Although it sounds unusual, in a few weeks, anyone who wants to and whose economic situation allows it, can be "owner" of one of the most luxurious and emblematic hotel rooms on the island and one of the oldest, the Gran Meliá Salinas in Costa Teguise. This five-star luxury tourist complex is adapting some of its rooms, to which, among other things, it is placing kitchens, to market them under the modality called "timeshare" or "time-sharing". A system that means a sale of the room of that hotel and others of other tourist complexes to a group of people, who then take turns for their use.
The Meliá Salinas in Costa Teguise has already adapted two "pilot" rooms on the third floor for sale in timeshare, one with one bedroom and the other with two. In a first stage, fifteen rooms will be sold with this modality, and if this novel commercialization process is successful, all the rooms on the third floor of the hotel will be destined for that purpose, that is, around fifty.
These are luxury rooms, with jacuzzi, a large living room with sea views, a fully installed kitchen and high-quality floors and coverings.
The Gran Meliá Salinas thus becomes the first and for now the only hotel in Lanzarote that sells some of its rooms in timeshare. It is in turn the second of this hotel chain in all of Spain to do so, the other being the Meliá Tamarindo in Gran Canaria.
Secrecy
"We do not make any comments or offer any official information on the subject at the moment, although a press conference will be given soon to present this new modality," they told this media from the hotel's management secretariat. However, La Voz was able to verify that the possibility of buying rooms in the Gran Meliá Salinas is already offered in the hotel itself, and even guided tours are being arranged for the presentation of the timeshare.
It is a "tour" of its facilities lasting about 90 minutes, in which the entire hotel is toured and the rooms that are for sale are shown to those interested. The conditions to buy one in timeshare are to be between 30 and 62 years of age, a credit card available and a minimum annual income of 40,000 euros, whether from the sole interested party or their family group.
Although quite discreetly, the Meliá Salinas has been offering this sale in timeshare since January 15, once the refurbishment works of the two "pilot" rooms were completed.
The acquisition of the rooms in timeshare can be done for a limited period of years, or for life.
Vacation club
The commercialization in timeshare or time-sharing is carried out by the hotel chain through the so-called "Sol Meliá Vacation Club" (SMVC), which it defines as "a spectacular vacation club, designed to give its members access to the most amazing, fun and exotic vacation destinations, year after year".
This modality of "time-sharing" was born in the United States and soon spread to other parts of the world. In Spain it developed very incipiently in the early 80s, but in 1995 there were already more than 56,000 families who used that vacation modality in the country, according to data from the National Association of Timeshare Entrepreneurs.
In Lanzarote, however, it is absolutely novel, and the curious thing is that this timeshare system lands in a five-star luxury hotel that is an icon of tourism in Lanzarote.
Alternative to low occupancy
The initiative to start selling some rooms in timeshare with the project of extending it to the entire third floor, was born in the Gran Meliá Salinas hotel as an alternative to the decrease in the occupancy rate of this historic tourist complex. The current situation in the hotel is not buoyant, although not enough to "lower the blinds". In this second week of March, about 250 people were staying at the Meliá Salinas, according to unofficial sources.
The hotel has about 300 rooms, of which 279 are double, 25 are junior suites, 2 suites and 10 bungalows. The construction of this "colossus" demanded almost ten years. It is the first complex built in Costa Teguise and the fourth oldest hotel in all of Lanzarote, since it was only preceded by the Fariones and the San Antonio in Puerto del Carmen, and the Gran Hotel in Arrecife
Buying a room in this hotel complex will be a real luxury, unimaginable in the "golden years" of the Meliá Salinas, when it stood imposing and majestic in the middle "of nowhere" in Costa Teguise, in the late 70s, and when it could sound like nonsense to think that when it is about to celebrate 30 years of existence, some of its rooms would be "reconverted" for sale to individuals.
"A symptom"
"This is undoubtedly a symptom of the delicate tourist moment that not only Costa Teguise is going through, but the sector in general, and hotel entrepreneurs have to resort to different marketing modalities, due to the decrease in occupancy," said the mayor of Teguise, Juan Pedro Hernández, consulted by this media on the decision of the Gran Meliá Salinas hotel to sell some of its rooms in timeshare.
"Technicians in the sector have told me that this does not seem bad to them, because the important thing is that there is occupancy even with that modality," added the mayor, who nevertheless acknowledged that "I am not very happy that a Meliá Salinas opts for that modality, because it may not be the best." He clarified, however, that it is logical that hotel entrepreneurs "adapt to the situation and the characteristics of the clients, and this, although it is not the best, is not something serious either".
In turn, Juan Pedro Hernández argued that the timeshare regime will not necessarily bring tourism of lower quality. "In this case they can be tourists of a medium - high level, because the Salinas is not going to sell rooms at a low price," he said.
Meanwhile, from the hotel association of the island, Asolán, its president, Francisco Armas, admitted that "something had been commented to me" about that decision of the Meliá Salinas, although "not officially", so he did not want to comment "until I have all the information".
In any case, Armas stressed that "although in the United States it is being done quite a lot", here it is something "very novel", which until now is not applied in any hotel on the island. "In Lanzarote we would have to study the benefits and damages that this timeshare modality can bring, although in principle I do not see it as bad," said the president of Asolán.
For his part, the president of Aetur, Gerardo Fontes, understands the decision taken by the Meliá Salinas because "they have to get profitability from somewhere", although he considers that it is "a wake-up call to Lanzarote as a tourist destination, to get our act together".