Walking On Sunshine 

Following Marriott’s announcement earlier this year, to expand into the increasingly popular and competitive all-inclusive market, the world’s largest hotel company has reached an agreement to buy Barbados’ Elegant Hotels Group.

Elegant Hotels owns and operates seven hotel properties in Barbados, with a total of 588 rooms across the seven properties.

Six of those seven properties are on Barbados’ Tony Platinum Coast. The seventh is Turtle Beach, set on Barbados’ south coast.

“There is a strong and growing consumer demand for premium and luxury properties in the all-inclusive category,” said Arne Sorenson, President and Chief Executive Officer, Marriott International, in a statement. “The addition of the Elegant portfolio will help us further jumpstart our expansion in the all-inclusive space, while providing more choices on the breathtaking island of Barbados for our 133 million Marriott Bonvoy members.”

Marriott is set to invest $800 million across five all-inclusive resorts, beginning with a Punta Cana all-inclusive under Marriott’s Autograph Collection that is due to launch in 2022.

“The Board of Elegant Hotels is confident in the Group’s long-term prospects but believes that this offer represents compelling value for our shareholders and a great opportunity for our employees to be part of one of the world’s leading hotel companies,” said Simon Sherwood, Non-Executive Chairman of Elegant Hotels. “The fact that Elegant Hotels has attracted the interest of a company of Marriott’s caliber is a resounding endorsement of the outstanding quality of our properties, operations and people, and indeed of Barbados as a highly desirable destination. We are therefore unanimously recommending the offer to shareholders.”

Marriott said that once the deal was complete, it would begin undertaking renovations to hotels in the Elegant portfolio in Barbados.

While not all of Elegant’s properties are currently all-inclusive, Marriott said it would be operating all of them as all-inclusive resorts under “one or more of Marriott’s collection brands.”

“In keeping with Marriott’s asset-light strategy, over time, Marriott also intends to market the Elegant hotels for sale subject to long-term management agreements under which Marriott would continue to manage the hotels,” the company said.