Best Western Upscale Hotel Opens in Suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti

The Pétionville suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, has long been a tourism-friendly area, with a smattering of boutiques, galleries and restaurants.

Now it is home to a Best Western Premier, the first of several of the hotelier’s upscale branded properties that are planned throughout the Caribbean. The $15 million hotel is also the first in the area affiliated with an American hospitality company since the Holiday Inn closed 15 years ago.

The 106-room Best Western has embraced its surroundings, or at least a version of them. In addition to a restaurant, two bars, a spa and a pool, 600 works of Haitian art are on display on the hotel’s walls, many of them made of repurposed materials like recycled tires, oil drums and aluminum sheeting. The staff, mostly local, greets visitors with a welcome drink.

Still, at $162 a night, the hotel is well beyond the reach of most Haitians, 78 percent of whom live on $2 a day, according to the Haitian government.

Best Western isn’t the first luxury property in the region. The palatial Royal Oasis, which was built with a $2 million investment from the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, opened late last year with rooms starting at $250 a night.

And a Marriott broke ground late last year on a property in Port-au-Prince that is expected to open in early 2015. With the latest openings, Haiti is roughly two-thirds of the way toward its goal of having 1,000 rooms.

Source: The Atlanta Black Star