The Westin Resort & Spa, Los Cabos, Mexico, completed a $1.3 million rooms renovation, including new work desks, furniture, furnishings and artwork, among other things. Westin said it brought in craftsmen from throughout Mexico to refinish more than 1,500 pieces of furniture and held two in-house workshops to ensure a uniform and distinct room redesign.

Costa Bonita Resort, located at Ensenada Honda in Culebra, Puerto Rico, has recently contracted New Jersey-based Key Management Group (KMG) to handle the $45 million property´s operations. With combined experience in hotel operation and vanguard marketing strategies, Key Management Group will develop the Costa Bonita brand and lead the newly-renovated property to greater profitability.

A new hotel in Mexico, the Club Hotel RIU Vallarta, is to join the projects for the RIU Palace Riviera Maya and RIU Palace Punta Cana. The Spanish holiday hotel chain RIU Hotels & Resorts is to inaugurate three new resorts in the Caribbean in 2006, which will bring the year to a close with a total of 30 hotels in one of the world´s major resort areas. They are the already-publicized projects for the RIU Palace Riviera Maya in Mexico (scheduled to open on February 6, 2006) and the RIU Palace Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic (to be inaugurated in May ´06), plus a new resort: the Club Hotel RIU Vallarta on the Jalisco shore in Mexico –slated to open in November this year. These all-inclusive, five-star beachfront hotels are to be built and owned by the chain.

Both travel agents & Modern Bride Magazine agree that Palace Resorts is their favorite all-inclusive chain in Mexico and the Caribbean. In the “Ninth Annual Readers´ Choice Awards,” which appeared in the December 2005 issue of the travel trade publication Recommend, Palace Resorts was voted the “Best Resort/Hotel Chain / All-Inclusive.”

Coco Palms Ventures has finalized the purchase of the soon-to-re-open Coco Palms Resort on the island of Kaua´i. The sale encompasses 16.4 acres of prime real estate and an additional 17 acres of State leasehold land (the storied coconut grove). Purchase price was not disclosed.

Sun Village Resorts will open its $25 million, 120-suite Residence at Sun Village Resort & Spa-Cofresi condo-hotel in December next to the 305-room Sun Village Resort & Spa-Cofresi and the neighboring Ocean World Adventure Park and Marina. The Residence will offer one and two-bedroom suites each with en suite baths and Jacuzzis, an open-air terrace, a dining and living area, and full kitchen with a breakfast bar. On site will be a pool, reception services, a clubhouse, a restaurant and a convenience store.