Thomas Cook is set to invest €40 million in its managed proprietary hotels in Spain through summer 2020.
The investment program, announced at the official launch of Cook’s Club Palma Beach, is part of the company’s continued drive to grow its own-brand hotels and resorts business. The company already has more than 50 hotels and 12,000 rooms across its eight brands in Spain, making its hotels and resorts business one of the country’s top-five, non-domestic hotel chains.
The Cook’s Club Palma Beach is one of 20 proprietary hotels to open this year. The property opened recently following a multi-million-pound renovation to turn the former Smartline Lancaster guesthouse into a 318-room hotel. In total, 10 proprietary hotels will undergo what the company is calling "significant refurbishment works" to meet updated brand standards.
The hotels include Casa Cook in Ibiza (scheduled to open this summer), Sunwing Arguineguin in Gran Canaria, Sunwing Fanabe in Tenerife and smartline Cala’n Bosch in Menorca, along with an additional five hotels in Majorca, including Sunwing Alcudia and Sentido Cala Vinas.
In Ibiza, Thomas Cook is finalizing an extensive refurbishment of the former Hotel Acor to open its first Casa Cook hotel in Spain, a five-star boutique lifestyle property just outside San Antonio. Thomas Cook’s hotel investment fund, established in a joint venture with LMEY, will invest further in the property over winter 2019/20 to build a new, suites-only wing as well as a second restaurant and a 50-meter pool. The brand will also open in Majorca next year with the refurbishment of the former Hilton Sa Torre.
Thomas Cook’s 252-room Sunwing Arguineguin in Gran Canaria is midway through the refurbishment of all of its rooms, bars and restaurants, as well as significant investment in sustainable technology, including solar panels. Next year, the property will open a new restaurant and bar.
Next summer, Thomas Cook has confirmed a refurbishment program to upgrade accommodation and dining facilities at its 241-room Sunwing Fanabe hotel in Tenerife. The hotel, which the company has managed since 2003, attracts more than 12,500 families every year.
The company last year launched a hotel investment fund with joint-venture partner LMEY, a hotel development company. Starting with five hotels, the fund has almost doubled in size in the first year to encompass nine properties. To date, the fund has secured €51 million in funding from CaixaBank, in addition to €40 million from Piraeus Bank.