Welcoming visitors

By THOMAS HUKAHU
LAST week, I discussed a memorable ride down one of the most beautiful highways in our country.
It is not only that the views seen would be beautiful but also the ride should be smooth since sealing and other work have been done on it recently.
People who take the ride along the Boluminski Highway in New Ireland will enjoy it, taking in the sights and spectacular ocean views.
Other activities that people can participate in would include surfing at certain spots or snorkelling, travelling around the islands on a boat, or just walking, which was theme of this series of articles.
But then, visitors like you who are visiting this beautiful island province for the first time, and do not have relatives there, would need to be accommodated somewhere.
You have to take a good night’s rest, and get some food into your tummy before you start an adventure here.
You need to book a place in a hotel or guest house in Kavieng – the provincial centre where the airport is situated – before making your way down the highway to the south, or out to the islands.
To find out how best a visitor like you can be accommodated comfortably, I paid a visit to a lodge owner in Kavieng to get some tips and information on how best an operator should accommodate his or her clients, which may include you, a visitor to Kavieng.

Making people feel welcome
Gertruth Merebo, who is 59 years old, is the owner of Kavieng Niu Lodge and has been accommodating visitors to the province for over a decade now.
These visitors include locals and foreigners, those from nearby Australia or faraway in the United States and Germany.
Supported aptly by husband, John, 61, Merebo is a great believer in properly welcoming guests to Kavieng as well as the province.
“Give your guests the very best. Make them feel welcome as soon as they get out of the terminal at the airport,” she said on April 13 when I went there to interview her.
“I advise my staff to do everything right. They must greet our guests properly, like Miss or Mr So and So, as soon as they meet them.
“The rooms of guests must be prepared even before they arrive here from the airport. The linen used on the bed must be fresh, and that includes the towel. The room must be clean, the toilet roll must be new and the air conditioner and fan should already be on before a guest moves in,” Merebo said.
Merebo is very particular about these things because she travels regularly in the nation as well as abroad.
“The way I am nicely treated in other places by hotel staff is the way I want my staff to treat our guests who come to us for accommodation. We must give them our best,” she said.
“The room itself must smell nice, as is the case in the hotels in the big cities.”
Kavieng Niu Lodge has 50 rooms, a kitchen and conference room.
It employs 10 people as administration and general staff, 10 for housekeeping, a chef and two assistants, two laundry girls and a driver.

New Ireland attracts tourists
Merebo said New Ireland is a tourist destiny because there are so many interesting things to do while here.
The former home economics school teacher said Kavieng, the provincial capital, is a peaceful place where visitors could move around freely without any problems.
Kavieng Niu Lodge also links up with other operators to offer their clients interesting things to do while in the province.
“If the clients want to surf or snorkel or do birdwatching, we get in touch with resorts on the islands to take them out. If they want to visit the eel farm down the road, we arrange for them to make the trip down the highway,” Merebo said.
People who visit the province can also go for bushwalking or just walking, or just taking a ride down the Boluminski Highway to Namatanai, the southern district, and enjoy the outback life in New Ireland.
Merebo said there were guesthouses down the highway that they could arrange for clients to spend a few days there, should they want to.

Lodge helps students
Kavieng Niu Lodge does not only operate as a business. It also reaches out to help students who are learning about tourism and hospitality or related trades.
“We take in students from Utu Secondary School students and OLSH International School for a work experience programme, particularly those who are interested in tourism and hospitality,” Merebo said.
“We also take in vocational school students for the practical component of their training. Some of the students work part-time also during holidays.”
She said the start of the lodge actually came from a practical training programme by students from Fissoa Vocational School from Central New Ireland.
Merebo said when they went to live on the premises where the lodge is currently at, they lived at the back and there was a lot space in front. She and her husband were still not too sure about what to do with the space when a truckload of students from Fissoa turned up in their yard and asked if they could do any building work as part of their practical training.
That was when John tasked them to start work on a building with rooms cut into it.
“That work by students from the vocational school was the main push for us to get into starting a lodge,” Merebo said.
That work helped them to erect an 18-room lodge with a kitchen and small conference room which could accommodate 20-30 people. In 2017, they added a new wing with 32 rooms.

Ingredients for success
Before I ended my interview with Merebo, I asked her for tips for anyone who wants to start a lodge or guesthouse.
“Many people think too much. People should not just think, they should get up and do something to achieve something,” Merebo said.
“People procrastinate too much. They think too much.”
She also had said to students on an excursion last year that “hard work and sacrifice” are important ingredients to success in starting a business.
But she said people starting on something must not just think and talk, they must talk and work at the same time.
She said the fact that her husband was a builder was a blessing.
“I do not need to hire someone else to build what we plan. My husband does it,” she said.
She also attributes the success of her business to her employees, who she says are well taken care of.
“If your employees are not happy, you the employer will not offer the best services. We ensure that our workers are paid well and we also offer bonuses to them either at the end of the year or on special occasions. When they are happy, you will get the best from them.”
Merebo’s success has also stretched into her family. The mother of five has three of her children studying overseas. One of them, a pilot, would be graduating in June and another is studying tourism and hospitality in New Zealand.

Lodge tries to offer the best
Merebo’s style of taking care of her guests should be attracting clients to come to her lodge for a second or third time.
She said urged operators of lodges and guesthouses to provide the best to make their guests feel welcome.
“The services must be A-plus!”
And she also urges her own staff to work together to offer the best.
“If a guest is treated well, s/he will surely come to your lodge if they come around the second or third time,” Merebo said.

• Next week: Designing a town square.