f hotel construction is a barometer of
a tourism rebound, the cranes and backhoes in metro San Juan and
along Puerto Rico's east coast -- the region now dubbed Golden
Shore by the Puerto Rico Tourism Co. (PRTC) -- are evidence of the
destination's resurgence.
Puerto Rico will open more than 3,600 new guest rooms in the
next few years, bringing the total on the island to more than
16,000. By the end of this year, more than 13,000 rooms will be on
line.
Jose Suarez, the PRTC's executive director, reported a 10%
increase in hotel occupancy in 2003 compared with 2002.
"At 65% for a year-round average, we approached close to the
figures for 2000, which was a real boom year," he said.
Puerto Rico opened three hotels last year, representing an
investment of $130 million: the 255-room Courtyard by Marriott Isla
Verde Beach Resort, on the site of the former Holiday Inn Crowne
Plaza; the 112-room art-deco-style Rincon of the Seas on the west
coast; and the 156-room Wyndham Martineau Bay Resort & Spa on
the island of Vieques.
The 95-room San Juan Beach Hotel, formerly the Ramada San Juan
in the Condado area, had a $3 million refurbishment.
On a recent quick visit to San Juan, I donned a bright yellow
hard hat twice in one day for a walk-through of two different
sites, looked at renderings of a third, overnighted at a year-old
hotel, toured a renovated property and jotted down square footage
and room counts on several others.
I was impressed with the sites inspected and the inventory
touted.
Here's a rundown.
• Paradisus Puerto Rico, Sol Melia's first inclusive resort in
Puerto Rico, is set to open March 5 on Coco Beach in Rio Grande, 35
minutes east of the airport, or, as its brochure says, "the closest
resort outside of San Juan to the airport."
The 500-suite, 85-acre resort, spread among 20 two-story
bungalows, six themed restaurants, four bars, two 18-hole golf
courses, dozens of reflecting pools, a health club, three tennis
courts, a Kids Club, meetings facilities and an enormous
lagoon-style pool, shares the Miquillo peninsula with the
yet-to-be-built, $158 million, 412-room Fairmont Coco Beach
Resort.
Paradisus already has been accepted into the Leading Hotels of
the World collection.
Jose Carrasco, managing director, said the all-inclusive market
"is a very different market and a very different way of running a
hotel."
"One rate here covers everything from brand-name beverages to
tips, taxes and water sports," he said. "What's not covered: golf,
massages and casino spending money."
Airport transfers also are not included, except for guests
booked into the 96 Royal Service suites, and will be priced at $50
per person roundtrip.
Daily all-inclusive rates through April 11 start at $400 per
person, double; summer rates through Sept. 30 drop to $300 per
person, double.
Packages will be available through several U.S. operators,
including Gogo Worldwide Vacations and Travel Impressions.
• Holiday Inn San Juan, scheduled to open in June, is one of
four properties under the management banner of Flagship Services
Corp., headed by Rick Newman.
Newman, immediate past president of the Puerto Rico Hotel &
Tourism Association and former general manager of the San Juan
Grand (now the InterContinental San Juan Resort & Casino), is
focused on the moderately priced hotel market in Puerto Rico.
"The Holiday Inn brand is a good addition to San Juan's
inventory and will provide another option to the island's growing
travel market," Newman said. "Most major hotel brands already are
here. Holiday Inn has worldwide recognition and a strong res
system."
The 225-room property, set on five acres one block from the Isla
Verde beach and five minutes from the airport, is a $13 million
conversion of the Racquet Club built in the 1960s, whose claim to
fame was 13 tennis courts and a swimming pool built in the shape of
a tennis racket.
The new hotel will feature a soaring lobby, a free-form pool and
poolside grill, two themed restaurants with lounges, a business
center, a ballroom, meetings space, a garden function area, Wi-Fi
facilities, and a David's Cookies coffee and pastry bar in the
lobby.
"This is not the typical Holiday Inn franchise," Newman said.
"Although we gutted the original building, we were able to preserve
about 90% of its art-deco style and details. Room decor will be
tropical and light."
Although room rates are not yet set, Newman said the daily price
would fall "somewhere between the nearby Hampton Inn & Suites
and the Embassy Suites Hotel & Casino."
Rates go into the Holiday Inn res system 90 days before opening
date.
Flagship also operates the Rincon Beach Resort on the west
coast. Scheduled to open this spring are the 164-room Costa Bonita
Resort on the island of Culebra and the 125-room Best Western San
Juan Airport Hotel, a conversion and total rehab of the former
airport hotel.
• The $200 million Condado Duo project encompasses the
renovations of the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel and the La Concha Hotel
in the Condado section of San Juan.
Suarez said the hotels "will bring 700 new hotel rooms and 700
jobs and revitalize this section of town."
"The hotels will open in phases, with the first phase early next
year."
The Condado is pegged as a luxury property; La Concha will be a
family-oriented, value-priced beachfront hotel.
Flanking the hotels will be the Ventana al Mar seaside plaza,
gardens, shops and walkways.
Also on Puerto Rico's hotel radar screen are the San Miguel Four
Seasons, the JW Marriott Dos Mares and the Mandarin Oriental Palmas
del Mar, all on the island's east coast in the Rio Grande area, and
the 125-room Hampton Inn in Caguas, 20 minutes from San Juan.
To contact reporter Gay Nagle Myers, send e-mail to [email protected].
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