At Blue Sky Luxury, health and safety are important to us as it is to our rental clients. Regular inspections result in safe living accommodations and our printed property information give tips on health and safety. We highly recommend reading these tips provided to be informed and aware.

Here are a few tips that will help you stay safe while on your next holiday vacation in Barbados:

• Always remember to lock/secure all doors and windows when leaving the property or before going to bed.
• Use safes provided to store your valuables.
• Use the alarm system if provided when going out or staying in.
• If there is a gate for beach access always remember to lock that gate after you come off the beach.
• Pay attention to pool signs.
• Check for the depth of the pool and if you or any of your party cannot swim do not pretend to be brave and venture into the deep end.
• Only use plasticware around the pool.
• Do not leave small children unattended in the pool or otherwise.
• Where there are high balconies small children must be supervised.
• Do not go in the pool or on high balconies while intoxicated.
• Avoid inviting strangers into your holiday home.

To find out more about how we manage properties and what we do to promote a safe holiday, click here!

Following these tips will result in an incident-free holiday. Help us help you stay safe!

Stay in touch, we love to hear from you!

Direct Barbados: 1.246.622.4466

Freephone UK: 0800 0885574

Toll Free US/CND: 1 866 404 9600

Email: experts@blueskyluxury.com

 

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Arrive in Barbados with your negative test results and voila, you’re free to go. It’s that simple. Have breakfast, a dip in the pool, (at your private vacation villa), or visit one of our Top 5 recommended restaurants – all with no time spent under restrictive movement. If you have not yet already done so and you have an upcoming stay with Blue Sky Luxury, please confirm to our team the vaccination status of all adults in your party so that we can ensure arrangements are made accordingly. Before you get to roaming the Barbados countryside, here are the full details for vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers in the new Barbados Travel Protocols.

What’s a fully vaccinated person?

A fully vaccinated person has been classified by the Barbados Government as having received an approved vaccine in a two-dose regime and has received both doses plus 14 days, or a one-dose regime, one dose plus 14 days. Your vaccination status will be fact-checked by the Barbados Government and persons who do not meet the criteria will fall under the travel protocol for unvaccinated persons. That’s not a terrible thing, it may be a slightly longer wait but the safety of Barbadians and visitors alike has always paramount. However, if you are looking forward to the roaming of said countryside, being fully vaccinated certainly fast tracks you there… ahem, as do our Concierge Can team.

How Can we at Blue Sky Luxury Help?

Protocols are constantly changing; Barbados has been quite forward-thinking in ways to operate safely while placing the value of lives at the forefront. Our Concierge Can team can help you:

· Secure your PCR appointment with an approved medical practitioner

· Arrange for the medical practitioner to test you privately at your villa

Stick with the holiday home experts at Blue Sky Luxury to receive optimistic travel news as it happens. We will keep a close eye on travel trends so you stay updated. We are happy to share Barbados travel news with you as it happens. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @blueskyluxury for updates and stunning vacation rentals.

 

Stay in touch, we love to hear from you!

Direct Barbados: 1.246.622.4466

Freephone UK: 0800 0885574

Toll Free US/CND: 1 866 404 9600

Email: experts@blueskyluxury.com

 

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The weather in Barbados is hot and humid. While this makes for a great holiday home location, it also means that your air condition systems have to work really hard to ensure the air inside your home is cooler than the air outside.

Our Barbados climate can cause unique challenges for the electrical and mechanical appliances on our properties. The extreme heat we experience here can put a lot of stress on your AC unit and the moisture in our air often creates rusting issues that can lessen the life of your AC unit.

All these challenges can be easily avoided with a bit of TLC and of course, regular maintenance to prevent serious problems.

Jonathon Gonsalves, Managing Director of Coast-to-Coast Cooling notes the simple and basic procedures that are carried out during a routine service to ensure that an air conditioning unit is efficient and effective –

• Check unit operation and condition for any obvious obstructions, rusting, or damage
• Thoroughly clean filters and coils
• Clean blow wheels and drain pan
• Thoroughly clear drain
• Clean the louvers and body
• Clean condenser coils and check gas pressures

As property managers, we see all kinds of avoidable issues with our AC units such as garden debris, bird nests, and insect infestation. These problems can end up being costly and incredibly inconvenient – not to mention – HOT.

For those with rental properties, it is crucial to have your air conditioners serviced routinely. We suggest at a minimum every three (3) months.

Unfortunately, doors get left open with the AC on at full blast when guests are enjoying themselves and don’t think about the consequences of such a seemingly innocent mistake. This ends up causing sweating, condensation issues and generally overworking the unit.

A regular AC service from your provider significantly improves your power efficiency and the air quality drawn into your home. It also reduces the likelihood of failure of the equipment and its parts.

It makes sense to have your unit services routinely to avoid clogged filters, clogged drains, unpleasant smells, mold growth, reduced air movement and flow, icing of coils, and clogged coils which may lead to overheating and compressor failure.

As Jonathon noted, with COVID affecting us worldwide, it is that much more important that we avoid stagnant air wherever we are.

A Look at Why AC Maintenance is Important:

 

Stay in touch, we love to hear from you!

Direct Barbados: 1.246.622.4466

Freephone UK: 0800 0885574

Toll Free US/CND: 1 866 404 9600

Email: experts@blueskyluxury.com

 

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At Blue Sky Luxury, we value our property inspections, our detailed and consistent twice annually inspections, which are crucial to protecting our valued tenants and homeowner’s investments, as well as the continuous reinforcement of our ‘Blue Standards’.

As Barbados’ leading property management company – Blue Sky Luxury holds a vested interest throughout our managed properties. But more importantly, we help our tenants and homeowners, breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that we are truly safeguarding their interest.

In our world of Property Management, inspections from time immortal, are our best line of defense against property damage, and oftentimes, personal injury, as we focus on the health, safety, and wellness of our tenants and homeowners. As you can appreciate, whether it is due to tenants’ misuse of a property or maintenance issues that go unchecked, property damage can lead to hefty repair bills – especially when it goes unnoticed for long periods of time.

As our mission, we prefer to be proactive, rather than reactive. Over time, you perhaps heard of many nightmare scenarios of tenants turning beautiful homes into anything from brothels to drug labs to party houses.

While we appreciate that not every tenant can be painted with the same brush, we are committed to ensuring that all our tenants are held to the ‘Blue Standard’, so that our homeowners’ investments remain protected.

In this topic, we will examine the below listed key areas.

What is a Property Inspection?

A Property Inspection is a detailed and systematic visual inspection of the property, its structures, design, and fixtures that will provide a transparent understanding of the property’s ‘vital signs’ and condition as observed on the inspection date.

The Value of a Property Inspection

Like most homeowners, the purchase of standalone homes, villas, or condominiums, or even the most luxurious multi-million dollar homes, purchasers have very little to no prior knowledge of, or expertise in or property management.

Property management companies, such as Blue Sky Luxury, specializes in property management professionals, who have the knowledge, skills, and experience to detect costly problems. For example, most of the value of residential land comes from the house. To explain further, a house with one or more severe structural, electrical, or even plumbing issues can cost tens of thousands of dollars or even more. Consequently, scheduled property inspections are necessary in ensuring your investment remains in pristine condition. Property inspections are an added value mechanism, every homeowner with a vested interest in his or her property should maintain. After our annual inspection, as a homeowner, you will have a much clearer understanding of your property’s condition; highlighting the necessary maintenance and preventative maintenance measures you need to undertake.

There’s Even More Added Value…

• Increase revenue – where applicable i.e.: rental properties
• Decrease operational costs
• Reduce Maintenance Calls
• Improve Renter Retention and lease compliance
• Improve Rental Owner Satisfaction
• Decrease Mold Liability
• Concise Data for planning and budgeting
• Knowledge of the True Condition of the Property

The Inspection, Key Areas of our Focus

Depending on the age, size of the property, and its general layout, inspections can generally be lengthy, ranging anywhere between 2 and 6 hours, in terms of navigating the property. The property manager will examine the property and its structures, to include, but is not limited to:

• Internal/external structural integrity of buildings
• Foundation
• Electrical
• Plumbing
• Appliances
• Special Features (CCTV, Security Systems)
• Air Quality and Air Conditioning
• Furniture and furnishings
• Ventilation
• Roof and gutters
• Grounds (for drainage problems or evidence of environmental hazards)
• Interior finishes and fixtures (floors, ceilings, walls, cabinets, sinks, etc.)

Our Final Word – The Value in conclusion!

Property inspections are essential if our tenants and homeowner rights are to be protected while ensuring that our homeowners get maximum returns on their investment. The property management team at Blue Sky Luxury is committed and will continue to go the extra mile, to ensure that our wide-ranging portfolio of properties is magnificently maintained, such is vital to the longevity of the property.

Here, we have highlighted the value and equally so, the importance of property inspections and their importance to the tenant and our homeowners. As a tenant or a homeowner, you don’t have to worry, we have your safety and comfort, as our top priority.

Stay in touch, we love to hear from you!

Direct Barbados: 1.246.622.4466

Freephone UK: 0800 0885574

Toll Free US/CND: 1 866 404 9600

Email: experts@blueskyluxury.com

 

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Technology dictates the way in which we do business! After investing in a web-based property management software, we have been discovering its added benefits. One of these benefits is the app and its work order function.

As property managers, we are often on the go. We need to keep abreast of what is going on at our properties and have adequate follow-through. We need to have some organization and with this app, these things are possible.

Let us tell you more about the app.

This app helps us by being able to determine our arrivals, departures and in-house guests with a click on our phone. It also helps us to keep track of maintenance at our properties, we can upload photos and add notes. We can also complete our many, many, many checklists. At the end of it all, we can generate a report for our owners based on all that we have done. Essentially it helps us in maintaining our Blue Standards.

What are our Blue Standards? We have a blog for that! Now we also have an app for that. In the app, we have our Health and Safety Checklist, our Fire and Safety Checklist, Hurricane Preparedness Checklist, Audit Checklist, Arrival Checklist, Departure Checklist, and the list goes on. Cannot recall when the air conditioning units were last serviced, you do not have to worry if you have it stored in the app. For those tasks that we need to perform on a reoccurring basis, the app can also record these and remind us when they are due.

Now, We are not saying that the introduction of the app was easy. We had to find time in our already busy schedules to use the app. Only by using the app, can we reap the rewards that it offers!

Stay in touch, we love to hear from you!

Direct Barbados: 1.246.622.4466

Freephone UK: 0800 0885574

Toll Free US/CND: 1 866 404 9600

Email: experts@blueskyluxury.com

 

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March 1, 2021, Barbados was advertised as “The Most Vaccinated country in the Caribbean” by Travel Pulse Canada. As of today, August 6, 2021, approximately 174,176 persons have received vaccinations and 74, 8777 are fully vaccinated. At Blue Sky Luxury 80% of our staff are fully vaccinated.

Our villa staff wear fully vaccinated pins and continue to use PPE, utilize training and best practices to keep themselves and others safe. We included a dashboard from the WHO on Vaccination Statistics in Barbados. The dashboard is owned by the World Health Organisation.

Would you like to travel to Barbados in 2021/22 and would prefer a clear roadmap for travel to Barbados? Send us your email to receive a “Step by Step” guide on Travel to Barbados.

 

 

 

 

Stay in touch, we love to hear from you!

Direct Barbados: 1.246.622.4466

Freephone UK: 0800 0885574

Toll Free US/CND: 1 866 404 9600

Email: experts@blueskyluxury.com

Barbados continues to lead safe initiatives for persons to visit Barbados while mitigating risks. With the introduction of the Caribbean Travel Bubble, Caribbean travellers who present a valid pre-flight negative PCR test will no longer have to quarantine or have further testing done upon arrival in Barbados as of July 17, 2021. This is an excellent opportunity for the Caribbean people to visit their loved ones with less hassle while remaining safe.

The current list of countries that are on the Caribbean Travel Bubble are:

• Anguilla
• Antigua & Barbuda
• Bermuda
• Bonaire
• Cayman Islands
• Dominica
• Grenada
• Montserrat
• St Eustatius and Saba
• St Maarten
• Turks and Caicos

Monitoring and Control Caribbean Travel Bubble

Like Barbados, the countries included on the list have experienced low positive cases. Barbados’ Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kenneth George is an active stakeholder in the initiative. He has stated that they are measures in place to remove any country that no longer meets the criteria set by the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

Would you like to travel to Barbados in 2021/22 and would prefer a clear roadmap for travel to Barbados? Send us your email to receive a “Step by Step” guide on Travel to Barbados.

 

 

Need information on Barbados Travel updates? Check out our blog for the most recent travel news.

 

Stay in touch, we love to hear from you!

Direct Barbados: 1.246.622.4466

Freephone UK: 0800 0885574

Toll Free US/CND: 1 866 404 9600

Email: experts@blueskyluxury.com

Once we reopened for business and visitors began to return, the safety of our guests and team members became the highest priority and the standard expectation of hygiene was elevated.  

Guided by the BTMI, The Property Management team developed a comprehensive set of hygiene, cleaning and sanitization measures, to reduce transmission of COVID-19, crucial to ensure the tourism sector was positioned to safely re-open.

You might ask what is the difference between cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting, since they are commonly referred to interchangeably. Here is what you need to know.  

• Cleaning removes germs and dirt from surfaces but does not necessarily kill them
• Sanitizing reduces germs on surfaces by removing or killing them
• Disinfecting kills germs on surfaces or objects

In the particularly high-touch sector with numerous opportunities for cross-contamination, more focus was directed towards housekeeping and we built on our already rigorous practices, where hospital-grade cleaning products and upgraded protocols are in use.

A Disinfecting Checklist was designed to ensure compliance. The housekeeper is required to check that each area is cleaned and sanitized and sign as having checked. SOPs were prepared for cleaning each room in the villa, with emphasis on the chemicals that could be safely used, along with the requirements, storage and standards for use.

Staff must change from their street clothes and put on a new uniform, shoes and PPE provided – gloves, mask, face shield, apron, gather all equipment and cleaning solutions and start by turning off the ACs and ventilating the rooms. 

Rooms are cleaned and disinfected using the top to bottom method – upper surfaces and fixtures are wiped down using the cleaning agent specific to the materials and finishes. All high-touch surfaces and areas i.e., light switches, remotes, doorknobs, phones, flush buttons, are disinfected. 

Linens and towels are carefully removed away from the body and washed and dried at the highest setting, or line-dried in the sun. Garbage cans are also cleaned and disinfected and relined for use and A/C filters are cleaned between bookings. Rugs are vacuumed, floors swept and mopped with the appropriate disinfectant, and the relevant colour-coded mops and buckets depending on the area.

Not all household disinfectants will kill the virus, so be sure to read the label to ensure that they are approved by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) or contain at least 70% alcohol but be careful not to cause damage to certain finishes.

Finally, all cleaning equipment, mop buckets, mops, reusable cloths are cleaned and sanitized and all disposable carefully removed and discarded. 

Staff must wash their hands before changing into their street clothes, taking their bagged uniforms with them to be laundered and the property ventilated before locking up.

These procedures are two-fold: to assure guests that our villas are as safe as they possibly can be and to keep our staff protected, thereby reducing community contact.

 

Stay in touch, we love to hear from you!

Direct Barbados: 1.246.622.4466

Freephone UK: 0800 0885574

Toll Free US/CND: 1 866 404 9600

Email: experts@blueskyluxury.com

Bookmark this page and stay updated on Barbados travel news. In Barbados, our primary source of international travellers come from the UK, USA and Canada. We keep a close eye on travel trends in this bubble to ensure that we can advise our guests and share optimistic news with the travel community. If there are any Barbados travel queries that you have, ask the holiday home experts at experts@blueskyluxury.com.

Fully Vaccinated Travellers

Fully vaccinated persons can move around a lot easier as it relates to day-to-day activities and travel. As such, this has put safe travel back on the radar for many of our international guests. Our travel enthusiasts who are fully vaccinated often ask us about vacation cancellation policies, safety protocols and long term stays in Barbados. They also request information on quarantine regulations inbound to Barbados as they may also have to manage quarantine rules in their home countries. After being restricted for such a long time, we get frequent questions on Summer stays in Barbados, and of recent those who would like to experience

“Crop Over 2021” or, as known to international travellers, “Barbados’ Harvest festival.” To this end, one of our most frequently asked questions is “Do I need to quarantine in Barbados if I am fully vaccinated?” We created a blog on new protocols for fully vaccinated persons travelling to Barbados and share recently released information on Barbados’ Harvest festival, Crop Over. Just click on the link to read about Barbados protocols and to receive tips on travelling to Barbados in 2021. (Namely Fast Track, it eliminates the travel hassle!)

Stick with the holiday home experts at Blue Sky Luxury to receive optimistic travel news as it happens. We will keep this page updated regularly. We are happy to share Barbados travel news with you as it happens. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook @blueskyluxury for updates and stunning vacation rentals.

Read the latest travel news: 

• Vaccination statistics in Barbados
• Canadians Exempt from Quarantine

Coming soon:

• Vaccination statistics by country in UK, USA and Canada
• Caribbean Travel Corridor

 

Stay in touch, we love to hear from you!

Direct Barbados: 1.246.622.4466

Freephone UK: 0800 0885574

Toll Free US/CND: 1 866 404 9600

Email: experts@blueskyluxury.com

 

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