Guests in each of the hotel's 246 rooms, 50 of which are suites, have the pick of four bars and two restaurants and can take a swim in the rooftop infinity pool. The European-style building first opened in 1917, before undergoing a complete renovation. In order to deliver the project in time, the Cuban government was forced to accept the builders bringing hundreds of qualified workers from India, a rare move in a country that usually requires that only underpaid - and undermotivated - Cuban workers.
Now the hotel, jointly owned by Kempinski and the military-controlled Cuban tour operator Gaviota, charges between $440 and $2,485 a night. "We appreciate hidden gems and this matches our philosophy," Kempinski director Xavier Destribats told Cuban state television. On the ground floor of the hotel, a shopping mall filled with high-end boutiques such as Versace, Lacoste and Montblanc sparked curiosity in a country where luxury was long ago banned under the iron-fisted rule of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.
"The hotel is really beautiful, but here everything is terribly expensive. It's not for the Cubans," said Lidia Martinez, a 29-year-old housewife. Leonardo Padilla, a salesman at Montblanc, admitted he had difficulty selling watches ranging from $1,775 to $4,500 in a country where the average wage is no more than $30.