On 21 July 2026, Melia Hotels International S.A. announced it would terminate all of its hotel management and commercialisation services in Cuba, and to disallow the use of the Melia brands and access to its services in Cuba, effective from 24 July 2026.
All five of CEIBA’s hotels were branded as Melia. CEIBA is a participant in Miramar S.A. and TosCuba S.A., two Cuban joint venture companies that own these five hotels. Melia is the operator of the hotels.
The decision is a reponse to one of Trump’s recent executive orders. On 1 May 2026, he expanded US sanctions against Cuba, targeting the activities of foreign entities that invest in or otherwise materially support the government of Cuba.
Melia decided on 26 May 2026 to terminate management operations for 15 of its 34 hotels in Cuba. That decision was announced and implemented in early June 2026, citing operational, legal, economic, and financial difficulties as the primary reasons for concluding its operations in Cuba. However, CEIBA suggests that the decision to impose sanctions on Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism played a role in this decision.
CEIBA is deciding what to do next and how to properly unwind Melia’s management and commercialisation of the hotels. In the meantime, the Melia name will be dropped and the hotels will be renamed “Hotel Habana”, “Hotel Las Americas”, “Hotel Varadero”, “Hotel Palmeras” and “Hotel Trinidad Peninsula”. It may be that operations are suspended for a while while CEIBA focuses on capital expenditure projects, changing corporate and operational structures, and searches for a new operator to manage the hotel properties.
CEIBA says that occupancy levels were not great anyway – blaming “diminished airlift to Cuba and other factors”, and so it thinks the additional negative impact for the current year will be minimal.
