Sonesta Beach Resort

Placement organization

Name of organization: Sonesta Beach Resort
Town/city: Maho – Sint Maarten
Country: Nederlandse Antillen
Website: https://www.sonesta.com/sonesta-resorts-sint-maarten

Student

Name of student: Cintia M. Peguero
Specialist area: Tourism Management (EN)
Placement period: 2020-2021

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Hotel Accommodation
Organization’s activities: Sonesta is a hotel chain where the hotels are as individual as their guests. The company has a diverse and distinctive portfolio that covers a full range of services from independence to full-service indulgence. At Sonesta Sint Maarten, there are 2 hotels in 1. Sonesta Maho is a 420-room all-inclusive resort, and Ocean Point is a 120-room adult-only resort.
Target group of the organization: North American Market
Company culture: The Resort uses a hierarchical structure as employees are grouped according to their functions that they provide. At the very top is Mr. Saro Spadaro who is the company’s CEO, then there is the finance team, HR, Operations, housekeeping, sales, etc. Per group, there are directors, managers, supervisors, and staff.
Number of employees: 500+
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

Human Resources

Brief description of your daily activities: My daily activities may include the following:

Answering the telephone, Scheduling, Administration, Making calculations, Market research, Gather payroll data like leaves, working hours, and bank accounts, Participate in organizing company events (if any), Update internal databases with new employee information (if any), Assisting departments with their recruitment needs, Responding to staff inquiries regarding HR policies, employee benefits and other HR-related matters, etc..

However, my most important task is managing reports concerning the covid-19 vaccination process of employees across the hotel and other entities belonging to the CEO.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment will be to conduct a diversification study. The company currently only targets the North American market. However, North America has proven to be an unstable market in this uncertain time of Covid-19. Therefore, with this assignment I will give insight into how the company can attract tourists from other areas such as Europe and Asia in the future. This way the company is able to retain a steady inflow of tourists year-round regardless of uncertain times.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervision by the organization is excellent according to my supervising lecturer. I gain feedback in all that I do and am able to grow both personally and professionally. Not only am I supervised by my company supervisor, but everything that I do is also sent to the VP and CEO as it’s quite an important project.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent and Able to work under stress/pressure
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS Office
English: Mother tongue
Spanish: Mother tongue
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Family
How did you go to work every day? Company transportation

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: myself
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 1 week – covid/ travel documents
Did you need certain vaccinations? No
How long in advance?

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? No

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 900 euros
Accommodation (monthly): € stayed with my parents, but general price for accommodation would be 600 euros for a studio apartment or 1200 for a luxe student accomm
Local transport (monthly): € 150 euros a month
General costs of living (monthly): € 2000 euros a month if accommodation, food, transport, and daily spending is taken into consideration.
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: € 800 euros if work permit is necessary
What did the company pay for/to you? Financial compensation, Meals while on duty, and Transport.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I have lived on Sint Maarten previously and thus already knew how multicultural the island would be and what to expect. However, Team assignments at BUAS teach you how to work together with different people; This broadened my perspective further and has helped me along the way.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? No

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: No
My e-mail address: cintia.m.peguero@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: What to do:
Prepare for the sun and hard work.
It is quite different and unique to the life that we live in Holland.
Sint Maarten is a melting pot, which means we have a wide variety of cultures and nationalities but we are one island.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The island is divided in 2, the French side and the Dutch side.
I would say be sure to go to the beach. We have a lot of aqua sports on the island if you enjoy “sea, sand and sun fun”.
Check out our night life, we have a wide variety of clubs and bars which tourist usually enjoy.
“The flying Dutchman” is a zip-line ride at Rainforest Adventures
On the French Side, you can take a boat ride over to a little island called “Pinel Island”. It’s basically a large secluded beach with restaurants and bars.
If you want something more “lavish” you can charter a small boat with a group of friends for a day and it will stop at various beaches and private islands around Sint Maarten.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link