Latest news: Rio Hyatt's biggest; Partners Group adds Bluesea; McCulloch passes

Rio now Hyatt’s biggest hotel. Following a $340 million property-wide renovation, the Rio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas has officially joined the Destinations by Hyatt brand. The Rio is owned and managed by Dreamscape Companies. The property is the largest within Hyatt’s global hotel portfolio, based on room count, and the first Destination by Hyatt hotel in Nevada. Phase one of Rio’s $340 million renovation included the full redesign and modernization of the all-suite resort’s 1,500-room Ipanema. The hotel also recently unveiled six new culinary destinations within the new Canteen Food Hall, 220,000 square feet of newly renovated meetings and convention space, a revamped pool district with four pools, and more than 500 new slot machines and 30 table games on the resort’s casino floor. Phase two of the resort’s renovation will focus on completely redesigning and modernizing the Masquerade Tower guestrooms and public spaces.

Partners Group takes majority of Bluesea. Partners Group, acting on behalf of its clients, has acquired a majority stake in Spain’s Bluesea Hotels, in partnership with Portobello Capital. Bluesea specializes in all-inclusive 3- and 4-star hotels in Spain, operating 25 hotels with around 5,100 rooms. The hotels are located in popular tourist destinations, including the Balearic and Canary Islands, Costa Brava, Costa del Sol, and Madrid. Partners Group will take a seat on Bluesea’s board of directors and work with Portobello to refurbish existing sites, expand ancillary service offerings, create operational efficiency improvements, and the acquire new hotels. Earlier this year, Partners Group acquired a stake in Trinity Investments and has since made three acquisitions with Trinity, including the recent deal for The Standard, London. Partners Group's global real estate portfolio has a gross asset value of $43 billion.

ADR record in Canada. Canada’s October ADR exceeded CAD200 for the first time on record, according to CoStar data. October 2024 occupancy was 68.5% (+0.8% YOY); ADR was CAD200.59 (+2.4% YOY); and RevPAR was CAD137.32 (+3.2% YOY). In addition to the room rate growth, occupancy increased after contracting in September, notably driven by transient and weekday occupancy, pointing to strength from individual business travelers, CoStar analysts said. Among the provinces and territories, Nova Scotia recorded the highest occupancy level (74.7%), which was 0.3% below 2023. Among the major markets, Toronto saw the highest occupancy (79.6%), up 3.5% over October 2023. For 2025, STR and Tourism Economics recently downgraded the RevPAR growth forecast to 1.5%, while ADR is expected to grow more or less in line with inflation. Overall, CoStar is expecting a marginal occupancy decline due to new inventory growth outpacing improvements in demand. Hotel development activity has picked up, with just fewer than 6,000 rooms in the final phase of the pipeline that are expected to open in 2025.

Record performance in Colombia. The hotel industry in Cali, Colombia, posted its highest ADR and RevPAR on record during the 16th UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16), according to CoStar data. Daily performance spiked on October 28 across each of the three key performance metrics: occupancy (+210.6% to 95.8%), ADR (+307% to COP 1,143,946.80) and RevPAR (+1,164.3% to COP 1,095,344.81). These were the highest ADR and RevPAR levels ever recorded in the market, while occupancy was its highest since November 2023 (96.5%). The market’s monthly performance jumped as well. Monthly ADR (COP 579,844.02) and RevPAR (COP 353,530.31) reached all-time highs, representing year-over-year increases of 100.2% and 113.6, respectively.

Olympia adds another university hotel. Olympia Hospitality has added The Heartwood at Vassar to its growing campus portfolio, one of the newest boutique hotels in the Hudson Valley of New York. Opened in July 2024 and co-developed with Olympia Development, the 50-room hotel opened as part of The Vassar Institute for the Liberal Arts, which officially debuted on October 25. The hotel joins existing campus hotels like The Alfond Inn at Rollins College in Florida, and Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center and The Hotel at Oberlin in Ohio.

Malmaison founder passes. Ken McCulloch, founder of the Malmaison and Dakota Hotels, has died at age 76. Early in his career he worked in the restaurant business, including The Malmaison restraint and at Gleneagles in Scotland. He worked at Stakis Hotels and in 1986 opened his first boutique in Glasgow, One Devonshire Gardens. He founded Malmaison hotels in 1994 and later in 2004 he started Dakota hotels.