Room Key: Iberostar Grand Hotel Paraiso
Address: 77710 Playa Paraiso, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Res Number: (888) 923-2722
Web:www.iberostar.com
General Manager: Alfonso Lopez
Rates: All-inclusive from $270 per person, per night, summer season; from $400 in winter season
No. of Rooms: 310
Accommodations: Oceanfront guestrooms, junior suites and honeymoon villas with private pools.
Review: Guests at this adults-only, high-end resort have use of the facilities at the four neighboring Iberostar resorts on property, including lots of restaurants. Oceanfront rooms are spacious. The terrace is a nice place for breakfast but watch out for the birds: They like the toast and jam. Free Internet, speedy room service and helpful concierge in the lobby. Guests rely on golf carts with drivers to get around the vast complex. Check-in and checkout are in another building.
Iberostar Hotels & Resorts is a significant presence on Mexico's Caribbean coast, accounting for five all-inclusive properties within one complex at Playa Paraiso, two more near Playa del Carmen and one on Cozumel.
On June 10, the hotel firm purchased the Hilton Cancun Hotel, to be reflagged the Iberostar Cancun in December.
The 86-mile-long Riviera Maya corridor, south of Cancun to Tulum, offers 379 hotels with 38,498 rooms. Although 75% of the properties are 100 rooms or less, the remaining 25% are big resorts accounting for 75% of all room stock. Iberostar offers 3,010 of those rooms.
My recent stay at Iberostar's Grand Hotel Paraiso, the adults-only, flagship property in the five-resort complex, was just long enough to sample three of its four a la carte restaurants, beach bar and breakfast buffet, but I missed out on 20-plus restaurants spread throughout the other four properties.
And because I sampled Mayan wonders at Chichen Itza, swam with dolphins and bargained with shopkeepers in Playa del Carmen, I missed some of the Grand's own guest activities, as well.
"Most of our guests say the same thing," said Alfonso Lopez, the property's general manager. "There's a lot to do and never enough time, although the average length of stay is seven days."
The Grand, the newest of the five resorts within the Paraiso complex, opened in March 2007, following Iberostar's family-oriented Paraiso Mayo, Paraiso Lindo, Paraiso del Mar and Paraiso Beach resorts, which opened three years earlier.
Guests at the family resorts have use of the facilities and restaurants at the four properties, excluding the Grand, while Grand guests can use all the resorts.
That is just one of the perks at the Grand, a luxury resort featured in MLT Vacations' Delta Vacations and Continental Airlines Vacations' product line as well as in a number of packages from other tour operators.
"We've got a high repeat rate," Lopez said. "At least five of our 310 rooms each day are occupied by repeat guests, and that number is increasing every year."
Occupancies ran 75% and higher this past winter, with 93% of the business coming from agents.
"The U.S. and Canada are our strongest markets, and we support our travel partners with fams and special rates," Lopez said.
"The agents give me what every general manager wants: more and more guests."
He credits his staff of 450 as key to the resort's success and positive online reviews.
"Our rooms are spacious and our brands and amenities top-shelf, but it is the staff that stands out," he said. "It's a young team with a lot of leaders who have big dreams and who exceed expectations."
Lopez has been with Iberostar for 12 years and worked at the Iberostar Grand Hotel Rose Hall in Jamaica before accepting his present post.