Key W Beach Resort in Europe Highlights

Number of rooms: 162 guestrooms with 35 suites, including the W brand Extreme Wow suite of over 100 sqm with 188 sqm of terrace overlooking Santa Eulalia beach.

Food & Beverage: 8 outlets (all-day dining/health food bar, beach restaurant, rooftop F&B outlet with infinity pool, three bars, and one nightclub).

Meeting space: W Ibiza hotel offers 1 studio meeting room of 75 sqm.

Other facilities & services: Spa with over 390 sqm (featuring six indoor treatment rooms), sauna, hammam, nail & hair salon, and a 120 sqm fully equipped gym. The Spa offers a juice bar and relaxing rooms adjacent to W’s first Kids’ club in the world.

Opening year: The original hotel structure was built in the 1980s. After an extensive renovation, led by Baranowitz + Kronenberg’s architecture firm, the hotel opened partially in 2019. The building was transformed into a vibrant modern 5-star resort, creating one of Ibiza’s most iconic properties and paying tribute to its bohemian heritage.

Hotel Strategy & Improvements in addition to full Asset Management duties

• Hotel openings are always challenging, so during the Covid pandemic, it is even more difficult. We worked alongside the owner and the operator to guide them during these turbulent times. We guide them and create a re-opening action plan, focusing on bringing back the hotel’s property value and enhancing communication between the owner and the management team.
• Our asset managers also facilitated the so-called “snagging list,” the survey that itemizes deficiencies or incomplete features at the time of property handover from the Owner to the operator. Operators are sometimes known for pushing for the upper end of what is considered “necessary” when it comes to this list as a way to avoid higher costs during the ramp-up time of the business.
• W Ibiza Hotel is the first W beach resort in Europe, so we brought our best S&M practices for operating such a luxury resort. The Global Asset Solutions team brought its unique experience from world-class beach resorts in the Pacific (e.g., Bora Bora, Sydney), Asia (e.g., Phuket, Langkawi, Bali), Africa (e.g., Morocco, Zanzibar), the Caribbean (e.g., St Lucia, Barbados), or the Mediterranean (e.g., French Riviera, Marbella).
• From the moment we took over, Global Asset Solutions was actively involved in the rates strategy and revenue management. Having an excellent commercial plan in place as early as possible is critical to ensuring a hotel has a successful first year of operation. From establishing rate strategies, educating travel agents, online travel agent accounts and distribution, reaching out to key accounts, building relationships with key clients for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions requiring longer booking windows.
• We provided strict payroll control, as it is easily one of the most significant expenses when opening a hotel. We worked closely with the operator and Owner when putting together the hotel’s staff hiring plan. Recruitment and service training timelines mean certain key personnel needed to be employed before the launch, while a more staggered approach can be taken with other employees.
• Other initiatives included: working together with the operator to create a specific S&M plan for the spa and gym, rectifying insurance coverage, creating club membership with high-end villas in Ibiza, setting up menu engineering, creating an entertainment activation team, or dealing with liquidity management.