RIU invested US$85M in the renovation of Ocho Rios hotel

Spanish hotel chain RIU Resorts spent approximately US$85 million on the massive renovation of its property in Ocho Rios, St Ann.

RIU Ocho Rios, located in Mammee Bay, closed its doors on April 29 this year and reopened nearly five months later on September 21 with, among other things, 45 new rooms, a brand new water park and expanded restaurants.

The expansion also provided jobs for nearly 150 new employees.

For Niurka Garcia-Linton, RIU’s Director of Sales in Jamaica, the decision to invest billions of dollars in Jamaica was an easy one.

Noting that the US$85 million spent to renovate RIU Ocho Rios is equivalent to the budget for the construction of a new hotel, Garcia-Linton said Jamaicans have been supportive of the hotel chain since 2001 when the first RIU hotel began. operating in Jamaica.

“Before that, the rates for most hotels would make it a little prohibitive, but we opened the hotel with a rate and value for money that was not in the market before,” she told The Gleaner.

“And the local market became so grateful and so loyal to the brand that they have supported us from ever since. That was in 2001, we are in 2019 and the local market is among the top five markets that we host in Jamaica,” she disclosed.

RIU Ocho Rios opened in 2005 with 856 rooms. It now boasts a total of 901 completely refurbished rooms, making it the largest in the chain of six RIU properties in Jamaica.

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