Unconfirmed rumors suggest that the hotel popularly known as the K Tower, the “elephant in the room” of Cuban tourism, would finally be inaugurated in the next few days under the official name of Iberostar Selection La Habana, since, at a logistical level, the formidable establishment would finally be ready in all its collection of details.
So far, the most accurate clue is on the website of Iberostar Cuba Hotels & Resorts where the offers of the Spanish chain appear: “This hotel will open its doors soon!” they say. And in the online reservation box, rooms are sold with a calendar starting on February 23.
This Friday, one of the builders, during his lunch break, as he left the building through the main entrance on 23rd Avenue, commented to himself: “This still isn’t ready.”
Heavy construction vehicles are still visible, both on 23rd and 25th Street, in the back area of the hotel, and heavy trucks delivering supplies through the main door.
Iberostar, an empire
The consortium, one of the heavyweights of world tourism, has 18 four- and five-star hotels on the island, in the main tourist destinations.
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Three of these are in Havana, not counting the K Tower, and 14 are located by the beach of Varadero and Cayo Cruz beach resorts, a small island of 26 square kilometers in Jardines del Rey, north of Ciego de Ávila.
The Iberostar Grand Packard in Havana and Mystique Trinidad La Popa by Royalton in Trinidad won the 2024 Best Hotels in the World award from Tripadvisor, ranking fifth and 19th, respectively.
Founded in 1986 by the Fluxá family, Iberostar Hotels & Resorts has more than 114 hotels in 18 countries on three continents, Europe, America and Africa.
Previous dates
Last July, representatives of Gaviota, the largest hotel group in Cuba, announced to the press in Canada the opening of a series of facilities in 2024, including the K Tower.
According to the Travel Week portal, the opening program included, among others, the Metrópolis Hotel, managed by Kempinski, the second section of the Muthu Havana, the Corona Hotel and the K Tower, for November 20.
On December 28, on its official Facebook profile, Havanatur published a video promoting the opening in 2025 of the Iberostar Selection La Habana Hotel — the commercial name of the tourist operation — with the date set for January 15.
By then, six years had passed since work began on the so-called “gap of 23,” in the heart of Havana’s Vedado, where a 42-story, 154-meter-high building now stands. It has 565 rooms and other attractions, such as an eight-meter cantilever or balcony on the 32nd floor and a sky bar with panoramic views of the city on the 41st floor.
The project was presented in 2018 as a construction with “100% Cuban capital,” set to become a luxury hotel and to dominate the capital skyline, far above two emblematic buildings such as the Focsa and the Habana Libre Hotel, and on par with the tallest skyscrapers in the Caribbean: the Anacaona 27 and Caney towers, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Target of criticism
Although it has had defenders, the five-star Iberostar has been in the eye of the storm of many since its construction was announced.
Both specialists and ordinary Cubans have attacked the controversial building for different reasons, from its design and location to the fact that it is being built at a time when the island is going through a deep and prolonged economic crisis, and when tourism is sinking with depressing occupancy rates.
In January 2024, in a post on his Facebook profile, the Spanish-French journalist Ignacio Ramonet called the building an “urban horror.”
The author of the book One Hundred Hours with Fidel revived the debate by calling the hotel “architecture horribilis.”
Apparently, before the end of this month, the new hotel will begin to receive visitors.
In recent years, the government has stressed that tourism will be a fundamental part of economic recovery. But the country has not matched the pre-pandemic levels of international visitors, which in 2019 were around 4.5 million and in 2024 were only 2.2 million.
