HAVANA, Cuba--Havana’s first-ever five-star-plus hotel has been operational for a year now. The Hotel Gran Manzana Kempinski is boasting good occupancy rates from its privileged location right in the heart of downtown Havana.
Recently, the Grand Packard Hotel, run by Iberostar, opened a few blocks from the Gran Manzana Kempinski, equally featuring high-end rooms, facilities and amenities for big-pocket guests, and also with breathtaking views of Havana’s Morro Castle and a piece of Malecon, the capital’s celebrated seafront promenade. And there’s a third fancy hotel in the pipeline for Havana, this one to be run by Paris-based AccorHotels.
The new build is the SO/ Havana Paseo del Prado, slated to open in 2019 to mark the French brand’s debut in the Americas. AccorHotels already has a presence in Cuba with the Hotel Mercure Sevilla Havane and the Pullman Cayo Coco. The SO/ Havana Paseo del Prado will be perched on the corner of Paseo del Prado and Malecon, right across from the Grand Packard Hotel.
In partnership with AccorHotels, the establishment will be part of Grupo de Turismo Gaviota, a Havana-based tourism and hospitality company with more than 85 hotels and over 30,400 rooms throughout Cuba. With design at the core of the SO/ brand, the Havana hotel will display the creative signature of Spanish fashion designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, from the hotel’s emblem to the staff’s uniforms.
“I am incredibly excited to take part in the design of the new SO/ Havana Paseo del Prado,” said De la Prada in a statement posted by Hotel News Resource. “Havana is a magical and colourful city, and the design process came quite naturally. The world of Cuban dance was my central inspiration and with that, the project came alive almost of its own accord.”
The 10-story hotel will offer 250 guestrooms, including 36 suites; five food and beverage outlets, including a specialty restaurant and rooftop bar on the ninth floor; a chocolate café bar; a lobby lounge and bar; as well as an all-day signature dining restaurant. Additional hotel features include three interior meeting rooms, a SO/ SPA with six treatment rooms, a SO/ FIT fitness centre and a swimming pool with an adjacent pool bar. Havana’s current hotel development pipeline also includes the Corona, Metropolitano and Gran Hotel. Other projects in the offing are the properties being built on Malecon and D Streets; 3rd and 70th Streets across from the Panorama Hotel; G and 29th Streets, and on 25th and K Streets, near the Tryp Habana Libre Hotel.
These investments indicate that investor confidence in Havana’s tourism is rebounding. In partnership with AccorHotels, SO/ Havana Paseo del Prado is part of Grupo de Turismo Gaviota, a Havana-based tourism and hospitality company boasting three decades of experience in the industry with over 85 hotels, representing more than 30,400 rooms throughout Cuba, according to Hotel News Resource. ~ Curaçao Chronicle ~
