It’s all about family time again

WHEN Sandi Curtis and her husband, Phillip, bought the Blue Marlin Hotel for R4.5 million 20 years ago, she says, they knew nothing about running a hotel.

“I am a Christian and I just felt led to buy it,” she said.

Born and educated in the UK, Curtis left school at 16, after which she started working in the timeshare sales business.

“My job brought me to South Africa and to KwaZulu-Natal. In 1995 the Blue Marlin Hotel came up for sale as the company it was owned by then, World of Leisure, had gone into liquidation. We paid R4.5m for it. I guess it would be worth about R50m today,” she said.

The couple then adopted a child who required special needs education.

“There was no support for us on offer here then. So in about 2006 we decided to go back to the UK. We ran the hotel from there. It was really difficult. I can tell you we would not have managed without the incredible staff that we have here. Some have worked at this hotel for over 20 years.”

But, the “old dame” had begun to lose her shine and her clientele.

“We were away for six years. The environment was declining, but I always had a sense that we mustn’t give up on it,” Curtis said.

Popular with Zimbabwean families, the Blue Marlin Hotel was first launched in the 1950s. It was built by Jack Levin, who also built the Cutty Sark Hotel which is but a stone’s throw from the Blue Marlin.

Now in a new partnership with Dream Hotels & Resorts, Curtis said her dream to bring the hotel back to what it had been, a traditional family holiday destination, was being realised.

“It is so important in the world we live in now for families to spend time together. And that’s our focus.”