Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Casino and its sister resort, Sonesta Great Bay, have introduced the new Great Gratitude Rewards incentive for all employees designed to help boost their pay at the end of the month. The programme will be launched retro-actively as of February 2013
The Maho Group has committed to put US $1 per guest booked, per night from each resort into a ‘gratitude pool’ for both front of the house and back of the house employees. The funds collected in the pool will be divided at the end of the month and distributed to each employee based on the number of hours they worked for the month.
"We wanted to create another benefit for our entire team, and being proactive about their pay is one way to thank them for their hard work and dedication. However, as we welcome more and more all-inclusive guests than we have in the past, we wanted to create an incentive program for our entire team, not just employees who typically and traditionally receive gratuity in our industry, those in front of house service positions," said The Maho Group’s President & CEO Saro Spadaro. "We expect the payout to exceed $330,000 USD for the year 2013, based on room nights projected at both Sonesta Resorts."
According to Armando Pizzuti, general manager of Sonesta Maho and vice president of hotel operations for The Maho Group, employees were introduced to the new incentive programme recently by management. "Each of our employees will also be able to track the monthly payout with the posting of a chart every month showing the number of room nights booked at the resort and number of combined hours worked, so they are able to determine how much extra they will take home the following month’s end," said Pizzuti. "An employee who worked, for example, 40 hours, will get compensated from the ‘gratitude pool’ for that number of hours." The ‘gratitude pool’ is money from The Maho Group’s earnings and not a contribution from the guests.