St. Regis will open 11 new resorts around the world by 2025
In the world of luxury hotels and resorts, a handful of classic brands reign supreme. And now one of them, St. Regis, is on the fast track for a massive expansion.
The legacy brand recently announced it is nearly doubling its current portfolio of 15 resorts with the addition of 11 new properties spread across the Caribbean, North America, North Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific.
St. Regis has long been a sought-after brand for high-end travelers, offering luxurious services in prime destinations such as Bora Bora, New York and Singapore. But as hotels have evolved to become trendier and more bespoke, many people are starting to wonder if legacy brands like St. Regis have lost their edge.
For Marriott, in particular, luxury portfolios like Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis have a lot of in-house competition from more contemporary luxury brands like Edition and W Hotels: A version of high-end hospitality that's less about gold chandeliers and grandeur and instead appeals to travelers who care more about farm-to-table dining, having access to the trendiest destinations and an Instagram-worthy hotel suite or lobby.
This expansion, it seems, is part of St. Regis' plan to win these travelers over — and introduce loyal Marriott Bonvoy members to destinations that might not be on their radar just yet or to places where the brand doesn't have a strong presence. But will these new properties be brilliant enough to outshine the competition, or will they simply add more keys to the market?
It takes a lot of points to stay at St. Regis
For Marriott Bonvoy loyalists, the new properties also give members the chance to earn or redeem points around the world. With the majority of St. Regis properties hoisted high on Marriott's award chart, a St. Regis property can quickly drain your account. (Luckily, our handy guide to maximizing Marriott award night redemptions is here to help.)
For award nights at a Category 8 St. Regis property on standard dates, members can expect to spend upwards of 85,000 points per night. Travel on peak dates, and you can expect those nights to cost you 100,000 points or more.
A lot of points, yes, but oftentimes a significantly better value than the cash rate. Combine the opportunity to get a free fifth night and you might be able to trade in your hard-earned points for a trip to one of these new St. Regis locations.
St. Regis is spanning the globe
Over the next two years, two new properties will open in Mexico: the St. Regis Kanai Resort on the Mayan Riviera in 2021 and the St. Regis Los Cabos Resort in Quivira, Los Cabos, the following year.
A flurry of new hotel openings in Los Cabos has St. Regis putting up with some serious competition, not to mention tried and true resorts like the Category 6 JW Marriott Los Cabos Beach Resort & Spa, where one TPG writer booked an incredible five-night vacation using points.
On the Caribbean front, the St. Regis Aruba Palm Beach resort and the St. Regis Cap Cana resort will open in Aruba and the Dominican Republic, respectively, in 2024.
These two tropical resorts will join the St. Regis Bermuda Resort, which opened earlier this year with a rather rocky start. The St. Regis Aruba Palm Beach will join a handful of other higher-end resorts, including The Ritz-Carlton Aruba, one of the best points hotels in the region.
One of the most unique hotels in the new lineup is the St. Regis Marsa Arabia Island, The Pearl in Qatar. An artificial island similar to the Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, The Pearl is already home to swanky hotels such as the Marsa Malaz Kempinski, and Doha, Qatar's capital city, already has a St. Regis.
In China, the St. Regis Sanya Haitang Bay Resort will add another luxe experience to the popular vacation island known as the "Hawaii of the East." There, travelers can already find a wide variety of resorts to choose from, including the ultra-sleek Sanya Edition (also part of Marriott), with its manmade "private ocean," and the family-friendly Atlantis Sanya, with underwater suites, a waterpark and more restaurants than you can count on one hand.
And that's not all. Other new St. Regis properties are planned for Muscat, Oman and Marrakech, Morocco. This all comes after the reopening of the St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort in Puerto Rico following a $60 million renovation and the opening of the St. Regis Qingdao in China earlier this year.
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