At least a dozen hotels in Santiago have “For Sale” signs hanging. Two of them are the Renaissance and Kennedy, located a few meters away, on the northeast corner of Américo Vespucio and Presidente Kennedy avenues, in the Vitacura district.
As explained by those familiar with the processes that are carried out separately, about US$ 33 million are requested for the first five-star hotel. It has 181 rooms, of which a significant percentage are leased to mining companies and airlines.
For the other property, four stars and 133 rooms, its owners hope to get around US$21 million.
This has been one of the items hardest hit by the health crisis, mainly due to the sharp drop in the arrival of foreign tourists.
The situation could change in the short term: the Government suspended the approval of vaccines for foreign tourists, which is added to the opening of land borders and the lifting of the C19 document at the airport entrance.
According to government authorities, this new scenario will boost the recovery of employment in the tourism industry, which is gradually climbing towards the 700,000 jobs that existed before the pandemic between the areas of accommodation, agencies and gastronomy. Today the sector adds 578,020 places, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
In April of last year, LarrainVial’s Hotel Investment Fund (IHH) put one of its main assets up for sale: The Ritz-Carlton Santiago hotel in Las Condes. The company also owns the Intercontinental Santiago hotel, Crowne Plaza and the Sheraton Santiago.
Until now, the firm has not been able to finalize the sale of the Ritz, located in the El Golf neighborhood, which has an appraisal of around US$68 million.
The asset has 205 rooms, four restaurants and lounges, a spa characterized by its indoor pool with a glass roof and 9,000 square meters of meeting rooms.