3 months ago
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Playa Hotels & Resorts, which operates hotels in Jamaica and the region, booked a US$700,000 (J$109 million) loss on the sale of Jewel Paradise Cove & Park hotel in Runaway Bay, St Ann.
Overall, the hotel management company recorded a dip in quarterly earnings across its hotels in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica. Its operations are still slightly subdued by the travel advisory issued on Jamaica by the United States government some 15 months ago.
Playa, valued the Jewel property at US$28.5 million, said the sale was completed for US$27.6 million on February, net of closing costs.
The hotel operator “recognised a loss of $0.7 million” on the sale, said Playa Chairman and CEO Bruce Wardinski, in the company’s second-quarter financial report.
The name of the buyer was not disclosed.
In Jamaica, the group owns and manages the Hyatt Zilara Rose Hall, Hyatt Ziva Rose Hall, Hilton Rose Hall Resort & Spa, and Jewel Grande Montego Bay Resort & Spa. With the sale of the Runaway Bay resort, all the hotels managed by Playa locally are now concentrated in Montego Bay.
Five years ago, it sold two other Jewel properties in St Ann, Jewel Dunn’s River Beach Resort & Spa and Jewel Runaway Bay Beach Resort & Waterpark. The properties were sold for US$60 million, which was below their fair value of US$85 million. Playa stated that it needed the funds for cash flow but also to pay down on a portion of its debt during the pandemic which led to a global business reset.
The Playa group generated US$234 million in revenue for its March 2025 quarter, down 10 per cent year on year. The reduction in revenue was mainly due to reduced demand, which was “primarily impacted by the Jamaica travel advisory issued by the United States government” in January 2024.
The Jamaica operation’s made US$52.5 million of revenue, compared to US$64.6 million a year earlier; the core earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, EBITDA, dropped by one-third to US$18 million from US$27 million.
Meanwhile, Hyatt and its subsidiary HI Holdings Playa BV, which operates global hotels, have launched a tender offer to buy all shares of Playa at US$13.50 per share. The offer, initially set to expire April 25, has been extended to May 23.
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