returned home and was asked by the Moorings to manage their restaurant in St. Lucia for three months, which turned into a year and a half, he recalled.
Upon his return to the Virgin Islands, Grant became the Assistant Food and Beverage Manager at the Moorings and stayed there two years before taking up the same position as Assistant Food and Beverage Manager at Long Bay Beach Resort, where he spent four years.
The ambitious service oriented young man proceeded to complete his Bachelor’s Degree in Tourism Management in 2006 from Capilano University of North Vancouver. It was during that time that Grant had the privilege to work at a five star, five diamond hotel called Sutton Place and had the opportunity to experience the pinnacle of the service industry. For the year and a half that he worked at Sutton Place, he said it opened his eyes to a new level of hospitality where price was not an issue. During his stint there, the young Virgin Islander was responsible for planning parties and other events for many of the hotel’s celebrity clients.
“Working there for the first three months, you are a bit in awe of what actually happens behind the scenes at such luxurious hotels and the extent to which we had to go to make clients happy. They paid for a whole level of service that we had to deliver 24 hours a day and the experience is second to none. It was good experience but very taxing,” Grant reminisced.
He returned home in 2006 and has since been the General Manager of Village Cay where he has endeavoured to deliver the highest quality of service. “I try to make sure that from what I learnt throughout my experience and training, that my staff and my guests are well taken care of,” said the General Manager, who gives paramount attention to both staff and guests.
While he attests to having a great group of staff, Grant said he is often faced with the challenge of finding the availability of well trained and experienced labour.
Nevertheless, Village Cay invests in training seminars and coaching sessions for its staff to further improve their standards.
Asked what he enjoys most about his job, the cheerful Grant said, “I just enjoy making people happy, making people feel welcomed, making them feel appreciated.”
Grant encourages young Virgin Islanders to seriously consider taking up a career in hospitality, noting that it is one of the main economic pillars of the Territory and a respected profession in many parts of the world.
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that people confuse service with servitude. If you are giving a service, you are making someone feel welcome to an establishment or your island and it’s something you are paid to do and should be doing it proudly,” he pointed out, but advises that it must be something that they love and enjoy.
“The BVI is a naturally beautiful place, full of heritage and culture that we should be very proud of and it’s something that we should be sharing with tourists who chose to come here. They have a lot of choices in the world, so if they choose here, it’s in our best interest to take care of them,” said Grant who hopes to one day own or co-own his own upscale small hotel property.
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