Rodrigo Silveyra. General Manager of Havana’s Meliá Cohiba Hotel

Q: Mr. Silveyra, can you tell us about your career and experience in hotel management?

A: By all means. I’ve been a member of the Sol Meliá family for over ten years. After serving as reception chief in Madrid, I moved to the International Division. I started out at the Meliá Bavaro Hotel in the Dominican Republic (within the Paradisus Punta Cana compound). Then I came to Cuba as resident manager. Following an eight-month stint at the Meliá Cohiba, I led the grand opening of Cayo Largo as general manager of the Sol Cayo Largo Resort. I stayed there for two and a half years before moving to the Paradisus Rio de Oro for another year. Now I’m the new general manager of the Meliá Cohiba Hotel in Havana.

Q: What are your thoughts about your being at the helm of this hotel right now?

A: For me, this has been a step in the right direction and a great challenge. The fact that I worked here for eight months has been a very fruitful experience for my own professional development. Somehow, this is easing my landing back in here because I already know the hotel and part of the staff.

Q: And for the company?

A: The possibility of continuing the refurbishment process of the hotel in an effort to keep the Meliá Cohiba as the city’s most prestigious and emblematic establishment.

Q: What abut the competition? You don’t have so many hotels around with so many good rooms to offer. Which are the toughest competitors for the Meliá Cohiba right now?

A: Cuba’s National Hotel has traditionally been the toughest competitor for our lodging facility, not in the physical aspect, but in terms of history and tradition. The NH Parque Central, the Meliá Havana and other hotels, to a lesser degree, also put up a good fight.

Q: Can you refer briefly to the refurbishment of the hotel?

A: We’ve completed half of the restoration process and we’ve just opened a Habano House as a new addition. This is a very exclusive place that, despite being in sync with the rest of the cigar houses of its kind, it features such conveniences as a 2:00 am closing time, a VIP hall, Internet hookup, a bar and live music. On the other hand, we have the Havana Café that has always been quite a landmark from the word go because of the ambience and the live music. Our intention is to rescue the best Cuban music of the 1950s to date, thus giving guests the chance of enjoying nice places where they can dance and chat the night away. This is quite an interesting place of reunion for both the hotel and the city.

Q: What are the hotel’s traditional markets?

A: Spain is the traditional market for the city of Havana, for Sol Meliá and, of course, for our hotel. We also have guests from Mexico and the U.K., and perspectives are looking good for both of them. In addition, the presence of U.S. guests in the hotel remains on the rise. Last May and July, Sol Meliá launched out a very aggressive campaign in Spain with a number of presentations by travel agencies and tour operators. Besides these PR actions targeting the public and conducted on TV slots and in movie theaters, we’ve also focused on our chief Spanish partners and tour operators. There’re plans in the works for a very aggressive promotional blitz in the Mexican market. We may say we’re in the middle of some kind of a recovery process in all fields.