Some encouraging travel trends are working in Mexico’s favor. The recently released 2010 Second Home Trend Report, issued by North Carolina-based research firm E360, found that despite the recent off-putting headlines in reference to Mexico, resort destinations in Mexico remain the preferred destinations for U.S. second-home buyers. The study, which surveyed existing second-home owners, stated that Mexico was twice as popular as Central and South America.
Why should travel agents care what home buyers are doing? Because many of these people are purchasing properties that are part of a rental pool or are located on a real estate site that includes a resort hotel and attractive amenities for travelers.
A good example of this trend is the recently opened condominium hotel in the Riviera Maya, the Gran Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Condo Hotel. The enterprise is a partnership between Condo Hotel GBP, hotel operator Grand Bahia Principe Hotels and Resorts and Mexico-based sales and marketing company Mexico Alive.
“This grand opening is the first large-scale hotel opening in the region in the past 18 months,” said Benjamin Beja, a representative of Mexico Alive. “Therefore, the opening of the Gran Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Condo Hotel is not only a celebration of a new product offering. Rather, it also sends a message to the local community and the world that the Mexican Caribbean tourism industry is continuing to grow.”
The property is part of the 717-acre Bahia Principe Residential Complex. The Spanish corporation Grupo Pinero owns Gran Bahia Principe Resorts and Hotels. Grupo Pinero’s hotels in the Mexican Riviera have been operating at 88 percent occupancy for the past 10 years. Consistent figures like these encouraged Grupo Pinero to create the new hotel, which adds an additional 300 hotel suites to the 2,700 rooms in the Gran Bahia Principe Riviera Maya’s hotel inventory.
The new development has 300 hotel units distributed throughout 25, three-level buildings, each housing 12 one-bedroom suites. The units are available in several room categories: Second Floor/ “M” Units measure 603 square feet; Garden Units measure 1,399 square feet and have an exterior garden patio and a Jacuzzi; and Penthouse Units measure 969 square feet with the additional feature of a roof-top patio with a Jacuzzi.
All units have been built according to hotel standards. When buyers purchase a full-ownership unit, they enter a guaranteed seven-year rental program. After the seven years are up, the owners can then decide whether to remain in the rental pool or take full possession of the unit.
The property will provide guests with all-inclusive access to Bahia Principe’s three hotels in the company’s Riviera Maya resort complex. The three hotels are Grand Bahia Principe Tulum, Grand Bahia Principe Coba and Grand Bahia Principe Akumal. All three properties have a variety of gourmet restaurants and bars, swimming pools, kids’ clubs and spa and fitness facilities. Guests will have access to a bus that will shuttle them between the hotel and the resort complex’s private beach club.
Golfers will be pleased to learn that the hotel is entirely surrounded by the world-class Robert Trent Jones II 27-hole championship golf course, as well as a nine-hole, par 3 course. The development also boasts the 80,500-square-foot Bahia Principe Residences Clubhouse. The new clubhouse will provide guests with exclusive access to dining facilities, a fitness center and spa, a full-service Pro Shop, a tennis court, a swimming pool, boutique stores, a business center and conference facilities.
The Details
Gran Bahia Principe Sian Kaan Condo Hotel
www.bahiaprincipecondohotel.com
