Sol Meliá Grabs €13.2 Million in First-Quarter Benefits

After opening four new resorts during the first three months of the ongoing year, Spanish hotel chain Sol Meliá’s benefits soared 30 percent for a grand total of €13.2 million.

The recipient of the 2004 award to the Best Company and Partnership of the Year, Sol Meliá opened the Paradisus Puerto Rico, a five-star, 480-junior-suite establishment at a cost of $145 million. This is, as a matter of fact, the island’s first-ever all-inclusive resort that since its grand opening was included on the selective list of the world’s leading hotels.

The other three lodgings are the Tryp Indalo in Almeria, the Tryp San Lazaro in Santiago, and the Meliá Boutique Hotel in Geneva.

As we speak, the Spanish megabuck company operates 330 hotels that add up 80,854 rooms. Sol Meliá is reaping a 7 percent revenue increase compared to the last quarter of 2003, a figure that proves the company’s good pace in terms of rbenefits and gains.

The strength of its operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in Europe, has propelled Sol Meliá to chalk up a 9.3 percent growth in gains in recent periods, the firm’s front office indicates.

In addition, the strategic alliances the hotel chain wove all through 2003 with Cendant and most major online dealers have made the company’s own dot-com post a whopping 120 percent spike with €12 million in sales.