ARCHIVED - Sad day on Hacienda del Álamo as Sheraton Hotel logos are removed

The hotel has failed to re-open following the end of lockdown

Less than 2 years after re-opening, the Sheraton logos on the side of the 4 star hotel on the Haciende del Álamo Resort in Fuente Álamo were quietly removed on the 24th August, workers completing the task of removing the principal logos by 09:15 in the morning.

The hotel had failed to re-open following the enforced Covid lockdown this spring and businesses operating from hotel premises had been given notice to vacate.

Even before the covid lockdown there had been rumours that the hotel was failing to achieve operational profitability and in February the PR agency representing the chain had rotundly denied reports of staff reductions, forcing any of us who published that information to retract it, claiming staffing responsibilities were being adjusted, not reduced.

The hotel had only re-opened in November 2018, five years after the hotel was acquired, along with the remaining unsold residential properties, by Spain’s “bad bank” Sareb.

The 154 room hotel was fully refurbished and re-equipped for the 2018 re-opening and hopes had been high that with the new airport in Corvera opening at the beginning of 2019, just a short drive from the resort, that this would help to improve employment opportunities within the resort and municipality, but a series of factors have done little to help the hotel, and the covid crisis has been one challenge too many.

Resort management have indicated that although the logo has been removed and the hotel is not currently operational, that this isn´t bad news for the resort, to the contrary they say, as positive change is anticipated for the future, although were unwilling to make a statement to that effect.

The Hacienda del Álamo Resort itself covers 38,000 square meters, with 1300 villas and apartment properties as well as undeveloped land on which a further 1900 dwellings could potentially be built.

The resort is beautifully maintained and landscaped, with low environmental impact and low urban density, the villas spacious and set in generously sized plots, set around a well-maintained 92 hectare golfcourse, the administrators always attempting to maintain the very high standards of the resort and gradually reduce the stock of unsold properties.

This year the tourism sector in Spain has been decimated by covid. The sector as a whole expects to lose 99 billion euros this year and hundreds of thousands of temporary and permanent jobs will be lost in the sector this autumn following the measures to close nocturnal venues and reduce the activity in the hostelry sector, as well as due to the quarantines and restrictions placed on travel to Spain, including those of the British and German governments the two most important markets for Spain.

Today it was announced that the Murcia Region lost nearly 50% of all tourists during July, and 72% of all international tourists during the same month.

Hotel occupancy in the region was only 33.7%, and with occupancy at that level, hotels right across the region will struggle to remain solvent.

It’s likely to be a complicated autumn.
Photographer: Torill Anglevik. HDA Homes. Contact simon@simonhdahomes.com