Above: a room at the Royal Oasis (Photos: Occidental)

By Alexander Britell

The Royal Oasis Hotel in Haiti has officially opened its doors in Port-au-Prince’s Petion-Ville neighbourhood.

The five-star property, which is a project of Spain-based Occidential Hotels & Resorts, is located on a three-acre site in Port-au-Prince’s Petion-Ville residential neighbourhood. It was developed by Jerry Tardieu.

It includes 128 rooms and suites, featuring a rooftop infinity pool and art gallery. The hotel is located at 115 Rue Panamericaine.

“I think it represents a new chapter in Occidental history,” Jason Kycek, senior director of sales for Occidental Hotel and Resorts, told Caribbean Journal. “It’s nothing but a positive — we’re getting tremendous feedback from everybody who has been involved.”

It’s the first of several major brands entering the Haitian hotel sector, along with Best Western, and another Spain-based company, NH Hotels Group, which is slated to unveil the renovated NH El Rancho in February.

“We see nothing but tremendous support and interest in the hotel, and it’s filling a need that’s been missing for a long time,” he said. “There are a lot of people in the United States and also abroad that want to go back and visit Haiti and stay in a very nice hotel, and there really wasn’t one of this caliber.”

The Best Western had previously been set to open by the end of 2012, but it now appears the property will debut in early 2013.

The hotel features five restaurants: La Villa, Le Lounge, Les Terrasses, Bella Vista and Lounge Club Royal, each of which have bars.

Occidental said that the hotel would open a 12,000-square-foot convention centre facility for summits and conferences in 2013.

The hotel represents another first for Occidental, which Kycek said was the first to open an all-inclusive resort in 1978, and now the first major brand to enter Haiti in decades.

While the hotel’s Web site did not list any availability in the month of December, a three-night stay in January at one of the hotel’s Superior rooms cost $874, or about $291 per night.

It is Occidental’s 13th hotel in the region. According to data from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, the hotel will support close to 200 staff in Haiti.

“Haiti isn’t one of those destinations the hotel industry has paid attention to, so I think it’s definitely raised the eyes of a lot of the other companies,” he said. “I think it’s eventually going to be a trickle effect and we’ll start to see other hotel companies entering the market.”