LOS ANGELES (YBH.ME) – Hugo Chavez’s Venezuelan government moved to seize the Hilton resort on the Caribbean island of Margarita, a posh hotel recently visited by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. The hotel is owned by a local company that is in trouble with the Chavez government. Hilton manages the hotel.
On September 27, Chavez and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met at the hotel, along with more than 30 leaders from South America and Africa for a summit about regional trade issues, particularly the petrochemical market. At one point during the meetings Mr. Chavez mused that the government could nationalize the hotel.
This is not the first time a Hilton has been seized by Mr. Chavez’s government. In 2005 the Hilton in Caracas was seized and rebranded the Hotel Alba. It has become the hotel of choice for visiting Chavistas from around the world. A search of popular consumer travel site Tripadvisor for reviews of Hotel Alba brought up lukewarm comments, warnings about faded décor, the need for caution in the hotel’s dangerous neighborhood, and its overpriced rates.
Karla Visconti, a Hilton spokesman, said the company “is evaluating how the Venezuelan government’s action affects its interest in this [Margarita Island] hotel.”
The trend in worldwide hotel chains for a decade or more has been toward complicated brand name leaseback and management agreements, with time limits, rather than outright ownership. Hilton let go its concession on the Hotel Alba when it expired in 2007.
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