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All-Inclusive Resorts lose low-budget image with chic decor and deluxe spas

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic — Your retirement savings back home may be draining, but here you feel like a big shot guzzling rounds of complimentary piña coladas and premium-liquor drinks from an attentive server at the Paradisus Palma Real's swim-up bar. You can sip them in submerged concrete chaises built into in the vast serpentine pool while a Dominican band plays upbeat merengue tunes.

Elsewhere on the resort's groomed grounds, adorned with modern sculpture and white-columned walkways, flamingos strut, housekeepers strew flower petals on beds and concierges make bookings for a half-dozen eateries with South Beach-chic décor. All this — drinks, food, activities, shows, a room that's boutique-hotel heaven — is covered in the daily rate.

Lobster and steak are on the menu, and pig-out-till-you-can't is the rule. Room service runs 24 hours, and that 3 a.m. burger and fries are gratis, too.

Chicago-area honeymooners Erin and Gary Greiss are here enjoying Palma Real's no-extra-charge horseback rides on the beach, yoga and snorkeling. Their Royal Service suite (about $4,500 in a seven-night package with airfare) includes a butler and bottles of rum, vodka and Scotch. "It's like a cruise, but less structured," says Erin, 27. And unlike aboard most love boats, 24/7 cocktails are included.

This all-inclusive concept — popular with Europeans for years and catching on with a growing number of Americans — is more attractive than ever in a time of financial free-fall.

Once viewed as a bare-bones vacation option, the everything-covered industry is wooing guests with new, over-the-top Shangri-Las at prices as low as $100 a person daily. And they're courting resort sophisticates with Architectural Digest-style décor, non-buffet eateries, butlers, family freebies and velvet-rope VIP areas with their own pools and restaurants.

"There's an increasing demand," says Becky Veith, affiliated with Travel Experts of Raleigh, N.C. "It's not just Joe Six-pack pounding beers all day by the pool." All-inclusive chains —mainly Spanish, French, Jamaican and Mexican — are "growing aggressively, and the experience they offer is unbelievably consistent," she says.

"They have a very high rate of returning guests," says Scott Berman, head of PricewaterhouseCoopers' U.S. hospitality and leisure consulting group. "In other down cycles, they have performed very well."

Brands such as Sandals, Couples, Excellence, Iberostar, Occidental and Paradisus are building ever more luxurious getaways and targeting upscale clients who once would never book an all-inclusive vacation. At the same time, they're courting the budget-conscious with discounts, such as Sandals Resorts' up to 55% off rates for arrivals through Dec. 26, 2009.

"Luxury Included" now is a Sandals trademarked phrase. "We have moved beyond … the often-maligned all-inclusive connotation," proclaims Gordon "Butch" Stewart, chairman of the Jamaica-based chain.

To lure the value-conscious, upscale hotels added all-inclusive options. They include Ritz-Carlton's Rose Hall in Jamaica, Rosewood's Little Dix Bay on Virgin Gorda and Starwood's Bora Bora Nui Resort & Spa in French Polynesia. All-inclusive pioneer Club Med has raised its bar with luxury rooms at some clubs.

"Even people with a lot of money like knowing what the bottom line will be," says travel veteran Arthur Mehmel. He says some "very rich" clients have spent Christmas at Occidental's Royal Hideaway Playacar on Mexico's Riviera Maya, one of only two all-inclusives anointed with the top five-diamond ranking from AAA. (The other is the Grand Velas All-Suites and Spa Resort near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.) They're both members of The Leading Hotels of the World consortium, as is the Punta Cana Paradisus Palma Real.

All-inclusives tend to be outside the USA because "the model is labor-intensive and only works in certain places" with cheap workers, Berman says. Lots are in the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Jamaica's all-inclusive heaven, too, and the home base for Sandals and Couples.

In the Dominican Republic, workers from neighboring Haiti rapidly construct Vegas-style fantasies. About three dozen gated resort compounds line the 20-mile stretch of spectacular white-sand beach in the Punta Cana area.

Paradisus Palma Real is one of the best, Mehmel and Veith say.

It certainly looks the part of a deluxe resort, with scuttling bellmen and immaculate open-air marble lobby with sweeping views down to the blue Atlantic.

Even low-level accommodations are up to prestige-hotel standards, with cushy mattresses, bathrooms with jetted tubs and separate showers, flat-screen TVs, balconies or terraces, minibars stocked with complimentary water, soft drinks and beer. There's a sophisticated spa, where you do pay for services.

Service here — as elsewhere in Punta Cana — is notably friendly. That request for a glass of water may get a "con mucho gusto (with much pleasure)" response from a server.

Eats are plentiful. A Continental restaurant called Passion delivers some succulent fare, including a tender veal chop washed down with a selection of decent (and included) house red wines from Chile and Argentina and decadent desserts.

Palma Real gets good guest reviews but is always striving to improve, says Paradisus marketing vice president Tony Cortizas.

Guests at luxury all-inclusives toast the premium booze (all the Bombay Sapphire you can quaff). Tips are included, but many Americans leave extra and are beloved for that. Most staffers speak at least some English, but visitors who can muster basic Spanish have a communication edge.

Inside the gates of Paradisus, grinning barmen do shaker-tossing routines straight from the Tom Cruise movie Cocktail, casino dealers pay off high-fiving gamers, and tanned sunbathers congratulate themselves on the great vacation deal they've scored.

This is a reprint of an article in USA Today.

Posted by Geoff on November 14, 2008 | Permalink