tl;dr – I’m not much of an all-inclusive person, but to each their own.
Last year, I wrote about Marriott’s lean into all-inclusive and how the global hotelier is pursuing a strategy of taking its established luxury brands and introducing all-inclusive offers at select W Hotels, JW Marriott locations, and The Luxury Collection locations. Well, that evidently was just the start. Marriott recently revealed that we’ll soon see the first all-inclusive Ritz-Carlton. Scheduled for a 2028 debut, the Ritz-Carlton All-Inclusive Yanuna will open in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
Punta Cana is home to the first all-inclusive W Hotel. We’ll also see the first all-inclusive JW Marriott open in Costa Rica later this year, and back in 2024, Marriott welcomed the first all-inclusive Luxury Collection property – Almare, a Luxury Collection Resort, Isla Mujeres, Adult All-Inclusive.
Marriott is partnering with local development company Gomez Vazquez International to develop the Ritz-Carlton.
After some digging, I also discovered that Marriott will also open its second all-inclusive Luxury Collection property in Punta Cana. Gomez Vasquez International appears to be handling the Luxury Collection property as well, and the two resorts will sit adjacent to one another in the Yanuna community.
And Marriott isn’t stopping there. Evidently, the chain is going heavy on all-inclusive luxury properties within the Americas, either opening new properties or transitioning existing ones. For example, talk is that the JW Marriott in Rio de Janeiro (I was just there last week) is slated to become an all-inclusive hotel, which, to me, is curious to say the least.
You can also expect other all-inclusives in the Tribute, Autograph, flagship Marriott, and Westin lines.
As mentioned above, I’m not too big on all-inclusive, but there’s no denying that these properties are moneymakers. If folks are willing to pay a premium for these experiences, arguably (marginally?) better food and beverage offerings, then I imagine we’ll see many more of them in the future.
