A Porsche Red Panamera, with a VTC license and the hotel seal, awaits the clients of the Four Seasons. After an investment of 608 million euros, the Canadian chain opened this five-star hotel last September in the Canalejas complex, the former headquarters of Banesto, right next to Puerta del Sol. the best symbol of the capital’s commitment to position itself in luxury tourism, a world in which Barcelona ranks second in the global ranking only behind New York.
The effort to change the tourism model in the capital it’s obvious. This was stated by the president of Madrid herself, Isabel Diaz Ayuso, and the mayor of the city, Jose Luis Martinez Almeida, at the reopening ten days ago of the emblematic Hotel Ritz after three years of reforms. All this from the hand of the Mandarín Oriental chain, which has invested 150 million euros in the purchase of the establishment and another 100 in completely refurbishing it. In an offer that puts, for example, all the restoration of the establishment in the hands of the triumphant chef from Denia (Alicante), Quique Dacosta.
The Four Seasons and the Ritz are not and will not be the only luxury hotels that will be available to locals and visitors in the coming months and that will lead to the capital, which in 2019 had 32 luxury or grand luxury hotels, have about 40 five stars in a couple of years. The Santo Mauro, after a year of closure that has been used to carry out various reforms, has already reopened its doors. Rosewood Hotels & Resorts Villa Magna will reopen, under construction for a year, at the end of 2021. Also by the end of the year, in the old headquarters of Monte de Piedad, next to the Monastery of the Barefoot, Marriott will open The Madrid Edition, with 200 rooms in an area of 25,000 square meters.
Right in front of the Four Seasons, on Calle Sevilla, in the building that formerly housed the historic Asturias Hotel, Marriott, with its luxury brand W, will open another five-star hotel with 139 rooms in 2022. CR7 (the brand of Cristiano Ronaldo) Pestana, after the Pestana Plaza Mayor, will be installed on Gran Vía, with 168 rooms. Also in this artery will be the Evok Gran Vía, with almost 90 rooms. Iberostar Hotels & Resorts will open the Iberostar Teatro Albéniz in the former headquarters of the historic theater, a building declared a site of cultural interest in the second half of 2021.
Radisson Red Madrid is scheduled to reopen in 2022 and the hotel group has just established in Madrid the center of excellence for six of its essential departments around the world such as Revenue Management, Information Technology, Human Resources, Technical Design, Graphic Content and Purchasing, up to turn Madrid into a ‘hub’ for the multinational. Likewise, between Calle Montera and Plaza del Carmen, also very close to Puerta del Sol, the Mexican family Díaz Pastrana, through Exacorp, builds another five-star hotel mega-complex, which will be able to house 2,000 people and in which the Hyatt chain is the main favorite to manage it.
A barrage of openings within the luxury hotel segment, paradoxically at a time when overnight stays in hotel establishments in the Community of Madrid fell by 37% in March and only 25.19% of the places were covered, according to the INE; also in which only 14 of the 34 five-star hotels in the capital are open right now (40%), due to the lack of travelers, according to the Madrid Hotel Business Association (AEHM); in which the emblematic Palace Hotel has presented an ERE for 152 workers, 45% of its workforce, or the Intercontinental, in the heart of Paseo de la Castellana, it also raises an ERE for its workers.
Madrid, according to the sector’s numbers, currently has about 15,000 tourist apartments (more than 6,000 rooms) compared to “11,000 beds in five-star hotels,” according to Isabel Díaz Ayuso at the Ritz’s reopening on April 15, which will become more than 14,000 when all the openings planned until 2022 are completed. “The tourist target of Madrid is of high purchasing power, with more than 270 euros a day”, Explained Almeida that day,“ and the reform of the Ritz will allow us to enhance the image of Madrid as a tourist destination of excellence ”.
“London was, and is, the great European and world reference for luxury tourism, as Barcelona was until now in Spain, but Brexit and the process have somewhat undermined its image”
At the conference ‘Madrid, now more than ever: challenges and opportunities in the Madrid hotel market 2021’, organized by the Madrid Hotel Business Association (AEHM) and the international consultancy firm specializing in the hotel sector Christie & Co, the participants agreed on what Spain, and specifically Madrid, will begin to “recover hotel investment in the second half of 2021”, and for the director of CaixaBank Hotels & Tourism, Helena Murano Caney, “Madrid is positioning itself as a very important destination” due to its improvement in the offer, especially in terms of luxury hotels, thus positioning itself “as a destination” of that visitor profile.
For his part, Héctor Coronel, Tourism Director of the City Council, believes that “the new brands put Madrid on the map of the world luxury supply and we have many resources to attract high-level tourists ”, which is the goal of the council. And it is that, according to sources in the hotel sector, “London was, and is, the great European and world reference of luxury tourism, as in Spain it was until now Barcelona, but on the one hand Brexit and on the other the procés have somewhat undermined its image and, in this sense, Madrid has managed to position itself very well and attract high-end hotel investors ”.
However, despite these wishes and the opening of luxury hotels in Madrid, the analysis of the specialist firm Christie & Co on investment in hotels in Spain reflects that in 2020 it fell to 900 million euros from 2,375 million in 2019, the prepandemic year, and predicts that until 2023 the level of investment prior to SARS CoV-2 will not be fully recovered. Meanwhile, the tourist who comes to Madrid, few for now, will live the dichotomy of being able to stay for just 30 euros in a tourist apartment or a hostel or the more than 600 euros for the cheapest room for this weekend at the brand new Four Seasons of Canalejas. Of course, with a Porsche waiting for you at the door.
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