01
02
03
04
report
Cuban hotels
Pool deck at the Hotel Saratoga
Waiter at the Hotel Saratoga
Tourists in Havana
Beach near Guanabo – future site
of Coral Capital’s new golf course
and resort
01
BUENA VISTA
GOLF CLUB
—Havana
Preface
Cuba is hoping to revive its
ailing economy by opening up
the tourist market, giving the
go-ahead to a string of swanky
new golf resorts. But how do
you develop this unique
country without diluting its
character? Monocle meets one
hotel firm that has the answer.
writer
Ann Marie Gardner
photographer
Corey Arnold
03
04
Twenty-five miles outside Havana along
the coastal highway, the sleepy fishing
village of Guanabo sits beside perfect
sandy beaches, warm water and ideal
body-surfing waves. Cows graze on the
nearby hillside, and anyone foolish
enough to be out in the heat sits under
the shade of a tree. An old rickety locomotive hoots as it chugs along the bottom
of the field, and boyish British architect
and Coral Capital COO Stephen Purvis
points excitedly to the tracks. “The golf
course will end near those tracks,” he
says, and then looks towards the sea.
“That beach,” says Purvis, “Playas
del Este, will be the site of the first
authentically Cuban luxury resort near
Havana.” With Cuba crumbling, from
the economy to the infrastructure, hopes
are pinned on the hotel industry – and
02
oddly enough, golf courses are seen as
part of the communist island’s salvation.
Without an influx of tourist cash, it
cannot keep going. That’s why in May
the government approved a scheme for
foreign investors to develop up to 12 golf
courses across the country.These luxury
golf communities will also allow foreigners to own land in Cuba.
Ironically, golf and property are
coming to the aid of the revolution. Aren’t
these the very people the revolutionaries
spent 50 years trying to make irrelevant?
There’s also another challenge: Cuba no
longer knows how to do luxury. It has
been in siege mentality for five decades.
But how do you develop Cuba without ruining it? Architect Norman Foster
is being brought in to design one resort,
which prompts the question: how does
Cuba develop an authentic Cuban resort
experience, not an American, Spanish or
English version?
As we return to Havana with Purvis
in an air-conditioned Land Rover (Coral
Capital owns Cuba’s first Land Rover
dealership – it has sold one so far, to
Coral’s principal), he talks about why
British Virgin Island-based Coral Capital
is well positioned to work in this authentic end of the luxury market in Havana.
“We have owned and operated the
Saratoga – Old Havana’s only luxury
boutique hotel – since 1997. We have
issue 46 — 085
report
Cuban hotels
invested time here; we’ve all moved our
families here.We understand the culture.
Cubans want to do business with people
they know.”
The state of the hotels in Havana is a
metaphor for the mess Cuba is in right
now. Many architectural gems are beyond
repair, including the former Hilton – in
its heyday one of the most fabulous
hotels in Latin America. It is now far
gone, the echoing lobby filled with dead
potted plants, and the triptych mural by
Amelia Peláez – a monument to Cuba’s
classic Modernism – fallen into disrepair.
There are other foreign-owned alternatives. Sol Meliá’s shiny hotels attract
Spanish tourists, and busloads of Europeans flock to Hotel Parque Central. But
they are not at the luxe end of the market.
The Nacional, until recently the classic
Cuban experience, is now a tour-bus
stop-off and the venue for recycled Buena
Vista Social Club musicians. New York
Architects Carey Maloney and Hermes
Mallea have spent the past three years
researching Mallea’s book Great Houses
of Havana (published this autumn by
Monacelli Press). “The Hotel Nacional is
a Cuban historic treasure in a great Art
Deco building on an incredible site,” says
Maloney. “But there is a menacing military vibe that does not say ‘Bienvenido!’
And don’t even ask about the food…”
The only hotel that meets interna-
Who hangs out in Havana?
01 Euro men after Cuban girls (witness
the Hotel Nacional’s pool at the
weekend). It’s not a pretty sport.
02 Package-tour Spanish holidaymakers
who like the idea of a cheap nation
where everyone speaks their language.
03 Canadians escaping during their
horrible winter. Half of Québec seems
to have spent a week at an all-inclusive
beach resort. They only stray into
Havana for the day.
04 Slightly earnest American cultural
tourists who make sure they visit
every Havana museum.
05 Businessmen who hang around hotels
such as the Nacional. You see lots of
unlikely-looking types from other
developing nations. Who are those
Chinese men who seem to spend their
days lounging in the hotel smoking?
01
tional standards is the 96-room Saratoga,
and it’s a lesson in how things must be
done if Cuba is to develop its tourism.
What’s most distinct about the hotel is the
service, the serene air-conditioned lobby
and the distinct lack of tour groups. It also
has a sensational rooftop pool with views
across Havana to the sea. And the bathrooms are immaculate. Mostly, though, it
has a relaxed, sexy vibe that is distinctly
Cuban.The Saratoga has personality; it’s
not too shiny or precious.That’s why it is
able to charge up to $900 a night.
The Saratoga has shown how to
develop in Havana, with luxury standards, without ruining what’s unique
about the city. This is due largely to the
vision and skills of German hotelier Rudi
Greiner, who spent 31 years at Hong
Kong’s Regent, after working for Four
03
086 — issue 46
05
Havana’s derelict gems
01 Jardines de la Tropical: an overgrown,
derelict pleasure garden built by
the Polar beer company before the
revolution. Used for raves and junk fairs.
Surrealist grottoes, miradors, al fresco
ballrooms covered in creeper. Straight
out of a sci-fi film.
02 Reparto Casa Blanca: this is a
hillside village over the bay, with an
extraordinary collection of fishing
shacks, shipyards, squares and
ancient houses. Local architect Julio
César Pérez Hernández runs an
urban-planning charrette every year,
which usually includes a group
looking at this place.
03 The former Hilton hotel: it is painful
to see this in such a bad condition.
But the 1950s masterpiece is the
Hotel Riviera.
04 The derelict wharfside: found around
Havana Bay.
02
04
08
06
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
Hotel Nacional
Security guard
The Hotel Saratoga
Bar of the Hotel Saratoga
Stephen Purvis on the golf-course site
A cruise ship arriving in the port
View of the Capitolio from the Saratoga
Hotel Saratoga interior
Seasons in Bali and running hotels in the
Caribbean, Mexico and Puerto Rico.
Coral Capital’s managing director Amado
Fakhre and COO Stephen Purvis brought
Greiner in from Hong Kong at the earliest stages of Saratoga’s renovation.
“There are very high barriers to entry
in Havana,” says Greiner. “There’s a culture gap and only the perseverant will
succeed.” When they took the Saratoga
over, it was a shell, with only the original
façade in place, and nothing left inside.
“Coral’s ambitious plan was to restore
the Saratoga’s original grandeur, while
bringing it to first-class international
standards. But basics had to come first –
we had to find room for reserve powergenerator capacity, reserve water-tank
capacity,” says Greiner. “And it’s great to
have top-notch housekeeping. But you
don’t want a hotel that is only famous for
standards of excellence. Most importantly, we needed a sense of place. This
hotel could only be in Havana.”
Purvis sees Cuba as a huge potential
market that will compete with Mexico,
Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
“Cuba must quickly develop world-class
hotels, spas, golf courses and quality
beach hotels,” he says. And he’s planning
to be ready when the opportunity strikes:
Coral is expanding the Saratoga and
looking into developing more boutique
hotels here, along with a harbourside
07
development in Havana, while building
the Bellomonte Golf Course residences
and the oceanfront hotel and beach club
set in 600 acres at Playas del Este.
Purvis and Greiner expect similar
challenges to those they had at Saratoga.
The biggest of these is service, admits
Greiner. “At the moment, we cannot
handpick top qualified staff, but must
employ what the agencies offer. And our
inability to incentivise staff is a continuous
battle. Service training has to be established here. It is so important for this
country. But the difference between
Cuba and other Latin American countries is that Cuba is very eager to deliver
and well educated. They don’t have
far to go to be able to operate on an
international level. They are waiting for
the moment.” — (m)
issue 46 — 087