HAVANA, CUBA—St Giles Hotels is expanding into Cuba, positioning the company as the first U.K.-based hotel brand to enter the hotel market here.
Gran Caribe, one of Cuba’s hotel groups operating four- and five-star properties on the island, accepted St Giles’ bid to renovate and manage the Hotel Deauville here.
Abigail Tan-Giroud, St Giles Hotels’ head of U.K., Europe and the Americas, is handling the negotiations of the deal, with advice from Geskaria Real Estate Investments.
Currently operating as a three-star hotel, the property will reopen as The Deauville—A St Giles Signature Hotel. The property is located on the Malecón, Cuba’s seaside promenade overlooking Havana Bay.
This is the first of St Giles Hotels’ planned expansion into Cuba and the Caribbean and this bid will mark the eleventh hotel in the St Giles portfolio, keeping pace with Tan-Giroud’s vision for 20 hotels by 2020. This latest St Giles development follows 2015 openings, including The Wembley in Penang, Malaysia, and The Tank Stream in Sydney, Australia.