Riu on growth, its agents & future plans

It’s been a productive year for Riu Hotels & Resorts, with business out of Canada seeing an increase of 11 per cent in 2015 over 2014, and according to senior vice president Oliver Kluth, the hotel brand has no intentions of slowing down.

Kluth, along with Valerie Ward, business development manager, Ontario for Riu and Eric Rodriguez, vice-president of product development, tour operations for Sunwing, RIU's exclusive partner, sat down with PAX yesterday to provide a review of the organizations’ recent and upcoming developments.

All-inclusive update

2015 has seen a flurry of new resort openings, reopenings and renovations for the company, such as the reopening of Riu Palace Aruba in August following a $25 million renovation.

Kluth described Riu Playacar on Riviera Maya, which has been closed since April, as resembling something closer to a new build than a renovation, as the property was completely redone and largely reconstructed from the ground up. Riu Playacar is due to open Oct. 10, 2015.

On the same day, Riu Lupita will close until December, during which time the property will receive renovations and refurbishments.

On the Cancun side, Riu Palace Las Americas recently finished renovations within all of its rooms, and is expected to close in September 2016, to redo the common areas, and will open again as an adults-only resort.

Also in Cancun, Riu Punta Nizuc, a brand new all-inclusive five-star resort, is expected to be ready by Christmas 2016. 

In Jamaica, Riu Negril has also just completed refurbishments, to open Nov. 20, 2015, and an extension has been completed in the Riu Palace Jamaica, located in Montego Bay, to add a new block of 52 additional rooms. Next door, Riu Reggae is being constructed, will be a 452 room, all-inclusive five-star property.

Riu Republica, an all-inclusive with 1,000 rooms in Punta Cana, will open in May 2016.

“There’s a difference between Riu and most other hotel chains, in the sense that we still believe very much in the asset-heavy policy,” Kluth said of the brand’s decision to build certain properties from scratch, as opposed to purchasing and renovating formerly-owned buildings. “It’s an old-fashioned approach perhaps, but it’s going well, and we find that the hotels we build ourselves just seem to work better, from an operations side.”

Riu Plaza update

Riu's Plaza line, which features hotels in urban settings such as Panama City and Guadalajara, Mexico, debuted its first U.S. hotel in Miami Beach February, and unveiled its first European hotel in Berlin on Sept. 22. The brand is expected to open the doors of its Riu Plaza New York Times Square hotel by the end of 2015, with bookings are currently being accepted on the Partner Club website.

“What we see is that a lot of the bookings we take for Riu Plaza hotels are Riu guests who are curious to see what our city hotels look like,” Kluth explained of the product’s popularity, which has seen the Berlin property almost fully booked since its opening.

Other destinations

Riu has ventured to other areas of the world as well, opening a resort in Mauritius in February. It’s also bringing a hotel to Sri Lanka in 2016, and is working on projects in Dubai and the Maldives.

With so many developments in the works, it’s clear that Riu has the demand to continue rolling out new products. According to Kluth, expanding into other destinations is a logical next step, because although Riu guests want to travel the world, they still want to stay somewhere that is familiar to them.

“It’s consistency in the product,” Kluth said, “but it’s also consistency in the product delivery. They get hooked, and then they stay with us because they see they will continue to be satisfied if they stay with us.”

It was for this reason that Riu pulled out of Cuba in April, Kluth citing that Riu's standards were difficult to maintain, which put the brand – and the quality of its customer experience – at stake. However, it doesn’t mean that they won’t return again one day, the vice-president said.

Incentive for top 25 agents

As Canada looks toward the upcoming winter season, Riu wants to reward the loyalty of its agents with an incentive.

The Riu Partner Club Awards will reward the 25 best sellers in Canada who are members of the Riu Partner Club. The awards will be presented June 6-13, 2016, in a secret destination. Winners and the location of the gala will be announced in February.

In order to qualify, agents must complete the Riu Specialist Program, available on www.riuspecialist.com, and they must be registered on PartnerClub.com by the end of January. The booking period spans from January to December 2015 to include bookings already made this past year.

So far, 1,600 agents have completed the Specialist Program since its launch in December 2015, and according to Kluth, such numbers reflect the quality of Riu's relationship with its agents.

“It shows there’s a lot of interest in our properties,” he explained, “and that agents want to know more and be better informed about what they’re selling and what they can sell.”

When asked if he had any advice for agents looking to be awarded as one of the top 25, Kluth’s biggest tip was to be sure to register.

“Our agents sell a lot,” he said, “but very often, they forget to register, which is a pity, because then they can’t qualify to win.”

For more information about Riu , visit riu.com.

PHOTO: Oliver Kluth, senior VP, Riu ; Valerie Ward, business development manager, Ontario, Riu ; Eric Rodriguez, vice-president of product development, tour operations, Sunwing