The ambitions of the Ibiza-based Matutes family to become a major force in hospitality are reflected in the successes of its enterprise, the Palladium Hotel Group.
Founded in Ibiza in the late 1960s, Palladium Hotel Group today owns around 45 hotels with over 14,000 rooms. While well-established in its home market of Spain, and Ibiza in particular, the group has expanded into Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, the Middle East and the US. It is currently pursuing growth opportunities in Asia.
The transformation from family business to corporate entity has been striking; yet Matutes family members retain important leadership positions within Palladium, which is structured as the hotel arm of Grupo Empresas Matutes. Palladium closed 2025 with managed turnover of €1.162 billion, representing a 2% increase on a like-for-like basis. Palladium’s CEO, Jesús Sobrino, said that this was in line with the industry “entering a phase of normalisation in which tourism will grow in line with the wider economy”, after a few years of double-digit, organic growth.
Origins story
To understand the firm’s DNA, it is useful to return to its origins on the island of Ibiza, where businessman Abel Matutes Juan opened his first hotel at the end of the 1960s, after watching hospitality real estate steadily grow across the island. His family’s bank had backed many such projects by the time he had decided to launch his own first hotel. Another property on Ibiza quickly followed and Fiesta Hotels & Resorts was born. Reflecting on the island’s development in 2025, he said: “Ibiza has grown a lot, sometimes too fast, but it has preserved its nooks and crannies and its personality and has set an example for many other locations in Spain. It has been able to grow its economy while preserving its essence.”
Further growth came across the Balearic and Canary Islands, where the family business became associated with high quality, well-serviced hotels. The firm expanded into the Caribbean in the 1990s, and subsequently new destinations such as Italy, Mexico and Brazil, the latter of which were still under the Fiesta name. In 2012, the group decided to refresh its image and became Palladium Hotel Group, taking its name from its five-star Caribbean resorts. The rebranding exercise aimed to convey a corporate philosophy based on excellence, alongside ambitions to increase the group’s international scope. By 2020, Palladium Gestión was launched, to formalise the separation of its real estate management and hotel operations.
In the meantime, Abel Matutes Juan pursued a successful political career. This included roles as mayor of Ibiza, senator, member of parliament, European Commissioner, chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and foreign minister in José María Aznar’s first government.
The group celebrated its fiftieth year in 2020, which coincided with the pandemic, or what a company spokesperson called “one of the most difficult moments that we’ve ever gone through as professionals in the tourism industry, and most importantly, as humans”.
Global milestones
With the global pandemic in the rear-view mirror, the last few years have served to underline Palladium’s international ambitions. For CEO Sobrino, one of the lessons of recent crises – from Covid to geopolitical tremors – has been that geographical diversification is essential. “Unfortunately, we are not invited to the Monopoly game between Putin, Trump and Xi Jinping”, he said in an interview last year. “Hotels are not cruise ships that can simply move from one place to another, which is why our risk-minimisation strategy is built on two pillars: diversifying revenue streams and customer segments.”
In 2023, the firm entered the US signing the 45 Times Square Hotel, located in the heart of New York, earmarked for rebranding as the Only You New York Hotel. Activity in the Middle East followed in 2024 with a deal on Al Marjan Island in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah for a brand-new hotel development, with the project expected to open in 2027. This will encompass the launch of The Unexpected Hotels, a new brand inspired by the group’s Ushuaïa Ibiza Beach Hotel, integrating the concept of branded residences. More signings are expected in Saudi Arabia in the coming years.
In the meantime, further European openings have followed, while another ten or so pipeline projects are slated to come on line by 2029.
The group’s entry into Southeast Asia, through its luxury brand Bless Collection Hotels, is set to be an important landmark. The firm has already opened an office in Ho Chi Minh City to explore a range of territories. The first project will be an 80-villa resort with private pools in Ninh Van Bay, Vietnam, with a first phase scheduled to open in 2027. Further schemes are expected to follow in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
Expansion strategy
Across the board, expansion is being realised through a mix of acquisitions, developments, joint ventures and signings as Palladium hones its operational expertise, leaving the real estate business to other divisions. Currently, around 83 percent of the properties are owned by the Matutes family and the rest by third parties, with further consolidation planned. In February 2025, for example, Grupo Empresas Matutes bought out a 75 percent stake in a joint venture it had initiated in 2019 with private equity giant Azora.
The deal, valued at around €300 million, allowed Grupo Empresas Matutes to take over the joint venture’s three five-star hotels located in Ibiza and Sicily, with nearly 1,000 rooms. The properties, which continue to be operated by Palladium Hotel Group under the Bless, TRS, and Grand Palladium brands, underwent asset management enhancements during the six-year partnership. The properties in question included the Bless Hotel Ibiza, a luxury hotel with 151 rooms located in Cala Nova; the TRS Ibiza Hotel, a five-star, all-inclusive, adults-only resort with 376 rooms, located in Cala Gració; and the Grand Palladium Sicilia Resort & Spa, a five-star resort with 469 rooms located on the north coast of Sicily, focused on the family holiday segment.
“We remain committed to creating value in these unique destinations, strengthening their positioning and continuous evolution under the highest standards of excellence, always under the management of Palladium Hotel Group,” said Abel Matutes, vice chairman of Grupo Empresas Matutes, as the deal was signed.
Meanwhile, the summer of 2026 saw the transformation of the former Ibiza Hard Rock Hotel into a destination featuring two five-star hotels, The Site Hotel Ibiza and The Unexpected Ibiza, plus a gastronomic hub inspired by a diverse range of cuisines. It includes concepts such as Hell’s Kitchen by Gordon Ramsay, StreetXO by Dabiz Muñoz, Leña by Dani García, Coya, Sublimotion by Paco Roncero and Tatel Ibiza.
With its three-star hotels today virtually phased out, and further lifestyle and all-inclusive deals in the works from Italy to Jamaica, Palladium has committed to accelerating its repositioning in the upscale and luxury segments as it prepares for its next era.