The few guests who were there, visitors to the Habanos Festival, made their reservations “through discreet channels”
14ymedio, José Lassa, Havana, 28 February 2025 — No, Havana’s Iberostar Selection Hotel is not open to the public. The Spanish company which operates the hotel — located on several floors of the controversial Tower K highrise on downtown Havana’s 23rd Street — insisted on Wednesday that it was effectively open for business. Though anyone can walk through its front doors and uniformed staff stand ready to assist guests, its lobbies and hallways, as of today, remain completely empty.
Outside, several Indian workers are still putting finishing touches on the facade. The building’s cafe has also yet to open. “Perhaps this afternoon,” says a security guard vaguely.
When asked about the rooftop amenities, hotel receptionists explain that, “for now, they are only for guests.” Would-be customers, however, cannot make room reservations through the hotel’s web portal.
“The reservations we currently have were made by the company itself,” claims an Iberostar source who prefers to remain anonymous, adding that the guests are company executives, sales representatives and other employees of the Spanish hotel chain.
“There are two tables in the lobby with two public relations people, two reception desks and various people milling about,” remarked one curious passerby who had wandered into the hotel to check it out. “They look a bit confused, like they don’t know quite what to do,” he noted upon leaving the premises.
According to the previously mentioned Iberostar source, the personnel assigned to work at this hotel come primarily from the luxurious Manzana Kempinski. “They chose the best people for Tower K but there are others from several old and new hotels. They’ve put a lot of good people in here.”
The opening of the new luxury hotel has already been delayed several times. Havanatur initially claimed that it would open on January 15, which did not happen. Days later, the company began taking reservations for February 1 but it was not ready on that date either.
The hotel’s opening now comes at a time when the country’s ongoing energy crisis is getting worse. On any given day, Cuba faces 1,500-megawatt energy shortage, with Tower K being one of the city’s largest consumers of electricity.
Tower K has been a focus of controversy since its inception in 2018, when locals began calling it “López-Calleja Tower” after the late head of the military-run business conglomerate GAESA, which owns of the facility through a subsidiary, the Gaviota Group. It has been widely regarded as a waste of resources that an impoverished Cuba can ill afford.
Just as construction began — a time when tourism was at a record low — the project came under criticism from technical specialists. Several architects pointed out the project’s shortcomings,” including its “pompous enormity,” It was also criticized for its use of reflective, insulated glass, which produces glare and generates heat when exposed to the tropical sun. Also criticized was its poor solar orientation, which provided no views to the north, the best direction for a building to face if the goal is to for avoid excessive solar heat gain, which can drastically increase energy and cooling costs in a Caribbean climate.
The most recent controversy stems from a mysterious public works project on Boyeros Avenue which began several weeks ago without any official announcement. This construction activity is moving towards the neighborhood where the new luxury hotel is located. When it was finally reported in state media, it was described as a new water main that would “replace an aging network of pipes that has been plagued by ongoing ruptures and leaks affecting roughly 72,250 residents in the Cerro and Plaza of the Revolution districts.”
Without mentioning the Tower K directly — something that readers did mention in the comments posted below the article — Cubadebate acknowledged the “population increase in the area” on “an already weakened system,” increasing the need for drinking water: “The hotel development planned for the area poses a challenge by further increasing demand.”
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