Under Pressure from U.S., Meliá Drops Management Contracts at 15 Cuban Hotels

Spanish hotel chain Meliá has joined a growing list of hospitality companies with a long-standing presence in Cuba that are withdrawing or significantly curtailing their presence on the island. 

As Cuba and companies that do business there face ever-increasing pressure from the U.S., Meliá announced that it would cease operations at 15 Gaviota-owned properties – nearly half of the 34 hotels it managed and operated in the country.

Other major hotel chains, including Canadian-owned Royalton and Spain’s Iberostar, have limited or suspended operations in Cuba in the past week. 

Iberostar pulled out of management contracts at 12 properties. As with Meliá, all of those are owned by Gaviota, a subsidiary of the Cuban military’s administrative conglomerate, Grupo de Administracion Empresarial S.A. (GAESA).

A U.S. State Department decree on May 7 designated GAESA and Gaviota as sanctioned state entities, and the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control advised affected foreign companies to “wind down transactions involving GAESA” by June 5, or face penalties on financial and commercial transactions with the United States. 

Meliá noted in a statement that the decision “reflects a combination of external circumstances beyond Meliá’s control, which have materially affected the operational, legal, and security conditions necessary to ensure the proper delivery of services at these properties.” 

The 15 hotels impacted by Meliá’s decision are:

• Gran Hotel Bristol Habana Vieja Member of The Meliá Collection
• INNSiDE Catedral Habana
• Meliá Buena Vista
• Meliá Cayo Santa María
• Meliá Jardines del Rey
• Meliá Las Dunas
• Meliá Península Varadero
• Paradisus Los Cayos
• Paradisus Princesa Mar
• Paradisus Río de Oro
• Paradisus Varadero
• Sol Caribe Beach
• Sol Cayo Santa María
• Sol Río de Luna y Mares
• Sol Varadero Beach

The Meliá Habana and Meliá Cohiba hotels are not affected by this withdrawal, and will remain open. 

Tourism in Cuba, which reached a peak of 4.3 million visitors in 2019, saw a significant drop in the number of tourists arriving in the first quarter of this year – 48% lower than in the same period in 2025.

And it’s getting worse: Only 36,000 travellers arrived In March, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, compared to an average monthly rate of 400,000 visitors per month in 2017 and 2018.

The Associated Press noted that on Wednesday, the enormous sign of the Royalton Paseo del Prado hotel at the entrance of Old Havana was removed. Meanwhile, the 500-room Iberostar Selection — also known as Tower K — which rises high above the Havana skyline — has remained closed for days.

Also on Wednesday, Cuba’s Central Bank announced that Visa and MasterCard operations on the island would be suspended following the termination of relationships between foreign entities and FINCIMEX S.A., a Cuba-based agency affiliated with GAESA.