WTM 2016: Iberostar to upgrade its whole portfolio over the next four to five years

Iberostar, which celebrated its 60th anniversary this year, has renovated seven properties this year and seeks to upgrade all of its properties over the next few years, according to Oscar Gonzalez, managing director for Europe.

“In the next two or three years our goal is that all Iberostar properties will have been refurbished in the last four years,” Gonzalez said in an interview at WTM. “We have the idea of upgrading the whole portfolio to four-star plus, five star or five star Grand Luxury.

 

 

Four star plus would mean things like enhancing the gastronomy offering, hiring more people for entertainment and adding Star Prestige areas for customers who decide to pay an extra fee.”

 

 

Among the properties being refurbished is Bahia de Palma in Majorca, currently closed until Easter 2017.

 

 

Earlier this year Iberostar opened its first property in the US with a four-star hotel in Manhattan, and two other new hotels were also added to the portfolio; Grand Hotel in Portals Nous, Majorca and Playa Blanca in Cuba.

 

 

Gonzalez said the group aims to increase its collection of properties from around 110 current to 150/200 properties in the next few years.

 

 

“One pending subject is London, Berlin and Milan,” he said. There are already plans for a property in Barcelona in 2018, and a new Miami hotel will open early next year, marking the company’s second foray into the US.

 

 

Iberostar is also focusing on innovation, developing a new web check-in app which is currently being trialled in Majorca. It’s expected to be rolled out in the Canary Islands in winter and all hotels in Spain by summer 2017.