The hotel partnership between tennis player Rafael Nadal and Meliá Hotels International continues to go from strength to strength. The Zel hotel brand will add four new properties to its portfolio this year – two in Spain and two in the Caribbean, proving its ambitious goal of opening around 20 establishments in the coming years.
The hotel company headed by Gabriel Escarrer has planned to open a new hotel on Madrid's Gran Vía alongside Rafa Nadal. It will thus compete with the Pestana CR7 Gran Vía Hotel, also owned by a sportsman, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Zel, the brand launched last year by the Balearic hotelier Meliá in partnership with the Manacor-born tennis player, is preparing to land in the world's main tourist capitals, especially where the player enjoyed great success.
According to the CEO and president of Meliá, Gabriel Escarrer, two of the four openings planned for this year will be in Spain: one in Tossa de Mar (Girona) and another near Madrid's Gran Vía. Two more hotels will open in the Caribbean (Zel Sayulita and Zel Punta Cana).
The first hotel from this partnership between Nadal and Escarrer opened last July, the 165-room Innside Cala Blanca in Palmanova (Mallorca).
Objective: opening more than 20 establishments in the next five years
The new holiday and urban leisure hotel brand "with a Mediterranean essence", which started operating in the summer of 2023, was born to open more than 20 establishments in the next five years in the main destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas.
The joint venture between Meliá and Rafael Nadal (50%) aims to continue growing with new projects and adding strategic partners in time. Most of the brand's hotels will be existing hotels that will be renovated (80%), and the remaining 20% will be newly built establishments.
According to the presentation, 80% of the new brand's portfolio will focus on holiday tourism, and the remaining 20% will be based in city-break destinations, such as Madrid, Paris, London and New York.
The Mallorcan joint venture aspires to exponential international growth, capitalising on its Mediterranean character as its main hallmark.
The first hotel to open in Mexico will be the Zel Sayulita, a new property located in Nayarit state, which will mark an important milestone in the brand's global growth strategy.
At the same time as Zel Sayulita, Meliá Hotels International has also listed a new ME by Meliá hotel in the same Mexican town, which will be the third hotel of this luxury lifestyle brand in Mexico, after ME Cabo and the future ME Guadalajara.
