1/17/2018 Amid major refurbs, Barcelo weighs move from ownership: Travel Weekly

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Amid major refurbs, Barcelo weighs move from ownership

By Gay Nagle Myers / October 14, 2014
Barcelo Hotels & Resorts is rethinking its business model and strategy, according to Juan Perez, vice president of
sales and marketing for North America.

Close to 22% of the Spain-based hotelier’s global portfolio, which comprises more than 5,000 rooms in 140
properties in 17 countries, consists of managed properties, with the remainder owned or partially owned by
Barcelo.

While there are no plans to convert the owned properties into a management arrangement, the company is
considering a move toward building, developing and managing properties rather than owning them outright,
Perez said.

“That’s our decision for the next few years,” he said. “Our return on investment has not been what we had
expected, and we want to recover some of that.”

Barcelo completed a $330 million renovation in early 2012 at its two-hotel complex in Punta Cana, Dominican
Republic.

The project included the transformation of the Bavaro Beach Hotel into an adults-only property and the
introduction of new amenities to the family-friendly Bavaro Palace Deluxe Hotel.

In late 2013, the all-inclusive Barcelo Grand Faro Los Cabos in Mexico, the former Hotel Grand Faro, joined the
portfolio and underwent a $1.1 million renovation. (The 350-room property, damaged during Hurricane Odile, is
now housing relief workers, but it will reopen to guests on Nov. 23, Perez said.)

Another major renovation wraps up in December when the second phase of a $60 million project is completed at
the Barcelo Maya five-resort complex in Mexico’s Riviera Maya.

Two of the five resorts, the Barcelo Maya Beach resort and the Barcelo Maya Caribe, have undergone extensive
expansions and renovations with new and redesigned restaurants and entertainment centers, premium suites,
bars, kids clubs and hospitality areas and modernized lobbies.

“The remaining resorts — the Barcelo Colonial, the Barcelo Maya Tropical and the all-suite Barcelo Maya
Palace Deluxe — are in good shape,” Perez said.

In Mexico, the company has resorts in Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Huatulco, Ixtapa and Cuernavaca.

Within the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic is Barcelo’s stronghold for now.
The company has a property in Varadero, Cuba, as well.

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1/17/2018 Amid major refurbs, Barcelo weighs move from ownership: Travel Weekly

Although Perez would not disclose expansion plans for the region, he did reveal that the company has Jamaica in
its sights.

Barcelo also has properties in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Ecuador, but the balance of the portfolio is
in Spain, with a smattering of others scattered in Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria,
Germany and Italy.

“What we are seeing in the Caribbean, Mexico and Latin America is that the all-inclusive continues to be the real
deal, but the concept is changing and evolving,” Perez said.

“Every single hotel wants to do a better job by including more sports facilities and more activities, entertainment
and restaurants for guests,” he said.

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