Cancun, Mexico, got a new addition in January when the Planet Hollywood Beach Resort Cancun opened its doors. The hotel is the second property to open through the partnership between Canadian travel company Sunwing Travel Group and Planet Hollywood, formed in early 2018 to bring Planet Hollywood into the luxury all-inclusive category. The first property opened in Costa Rica later that year, but the second took more time to come to fruition.
Aligning Interests
Sunwing, said Daniel Diaz, the company’s EVP of hotels and resorts, is a vertically integrated tourism group that includes an airline, three tour operators, a vacation club, a destination management company and Blue Diamond Resorts, a hotel ownership and operating company. “When we make decisions in terms of what we need for future development, we try to balance all the aspects of the business,” he said. Cancun is, after Cuba, the company’s largest destination from the tour operator perspective, and Mexico is Blue Diamond’s strongest destination from the hotel perspective in terms of room count. “So we had an alignment of interests between our operator component [and] our hotel management component into looking for new opportunities to grow in Mexico, specifically in Cancun,” according to Diaz.
Through its existing presence in the region, the Sunwing team learned that its competitors were developing hotels in Costa Mujeres, a peninsula just north of Cancun. Because other projects were already underway, the area's infrastructure was in “very good condition,” with electricity, roads and fiber optics in place. “So we found a great alignment in the quality of the plot to be developed with our development goals to increase our presence in Cancun,” Diaz said. A dozen plots of land were available for new hotels in Costa Mujeres, so Sunwing acquired two to develop the Planet Hollywood property. “And from that point onwards we had our own technical team, and we started to work with architects to put together the plans and to put together all the predevelopment works that are needed for a project of the size,” he said.
The two plots were necessary to develop a luxury property, Diaz added, with space to spread out seen as a luxury amenity—especially in the age of COVID. Sunwing’s size made securing permits easy, and the company was able to begin construction right away.
Two Resorts in One
Cancun has no shortage of hotel options, and the Sunwing team knew that they would need to stand out from the competition. To that end, the hotel leverages technology throughout the property, with bracelets that serve as everything from room keys to credit cards and interactive TVs in guestrooms.
For families, the resort also has playgrounds, a trampoline park, a water park with a lazy river and a space for gamers.
But the resort also stands apart as the brand’s first to have an Adult Scene—an adults-only “resort-within-a-resort” concept for guests aged 18 and up. “It's basically two hotels in one,” Diaz said. The adults-only side has a dedicated reception area, two restaurants, a beachfront and pool area with a swim-up bar and waiter service.
The concept, Diaz said, was developed from the Royalton Riviera Cancun, another hotel in Sunwing’s portfolio, which opened in late 2014. The adults-only area has proven successful, Diaz said, and as such, additional future Planet Hollywoods may follow suit.
Planet Hollywood Beach Resort Cancun
LOCATION
Costa Mujeres is a peninsula north of Cancun, about 40 minutes away from the international airport. Other plots of land in the area had already been developed by other hotel companies, Diaz said, so existing infrastructure made it appealing to Sunwing. “One critical theme for us was the quality of the beach, both from the protection of the swim area and also the quality and the width of the sand,” Diaz said.
OPENING
January 2021
NUMBER OF ROOMS
898
GENERAL MANAGER
Jonathan Iriarte
WEBSITE
www.planethollywoodhotels.com/property/cancun
OWNER
Blue Diamond Resorts
MANAGEMENT COMPANY
Sunwing
OPENING OBSTACLE
Since the COVID-19 pandemic overlapped with development, the Sunwing team was focused on making sure the construction progressed safely, even as government restrictions limited how many people could come to work. Because the land covers two plots, the construction workers were more easily able to keep a safe distance during development. “Once things started to be more controlled, we were able to implement very tight and strong safety measures for the construction period and we were able to catch up fairly quick,” according to Diaz.