Meliá invests €50m in Cancún hotel as it backs ownership
€50 million in Cancún, Quintana Roo: Meliá Hotels International is renovating Paradisus Cancún as its chief executive makes the case for keeping some hotels rather than only managing them. Gabriel Escarrer sets out that approach in a LinkedIn post on Thursday, 29 October 2026. The group is also spending €40 million on the Hotel Don Pepe Gran Meliá in Marbella.
Why Meliá wants to keep some hotels
Escarrer says his father backed Quintana Roo as a tourism destination four decades ago. Renovating Paradisus Cancún, he says, preserves that legacy while adapting the hotel to what travellers now expect.
Some hotels are hard to replace because of their location, history or character, he argues. Losing properties such as the Marbella hotel would mean giving up an important market position. Meliá-owned hotels can also show what its brands offer: Escarrer cites ME London as an example for ME by Meliá.
Growing without buying every hotel
Managing hotels that Meliá does not own lets it expand internationally without paying for every building, Escarrer says. In some projects, the group invests alongside partners, sharing both opportunities and risks.
He sees the mix of ownership and management as increasingly important as Meliá grows in the premium and luxury markets. For him, growth is not just a matter of adding hotels: it also depends on choosing where to invest and whom to work with.
Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com