Meliá Goes Grand

With the opening of The Grand Reserve at Paradisus Palma Real last December, Meliá Hotels International introduced a new top-tier hotel brand.

“The Grand Reserve is really targeting the high-end guests of the world in terms of leisure,” Jaime Piedras, general manager of The Grand Reserve at Paradisus by Meliá in Palma Real, Dominican Republic told PressToday. “I think the luxury market inside Punta Cana is growing a lot. The Grand Reserve is a hotel that can meet these very high expectations… [The hotel] is like the business class in a plane. It’s bigger, wider, better. This kind of expectation is one we want to fill when you go to The Grand Reserve.”

The 472 room all-suite hotel, the product of a US$110 million investment, features rooms ranging from 800 to 1,700 sq. ft. All rooms on the main floor of the round-shaped hotel are swim out suites with cabanas and day beds.

“As a luxury hotel we have the personal concierge concept or butler, we prefer to say personal concierge,” he said. “We get in touch with the guest before arrival and then the relationship starts there. Every single thing you need at the hotel or outside the hotel you have this person that will help you with every single thing.”

The hotel has a high guest to staff ratio with 600 staff to 472 rooms. Some of the special experiences clients can enjoy include a pastry chef who whips up dessert from scratch table-side or taking part in a water yoga class on a paddleboard.

“All hotels nowadays are good, beautiful, but we want to do different things,” he said. “We’re doing parties in the pool with live music, we’re doing silent discos, the guests with swim-up rooms, they can have a floating breakfast.”

Although the property isn’t beachfront, guests have access to a private section of the beach with a dedicated beach club that’s 700 metres away, which they can access on a seven-minute walk, by hitching a ride in an electric car or by bike. The bikes have attachments for kids and the cars have GPS trackers so clients can keep track of where they are located. There is also a splash park with water slides exclusive for guests.

While it is an all-inclusive hotel, he feels this isn’t a selling point.

“It’s the way we operate the hotel. My goal is that the guest chooses the hotel because of the quality, because of what we can offer, and by the way, it’s an all-inclusive,” he said. “Time to time the all-inclusive concept has a bit of a bad connotation in the luxury market. We try to say that all-inclusive is the best way to operate the hotel but in terms of quality and service, you don’t know that it is an all-inclusive.”

Commission through Meliá Pro ranges from 10 up to 15% and The Grand Reserve is open to FAM trips and site inspections.

“Rather than tell them we’re the best, they can come here and let me know if they think we’re the best,” he said.

The hotel is offered through tour operators like Air Canada Vacations and Sunwing. Piedras said they’re also working to be affiliated with Virtuoso and the Leading Hotels of the World.

Addressing the recent wave of negative publicity the destination has had, he stressed that the Dominican Republic is a safe country where he lives with his three kids.

“In particular as Meliá Hotels International we have the very highest standards in safety, personal safety, food safety and we have doctors 24 hours in the hotel,” he said. “In terms of safety and security, we have our own staff and we have 200 cameras around the hotel.”

For clients considering the hotel, he said its ideal for families or groups in search of a high-end option with the ability to get a couple of rooms together.

“If you’re looking for the kind of service where you don’t even see the staff around, this is not the hotel [for you],” he said. “If you are having a multi-generational trip or having a girls’ getaway but want to keep the very high standards but they want a little bit more life this is the hotel.”

Another selling tip is that guests can “Stay at One & Play at Three” with complete access to neighbouring The Reserve and Paradisus Palma Real with 15 restaurants; YHI Spa and YHI Oriental Garden, and five pools.

Giving back and connecting with locals

Meliá Hotels International works with UNICEF in the Dominican to support children in the community and the hotel itself helps a local school directly.

“We like to share the Dominican culture with the guests and once a week we have a Dominican party and we do live music,” he said. “We have a Latin band to play Dominican music.”

The plastic-free hotel brings in Los Ciegos del Barrio, a group with five blind band members.

Personal concierges can also connect guests with visits to nearby schools and The Grand Reserve opens its doors for local children to enjoy its kids’ facilities.

“For the market of cigar smokers, we’re also preparing a visit by plane because it’s a six-hour car ride but we can go in 45 minutes by plane to visit a real plantation for the cigar lovers because some of the best cigars come from the Dominican Republic.”