Once the domain of the budget-minded, all-inclusives are courting travelers who typically stay in five-star hotels.
“The stigma (of all-inclusives) is very fast going away,” says Luis Namnum, worldwide marketing vice president for Occidental Hotels & Resorts. “Similar to the cruise lines, there are different segments” within all-inclusive chains.
Each year brings ever-more-luxurious resorts with meals, activities and premium booze included in the daily rate.
• Last fall, Occidental’s flagship property — the Royal Hideaway Playacar on Mexico’s Riviera Maya, where rates start at about $750 nightly a couple — earned AAA’s prized five-diamond rating for the first time. So did another all-inclusive: Grand Velas All Suites & Spa Resort in Nuevo Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific Coast.
• Butlers who unpack or draw baths are standard at Karisma Hotels’ 3-month-old Azul Blue Hotel + Spa, in Tulum, Mexico. Its 96 suites boast marble baths, plasma-screen TVs and iPod docking stations. Daily rates start at $586 a couple in April and May.
• Golf, scuba diving — even manicures and pedicures — are included at SuperClubs’ Grand Lido Negril Resort & Spa in Jamaica, where VIPs such as Usher, Queen Latifah and Monaco’s Prince Albert have stayed. “We’re not renting a room on the beach, we’re selling a dream,” says SuperClubs Resorts executive chairman John Issa. Bathrooms with jetted tubs and suites with plunge pools are new fixtures at some SuperClubs.
• Sandals Resorts — another big name in all-inclusives — is turning its top-level suites into world-class hideaways. The new Rondoval Suites at Sandals Grande St. Lucian on St. Lucia have whirlpool tubs, private plunge pools, 50-inch plasma TVs and butler service.
Vacationers want “better than what they have at home,” says Sandals chairman Gordon “Butch” Stewart. “Our rooms, our bathrooms, get bigger and bigger.” Meanwhile, “value” all-inclusives such as Club Med are upgrading, too. Its renovated Club Med Cancun Yucatan has a new “Jade Villa” concierge wing for those who demand extra amenities.
And luxury hotels, including The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort in Rose Hall, Jamaica, offer all-inclusive packages in addition to room-only rates.
