Every beginning of the year our expectations are really high. Projects, improvement purposes, plans…The energy of a new beginning and resetting the counter to zero help us to better start these new challenges. In the case of Iberostar Hotels & Resorts, commonly appearing in our posts, 2016 seems to open the doors to a great transformation, which can potentiate the long sought-after quality change, in which they invested so much for months.

In this 2016 touristic season, Iberostar includes some new great assets to its portfolio, which did not happen for a long time. This new bet changes completely the Company brand history: we do not just talk about Iberostar as beach resorts for families in Tenerife, Mallorca or The Caribbean, but as luxury hotels and boutique hotels in the centre of Madrid or other big European capitals like the mythic Grand Hotel Budapest.

All these changes and challenges are heavily asking for a short analysis, especially taking into account that January is the month of Fitur (Madrid’s International Tourism Fair) and it is time to talk about tourism, tendencies, numbers and tourism industry projects.  

Experiential Resorts

The idea of experiential tourism is not new at all, but it is now when hotel chains are increasingly taking it into account. Now the trendiest offer is: athlete hotels, kids’ hotels that seem theme parks, Only Adults hotels like oasis of relax…It is possible to stay at hotel X, as if it was the holiday destination itself. Therefore, I have 4 free days and I want a relaxing escape at a Spa hotel in Tenerife, but I do not want to stay at any hotel, I want to stay at Iberostar Grand Hotel Mencey. This is an example of today’s thought. Why? Why would someone like to stay at that hotel and not at a cheaper one at the same destination? Because the travel experience is the hotel itself. In this particular case, it consists of enjoying 4 days of 5-star customer care in the oldest Spanish hotel, a spa hotel in Tenerife with all of the colonial charm and really modern spaces and facilities, which include spa, gastronomic restaurant, the best culinary classroom in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, nightlife atmosphere…

 

Iberostar made great efforts to promote and renovate Grand Mencey hotel and now it is trying to do the same in all its Grand hotels, which we list you below so you can understand the tendency that these strong luxury resorts are following in our country (previously more related to The Caribbean holidays):

 

• Grand Hotel Mirador: it is an Only Adults hotel in Costa Adeje, created as a luxury 5-star boutique hotel
• Grand Hotel Salome: a golf hotel in Costa Adeje, only adult’s hotel with spa located in South Tenerife near Fañabe and El Duque beaches.
• Grand Hotel Portals Nous: the last exclusive luxury hotel incorporated in Iberostar’s group, located in Calvia coast, Mallorca, near Puerto Portals and with direct access to Cala Bendinat and its big golf course.

 

New formulas, more destinations

In addition to this new luxury bet, Iberostar has already demonstrated its purposes of devoting this year to introduce its offer in destinations and places still uncovered by them. This is the case of the new hotel in Santa Eulalia, Ibiza, an only adult’s hotel with chill out, free Wi-Fi, All Inclusive option and golf course in the nearby (the only one in Ibiza). Another new incorporation is in Costa del Sol, even though the destination already includes some hotels of the chain, Iberostar chose a beach close to Marbella, where there is not any chain hotel. We are talking about El Saladillo beach and the hotel is already in the market under the name of Iberostar Costa del Sol.

Madrid is one of the last and biggest bets of this hotel firm. The first urban hotel of the group: a hotel in Madrid’s Gran Vía, offering high quality gastronomy (in fact, restaurant El Trapo is run by the famous chef Paco Morales) and a trendy rooftop in the big city. Although it seems a luxury hotel, it actually is a 4-star hotel, which services are addressed to business customers and couple getaways, as well as to provide a different and original place to Madrid society, where to have a good time and not just an accommodation.

At the moment, this urban hotel line is more developed in other European destinations as Budapest, one of the big capitals where Iberostar has already been working for a long time. Barcelona is still not included in the portfolio, but we prefer not to discard it, taking into account the last chain steps. In this way, we leave the door open for this city, which is in fact one of the most tempting to open a hotel now: tourism figures in the Catalan capital are one of the most positive and optimistic, if we analyse their historical evolution. Barcelona is never a mistake.

Internal improvements

Opening new hotels is a development method, but Iberostar also detected the importance of working with its own resources and optimize them. This is reflected in the investment of the chain in recent months, in the mature tourism area of Playa de Palma, where it has 3 of its best hotels in Mallorca. Renaming, spaces and facilities renovation and services improvement resulted in a consolidated offer in Mallorca with more modern accommodation concepts: Only Adults, High quality All inclusive, experiential hotels…
Iberostar Bahía de Palma is one of the best examples of this renovation, previously called Royal Cupido, now one of the most complete Only Adults hotels in Palma. See view suites, bay view terraces with pools, spa, luxury beach club, restaurants, exclusive themed animation for couples and groups of friends…Everything at reduced prices in relation with Playa de Palma accommodation offer and establishing a high-level hotel network for all budgets.