President Luis Abinader at the groundbreaking for historic hotel in Santo Domingo

[Dolores]

President Luis Abinader attended the start of construction of the first Iberostar hotel built outside of a beach destination in the Dominican Republic. Iberostar, the Spanish hotel chain that has operations in Punta Cana (5), Puerto Plata (1) and Bayahibe (1) beach destinations, announces it will build the Iberostar Heritage Mercedes Hotel in the historic center of Santo Domingo. The hotel will open at the location of the abandoned centuries-old Hotel Las Mercedes on Calle Las Mercedes in the Colonial City

The hotel will be five stories high and have 131 rooms, a spa, a swimming pool and a 700-meter hall for events. The hotel is a US$25 million investment. Iberostar plans to open the hotel in May 2022.

The chain will market the Iberostar Heritage Las Mercedes with its other landmark hotels in historic locations around the world. With the Heritage brand...

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[Caonabo]

How will this effect smaller boutique hotels in the area?
Will it truly be a net gain, or just another case of the big guy kicking the little guy out of business?

 

[NanSanPedro]

How will this effect smaller boutique hotels in the area?
Will it truly be a net gain, or just another case of the big guy kicking the little guy out of business?

Just from the sounds of it, it will be very pricey. It might take some bidness away from the upper ends in SD, but the Hotel Antigua Europas of SD should be fine because that's not where the compete; not their target market.

 

[Chirimoya]

I wonder what's in store for the former Hotel Santo Domingo and Hispaniola. So many abandoned buildings blighting the Malecón.

 

[CristoRey]

Sounds like we now have a president who's going to help bring this "developing" (lol) country into the 21st century and encourage more of these types of projects in the future.

 

[JD Jones]

I wonder what's in store for the former Hotel Santo Domingo and Hispaniola. So many abandoned buildings blighting the Malecón.

I've always considered the Malecon to be a major embarrassment even though it has been cleaned up ever so slightly.

I've often thought they should make the Malecon a one way street west to at least Maximo Gomez.

 

[arturo]

How will this effect smaller boutique hotels in the area?
Will it truly be a net gain, or just another case of the big guy kicking the little guy out of business?

Based on the size and Iberostar's concept description its segment competitors would normally be the nearby hotels formerly managed by Accor the French hospitality giant. Those properties, the former Mercure and Nicolas de Ovando, are of now "run" by Hodelpa. There are a number of moving parts to this arrangement and one of them is of course the Vicini clan.