Cubatrade-June-Digital

THE STAR OF THE SHOW:
KEMPINSKI DEBUTS IN HAVANA
Cuba’s first major luxury hotel opens
its doors. Is it a sign of the times?
By Doreen Hemlock
Roof with a View: Guests attend a
pre-opening reception atop the hotel.
Photos by Antonio Osa Ramirez/SAHIC Cuba
Veteran hotelier Xavier Destribats strolls down the corridor
of the new Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski La
Habana, straightening the furniture as he goes. He was
given six months to open Cuba’s first major luxury hotel – far less
than the usual 12- to 18-month time frame.
But you’d hardly know Destribats has been under pressure.
The French Basque exudes calm in his white linen guayabera,
amiably fielding calls and talking with his team. In January, he
left his job heading up 30 hotels in Europe for Kempinski—Europe’s
oldest luxury hotel group—to run the group’s sole Cuban
property and eventually, to develop the Kempinski brand across
the Americas. It’s a huge challenge.
Kempinski came to Cuba through a circuitous route: China.
Cuban state tourism entity Cubanacan had teamed with a
Chinese company in a Shanghai hotel, and the venture wanted
a new hotel manager. The partners called in Kempinski, and the
Shanghai hotel flourished.
Gaviota, a separate Cuban tourism company, heard about
that success, so it contacted Kempinski about managing a 246-
room hotel it planned for a landmark square block in Havana
Vieja that had been home to Cuba’s first European-style shopping
arcade since the early 1900s.
“Gaviota sought us out three years ago,” Destribats told
Cuba Trade. At first, Kempinski said no. Although the Geneva-based
group had pioneered luxury hotels in Russia, China,
and other emerging markets such as Mongolia, Djibouti and
Congo, it had no properties in the Americas and no plans to
launch in the region.
“But when we saw the location, the number of rooms and
the opportunities, we became excited,” said Destribats. The
five-story building was just the kind of site that Kempinski loves
to manage. And Cuba clearly was gaining in tourism—with
potential for a major luxury venue.
As a private company not listed on a stock market and
mainly owned by groups linked with Thailand’s royal family and
Bahrain’s government, Kempinski had no market hurdles to cross.
It soon signed a memorandum of understanding for the deluxe
project, which was off-limits to U.S. hotel companies under terms
of the embargo at that time, said Destribats.
“We like to go to places where others don’t go or can’t go,” he
JUNE/JULY 2017
CUBATRADE
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