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Set on the slopes of Mount Nevis on a teeny-tiny island, Golden Rock Inn is a hilltop hideaway nestled into the jungle, which overlooks the Caribbean Sea.

By Donna Richardson   |   September 4, 2023

Ivo Richli is the dynamic young general manager of Golden Rock Inn following in the footsteps of his late father who managed the boutique hotel before him while making his own mark on the hotel. He is now putting it on the map as one of the best foodie hotels in the Caribbean.

Hotels are part of Ivo’s DNA. His father François was renowned in the hospitality industry as an international hotelier voted ‘No 1 – Best General Manager – Worldwide’ by the Gallivanter’s Guide. His philosophy rested in ‘management by walking about’. Meanwhile. Ivo’s mother, Olivia Richli, is a respected hotelier who managed the Aman Venice Island and Soneva Jani in The Maldives as well as the prestigious Heckfield Palace.

Ivo knew ever since a young age he wanted to be a hotelier, and not just a hotelier but a ‘hands-on’ leader like his father before him. “Luxury hotels are in my blood. From the age of four, I would stand on the front step of the hotel my father ran, in my mini bellboy uniform, welcoming guests as they arrived. Since then, I’ve known hospitality was my calling and I joined the industry as soon as I could.

He grew up in hotels around the world but spent a lot of time in Sri Lanka during his youth where his childhood home is, and his mother has now retired.

“If my mum and my dad ever wanted to embarrass me at birthday parties, they have photos of me in hotel uniforms from a very early age,” said Ivo. “I’ve always loved the guest experience and talking to people, and I never wanted to really do a job sitting behind the desk. I wanted to do something different every day. I love being around people and following my parents into the trade was always my ambition. I started behind the bar making cocktails, but I gradually worked my way up. Now I wouldn’t choose to do anything else with my life than be a general manager.”

Ivo has worked across three continents, representing luxury city centre hotels, bohemian get-aways, intimate boutique resorts, island retreats, rooftop cocktail bars, famed gastro pubs, and hip beach restaurants. All this experience has given him an intrinsic understanding of guest’s every need, and a well-developed eye for identifying creative solutions to the daily challenges hospitality throws at him.

After school he spent three months in Spain working for a family hotel that had a similar ethos to Golden Rock Inn. It was a small family-run hotel, managed by his father. After this, he moved back to the UK to work for a small company that managed six hotels as their restaurant manager and was soon promoted to acting general manager at the age of 21.

However, he soon got fed up with the cold weather in the UK and moved Down Under to Australia where he spent three years working for Como Hotels. He briefly went back to Dubai to visit friends and family, before being headhunted by Golden Rock Inn’s owners New York artists Helen and Brice Marden.

“I’ve been at Golden Rock for 18 months. I started in September 2021, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I have an amazing team that makes life a bit easier for a GM. In a place like this with this beauty, you wake up in the morning and you’re happy to come to work. The job came about because my dad managed Golden Rock Inn.

“I got to know the owners, and, in that time, we stayed in touch. They approached me sometime in July 2021 and by August we made a commitment for me to come here. I haven’t looked back so far.

My career has gone higher than I expected so far. I never realized that at the age of 28, I’d be a general manager of such a beautiful property. This is an opportunity I am grateful for and I thank our owners for believing in me.”

Reflecting on his own journey to becoming general manager, he notes some of the sacrifices. “You must love it and at times it’s not easy. You may need to lose some commitments. Your partner will have to understand what you do, but if you can get past that, you will love it.

“My philosophy is everyone should work as hard as they can. The most important thing is to look after the guests. For me, seeing the guests smile and say they say they’ll be back, is what truly motivates me as a general manager.

“I am passionate about looking after my guests, checking in with them, and happy to welcome our outside guests for breakfast.

“Every day I come to work I am happy. He is head of a team of 42 and has been responsible for putting in structure, with heads of departments and now everything is flowing smoothly. We are a well-connected, tight-knit group, it’s like a little family, a really nice place to work. I really take my hat off to my staff. I am fortunate to have a wonderful and talented team of staff. We have lots of personalities and we all get along like a big family.

Some of the challenges we’ve faced now are power cuts and we now have a generator. We are just trying to learn from the challenges, which are always difficult and not being a local means, you must work hard to get them to trust you and work with you.

Handling difficult guests is always hard but being professional is always important. Just trying to understand their point of view first, and then apologise and rectify it as soon as possible, and then investigate how that issue can’t arise again. I try and train my staff, not to do it that way or to do it slightly differently for the guest’s enjoyment.

It takes a while to make a mark on a hotel and to put your unique stamp on it, but I have made a positive start. I am very proud about bringing in our current head chef James Eaton. Our food is even better than ever before. Golden Rock has always been known for food and we are renowned for our lobster sandwich and linguini. We’ve added to our menu and our team all work very hard. It can be slow progress, but I don’t want to rush in. I want to make sure everything is perfect and ready to go live.

“There are a lot of things in the pipeline, but it’s trying to find the time to launch everything correctly. As a small hotel and it’s been nonstop this season, something that we would never think could happen, emerging from the Covid pandemic.

One of the biggest sources of business for the hotel is weddings and Ivo is responsible for making sure the big day goes to plan as he also manages all the events at the hotel.

“We did a very big wedding on the first day of January,” he said. “We don’t have a house event coordinator so that falls on to me. I’ve done a few weddings here now, but it was something new to me. This wedding was in three locations with the actual ceremony at the hotel, sunset drinks on another beach, and dinner at the Rocks. Trying to manage all three locations was a big achievement and I share that credit with my team who did the hard work on the day moving everything around and catering to the party. I am here to oversee all this and keep our guests happy and manage any complaints.

“Our busy period is mid-December through to February when we try not to take on weddings. We have a mixture of local weddings and buy-out weddings. One is coming up in April, a party of 70. The bride and groom are staying on the property and their guests are using another hotel. We have another wedding in August, a complete buyout and we are happy working with the client to cater to their needs and desires to make it as special and memorable as possible.”

Golden Rock Inn is a place people come to relax and enjoy, asserts Ivo. “Over the last two to three years of being locked down, people have fallen in love with nature. Being so peaceful with your loved ones and your family is now at the top of people’s priorities. At Golden Rock Inn you can get closer to nature. There are no TVs in our rooms, and we don’t have air conditioning. It can be a little bit hard for some people to understand that at first, but it adds to the beauty of this island and once you are here it is such a beautiful experience.

“Guests love Golden Rock Inn for the pool and entertainment. We have lots of board games and books and it is good to relax by the patio on some chairs with a good book and find one of their spots and just sit there for a few hours and read listening to the birds chiming away and the wind blowing through the trees.

“It gets busy during lunch and it’s a different contrast during the day to the evening. During the day you feel the breeze touching your face and can appreciate the peace and quiet. In the evening the birds and wildlife make an orchestra. It is things like this that make Golden Rock Inn so special and unique and make people want to visit.

“It is a paradise that is still not very well known. Everyone is gobsmacked with what Mr. and Mrs Marden have done with it and the time, effort, and love that has been put into the property by them and the garden designer Raymond Jungles. There’s still more to be done but it still looks beautiful. The gardening team does an amazing job.  

“When I’m walking around the garden every time, I notice something new that has blossomed or gotten brighter. Every time you turn a corner there’s something new, you never tire of the beauty.

“At Golden Rock Inn, we offer the untamed Caribbean. Our island is charming and still very young in the tourism industry and not many people know about us. Nevis is still untouched. We have super luxury yachts coming here but it is also an adventure to get here so it feels like such an unusual and exotic destination.

“One of the philosophies for the Mardens is not to make it look so manicured like the Four Seasons. We wanted it to look a little overgrown, and rustic, but not too much that people think we don’t look after it well. It has artistic style and flair.

“The Mardens visit once a year and stay for three or four weeks, and they are busy people as well. It’s nice for them to be able to come down here and get away. They can have a break from their daily life. That’s what we aim for any of our guests.

“Families love to stay here and enjoy privacy away from everything. As a unique boutique hotel, you’ve got that air of exclusivity.

“We have some yoga buyouts coming up in June, July, October, and November. We don’t have an in-house yoga teacher, but we have some yoga teachers from the US and Europe who are returning to the property with 20 people to spend five days practicing yoga by the pool.

“Pretty much 95 per cent of the guests who have been here during my tenure have had positive feedback and want to visit the next year. We’ve had loyal guests for 40 years who have fallen in love with the property. Many come here every year for two weeks and have the same room and they appreciate the hotel and the people who work here as well as all the activities you can do.

Looking ahead to some of the activities the resort has planned, Ivo says, “I never want to rush in and make it happen without planning.”

However, he reveals: “We are planning a taco night with live music, a steak night with surf and turf, and our entertainment offer. We have a lot of activities coming up like the triathlon in May, the Mango Festival in June, and the Cultural Festival in July and August all of which the tourism board is really pushing. The Mango Festival is going to be amazing. Last year was a much quieter event because we were just coming out of the pandemic so hopefully, we can fill up here very quickly.”

The resort has had a refresh under Ivo, last season during their annual closure, they did a lot of rebuilding. They changed some things, introduced a new menu, and now, Ivo says: “We’re just wanting to steady ourselves for a while and then will be planning lots of new activities, and things to do and waiting for things to reopen on the island as well.

“We have a spa in the pipeline but that’s still a bit time away. Currently, we offer a spa in the room and plan to offer more Caribbean nights and a special themed dinner menu.

“Wellness is also a big area for us. We want to get a lot of people out for wellness and yoga and walks around the garden for well-being. We have plans for a spa eventually and are exploring options for what we can do in that space. We are trying to find out what would be best suited for us as a lot of our guests do really enjoy having a spa in their room.”

Furthermore, the hotel is passionate about art and features a lot of Nevisian artworks. With Helen and Brice being artists naturally they want to support local artists, particularly prints by K.C Jeffers.

“It is our aim to try and get more locals in they support us out of season so it is nice to give them something back so they can enjoy the beauty and the pleasure of this place.”

Golden Rock Inn keeps Ivo busy six days a week but when he gets some time off, he enjoys the many activities available on the island.

“You can go on beautiful hikes, take a funky monkey around the backstreets of the island, or go horseback riding. You can also head to the beach for an afternoon swim or head out to the hot springs.

“There’s a lot of nice things to do on the island and then St Kitts is just a 10-minute water taxi away.

“If I’ve got a few days off, I normally try and go over there or to St. Martin for a few days.

“I love playing tennis and golf. Cricket has always been my big sport.”

Ivo has many happy memories of the Caribbean. “I came here a few times when my dad managed the property eight or nine years ago. I also worked in St Kitts. The Caribbean is also a place where I did a sailing trip across the Atlantic seven years ago, starting in Antigua. There are a lot more islands I would like to visit. I also love getting out there with my friends and family to visit places. My mum and my sister were out here a few weeks ago, and it brings back many happy memories for our family. As he continues to run and make his mark on the resort, Golden Rock Inn is a very special place for the Richli family and through his work as current GM, Ivo continues his father’s legacy.

Factbox

Double rooms from $250 (£205) in low season; and from $500 (£411) in high. Breakfast included. Free Wi-Fi and laundry. The hotel is normally closed from mid-August to mid-October.

Address: Golden Rock Hotel Gingerland, Nevis, St Kitts and Nevis
Phone: +1 869-469-3346
Website: goldenrocknevis.com