BERLIN — There have been several large investments by international brands in the all-inclusive resort segment in recent years, but none more substantial than Hyatt Hotel Corp.'s purchase of Apple Leisure Group in August 2021.
Speaking to Hotel News Now during the recent International Hospitality Investment Forum, Javier Coll, group president of global business development for Apple Leisure, said he's pleased with how aligned the two companies are and he expects the deal to add fuel to the fire for Apple Leisure's global growth.
He said the integration with Hyatt has been streamlined by "the similarities of culture" between the two companies and how they both prioritize taking care of guests and employees.
"You may have your values down on paper, but when you get to know the people, you realize that they really live for those values, the same way we do," he said.
Coll said he expects his company to be aggressive in growing, including expansion into some U.S. markets such as Hawaii or parts of Florida that traditionally would have been deemed too expensive to host the all-inclusive operating model.
"It's just a question of can you charge the rates to overcome the additional expense with labor and all those things, and our conclusion is yes, you can," he said.
One big component of the costs is the relatively high labor requirements for all-inclusive resorts, especially high-end ones that Apple Leisure favors. But Coll said his company has largely been able to weather labor shortages, adding it's something that has forced the company to adapt but isn't "a big issue for us."
"It's not something that is preventing us from operating a hotel at a high-quality level and with our standards," he said.
For more from HNN's interview with Apple Leisure's Javier Coll, watch the video above.