Well it's been just under 8 months since we took over the reins at Great Expectations. It's been lively. It's been fun. I've flown down from Vermont/Boston 12 times in the last year and been on island a whopping 161 days. Carrie has been on island 6 times since the storms. We've spent $74,000 on solar panels and Tesla batteries. The power bill is down to nearly nothing, and our guests never have to worry about WAPA outages again. We bought 20 sets of bed sheets and 16 pillows. Pool leaks were fixed and new kitchen utensils have been brought down. There are 8 new mattress sets on the way from the mainland and 18 sliding glass doors. Yep, 18 doors.
We're months beyond cleanup and repairs from the 2017 storms, and we've had 18 vacationing groups who've stayed 21 weeks since January. So next week we're closing down for 6 weeks to do some updates, including door installation, trim, paint, and updating a significant portion of electrical switches and outlets. All of this has me thinking about numbers. So we decided to create a little St. John villa Owner infographic highlighting our first season:
st John villa ownership by the numbers in 2018
It can be a bit overwhelming at times, but extremely gratifying when a guest gives us a great review or contacts us after to tell us how amazing their vacation was at Great Expectations. After 20 years of destination marketing online and 16 years of visiting St. John, I guess the summary of our first season is - we 'trained' well for this. I hope Chuck & Kristin are proud.