Located on Vietnam’s pristine southern coastline, Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort is the first property opened in the south under the Meliá Hotels and Resorts brand. Just two hours from Ho Chi Minh City, the resort has lured both local and foreign guests who wish to enjoy a wonderful vacation.
The resort is one of the first five-star resorts in Ho Tram and is quite secluded and features manicured gardens and exclusivity. It covers 17 ha on the beach, with 152 rooms and 61 villas of five-star standard.
All rooms and suites are equipped with the latest technology. Rooms in the main building feature luxury elements with fresh, sea-inspired touches, while each of the sumptuous villas offers private swimming pools and glorious shared areas to unwind in superior quality surroundings. The modern resort suites and luxury villas are surrounded by over 4,000 different kinds of trees and over 10,000 sq m of lakes and water features.
“Ho Tram is fast developing a reputation as Ho Chi Minh City’s answer to New York’s Hamptons, Rome’s Naples, and Sydney’s Blue Mountains - a go-to retreat where the well-heeled flock for a getaway that’s close by, upscale, and restorative,” said Mr. Manuel Ferriol Argent, the resort’s General Manager. “With 500 meters of ocean frontage, this tropical setting is all the more spectacular as the sun rises to the left and goes down to the right in an incredible arc over the East Sea each day.” Shaded by 1,800 coconut palms, the resort’s design deploys a neutral palette of colors as a complement to Ho Tram’s sandy shores. Its high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling glass panels take advantage of the natural surrounds and abundance of sunshine.
Ranging from 220 sq m to 465 sq m, all of Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort’s two-, three- and four-bedroom villas have their own private pools, BBQ areas, outdoor showers, gardens, living areas, and separate dining areas. Terraces and/or balconies jut out from every villa. Three- and four-bedroom villas, the leading accommodation at the resort, directly front the beach and provide access to a lounge as well as other private areas such as a pool. Inland from the villas, the resort’s hotel tower building offers sweeping views of the resort and sea from every room and suite, which range in size from 47 sq m to 88 sq m.
The resort enjoys views of the ocean, lush gardens, lakes, and swimming pools, including the 1,491 sq m main pool anchoring the resort, while the small swimming pool has facilities for kids to play as though in a “small water park”.
The resort has four distinct food and beverage outlets, Breeza Beach Club, Muoi, Sasa, and Elyxr café, which together with a swim-up bar make for a diverse culinary landscape luring casual and fine diners alike. While Sasa, located in the main tower, offers Asian cuisine, Muoi offers Vietnamese dishes and is now open on the weekends. Breeza Beach Club is open every day and offers more options for guests who like Western food. The club is situated right on the beach and hosts live music, DJ sets, themed parties, and fire and dancing shows.
One of the best services at Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort is its spa. The YHI Spa includes ten treatment rooms, two of them double rooms with Jacuzzis, as well as sauna and steam baths and open-air relaxation areas. Though the resort has only been open for a few months, staff at YHI Spa are skillful and their treatments provide guests with a relaxing and comfortable experience. Aquarobics, Zumba, yoga, meditation, stress remedy, sleep workshops, and healthy culinary lessons are also among the resort’s wellness pursuits.
Like other international hotels and resorts in Vietnam, Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort has a kids’ club, but it also offers free bicycle rentals so that every guest, including kids, can enjoy a resort tour. This is an exciting activity for families, as they can have a fun time together cycling around and taking in the resort’s landscapes while breathing fresh air.
“Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort is without doubt the most exciting project I’ve worked on to date,” said Mr. Ferriol. “It really is unprecedented for southern Vietnam, with all of its rooms and suites affording views of the ocean, all of its villas featuring private pools, and a beach club that will become ‘the place to be’ in Ho Tram.”
“Manuel has been with Meliá Hotels International for 15 years,” said Mr. Bernardo Cabot, Vice President Asia Pacific, at Meliá Hotels International. “He joined our internal management program and has grown with the company to become a general manager due to his talent, his ability to learn very quickly, and his unbridled enthusiasm for hospitality. With his rich knowledge of our brand built up over many years, and his strong expertise in business and leisure and Vietnam, he is an indispensable asset to our hotel group, particularly as we expand significantly in the Vietnamese market.”
The opening of Meliá Ho Tram Beach Resort affirms that Vietnam is one of the most important markets in the development strategy of Melia Hotels International in Asia-Pacific. In addition to Melia Ho Tram Beach Resort, the group will soon be operating Meliá Hoi An, Meliá Saigon Central, Meliá Cam Ranh Bay, and Meliá Phu Quoc.
In April this year, Executive Vice President and CEO of Meliá Hotels International, Mr. Gabriel Escarrer, and its Chief Operating Officer, Mr. André Gerondeau, completed their first annual tour of China, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Indonesia - some of the countries with the greatest growth potential for the company in a region that led in growth of international arrivals in 2018, with a 7 per cent increase. Growth in Asia-Pacific is one of the key features of Meliá Hotels International’s 2020 strategy, focusing 100 per cent on leisure resorts and urban leisure or “bleisure” hotels. Growth is being achieved primarily through hotel management agreements, which give the company greater agility and appropriate returns with low levels of leverage.
Meliá Hotels International currently has more than 50 hotels in Asia-Pacific either already in operation or in the process of opening, with a special focus on Indonesia (16 hotels) Vietnam (13) and China (9). In Vietnam and Indonesia, Meliá is already on par with all of the largest international hotel operators.
In Vietnam, the Meliá executives visited leading “bleisure” hotels, including the well-established Meliá Hanoi, the INNSiDE by Meliá Saigon Central - the first hotel for the Inside Meliá brand in the region - and Meliá Ninh Binh; all of which are ideal options for both business and leisure travelers. The strong commitment of Meliá in the south of Vietnam took them to visit some of the group’s most spectacular projects, like the successful Sol Beach House Phu Quoc and Meliá Ho Tram Beach.
“After more than 30 years of operating hotels in Southeast Asia, we are a long way along the learning curve in a destination that is equally exciting and complex,” Mr. Escarrer emphasized. “For a company such as Meliá, with expertise in the leisure and urban leisure markets, Asia-Pacific has similar potential to other regions such as the Caribbean, both in regard to its contribution to the group’s results and to expansion and our international reputation over the coming years.”
