Latin America’s most exclusive hotel design event launches in Puerto Rico
May 28-31, 2026
Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve Puerto Rico
The hotel designers behind Latin America's most spectacular hotel projects are extremely busy people. They don't leave their offices or projects unless they have very good reason to. The launch of BOND Five Star LATAM provided such an occasion.
For these hotel designers need a way to access certain things if they are to stay at the top of their game. They need to know what’s happening in the wider world of luxury hotel design: What's new? Who’s working on what? With whom? And who has what it takes to become a trusted adviser who can help them navigate their latest project aspirations and challenges?
The glue that binds all of these needs together is relationships. In fact, if BOND Five Star LATAM is about one thing above anything else, it is about relationships and community – a place where LatAm’s most ambitious hotel designers and manufacturers can re-establish connections and friendships and make new ones to discover fresh collaborative possibilities.
Latin America's most in-demand luxury hotel designers
Last month, BOND brought 45 of these 'impossible to meet' luxury hotel designers and interior architects to the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve, Puerto Rico. 50 equally ambitious manufacturers of luxury hotel interior products and solutions flew out to meet them.
This review will give you some of the facts around who was there, what went down and what attendees had to say about it. But the only way to get a feel for the unique atmosphere and untold opportunities that await at Five Star Latin America is to come and experience them for yourself.
Next year’s event is set for May 13-16, 2027, venue tbc. If you want to know more about who's coming, how it works and what you could achieve here, please get in touch.
Latin America’s true luxury hotel project influencers
Let's get something straight from the off: BOND Five Star is not like any traditional conference or marketing platform in the world of luxury hotel design. It is the only way to access Latin America's true luxury hotel project influencers: the ones with portfolios of live, confirmed luxury hotel projects throughout Latin America and the Caribbean and the authority to not just influence but to protect specification choices.
No other gathering gives you such quality time with the hotel designers who call the shots on the projects you want in on. BOND’s selection criteria eliminates time wasters and means that every conversation you have at Five Star can open doors at the firms you may have been chasing for years.
A guaranteed number of 1-on-1 meetings with your best prospects
A month before the event, confirmed attendees got exclusive access to detailed profiles on all the hotel designers who would be there, including current project details. Suppliers who took the time to study this information could pinpoint their best prospects and prioritise who they most wanted to meet.
Provisional meetings schedules were sent out two weeks before the event, giving both designers and suppliers time to make any tweaks as desired. All suppliers got a guaranteed number of 1-on-1 meetings according to their chosen package. Strong start.
¿Qué fue lo que más destacó del evento? | What stood out as the single biggest highlight of the event?
La buena actitud de los compradores tanto en la reunión como en los convivios.
The designers' positive attitude both at the meeting and at the social gatherings.
Gerardo Minchaca Inman. Interjum Group. Director Comercial- Socio.
Muy buenas expectativas con las reuniones realizadas, esperemos se traduzcan en buenos proyectos para todos!
Very positive expectations have arisen from the meetings held; let's hope they translate into good projects for everyone!
Diego Armando Gutierrez Meza, Surfacing Solution, VP of Business Development.
La participación de los arquitectos fue uno de los aspectos más positivos del evento. Su disposición para interactuar con los proveedores generó conversaciones de gran valor y abrió oportunidades para futuras colaboraciones y proyectos
The architects' participation was one of the most positive aspects of the event. Their willingness to interact with suppliers generated valuable conversations and opened up opportunities for future collaborations and projects.
ANAYELI TAPIA - KURARAY - MARKETING LATAM
Latin America’s most difficult-to-meet luxury hotel designers in one place
For Five Star to justify the title of ‘Latin America’s Most Exclusive Hotel Design Event’, it must deliver two things:
- Latin America’s true luxury hotel project influencers – the ones with the most exclusive, top-end luxury hotel projects and the authority to influence and protect spec.
- A level of access to the above that you simply wouldn’t get anywhere else.
Shall we start with who was there?
45 Principal-level hotel designers and interior architects from the most active and interesting A&D firms operating throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. By ‘interesting’, we mean in terms of the scale and nature of the projects they brought to the table. Here’s a small sample from the confirmed list of hotel designers:
- Arditti+RDT Arquitectos Mexico Socio Partner
- Base4 USA Chief Design Officer
- Grupo Posadas Mexico Responsable de estandares y especificaciones
- Hilton Worldwide USA Director Arquitectura y Diseño Latam & Caribe
- HKS Mexico Principal and Senior Vice President - Hospitality
- Hyatt Hotels USA Director of Projects -LatAm & Canada
- Marriott International Peru Senior Design Manager, Global Design Caribbean & Latin America (CALA)
Get the full list. Now study the firms and the job titles. Starting to get the picture?
Luxury Hotel Projects throughout Latin America
Ultimately, Five Star is all about the projects and ‘our’ designers and architects disclosed details of many of the luxury hotel projects they’re working on right now, for which they were looking to source products and support at the event. Here’s a random sample from the project list:
Project Name – Town, State, Country – Size (rooms) – Completion – Project Type
1 Hotel Los Cabos - Cabo San Lucas, Baja California, Mexico - 2027 - Hotel/Resort
Autograph Collection Oro Hato Rey - San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA - 200,000 - 2027 - Boutique Hotel
Castello de Pergolato - Toscana, Florence, Italy - 32,760 - 2027
Dual Brand - Dorado, PR, USA - 122,500 - 2027 - Hotel/Resort
Fairmont - Jamaica, Jamaica - 225,000 - 2028 - Hotel/Resort
Four Seasons CDMX - CDMX, CDMX, Mexico – 80,000 m2 - 2026 - Hotel/Resort
Kahla Resort - Morelos, Riviera Maya, Roo, Mexico - 450,000 - 2029 - Hotel/Resort
Moon Palace The Grand Punta Cana - Punta Cana, DR - 5,300,000 - 2026 - Hotel/Resort
Waldorf Astoria - San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico – 643,538.03 - 2028 - Hotel/Resort
Yanuna - Asociado - Macao, Punta Cana, La Altagracia - 860,000 - 2027 - Hotel/Resort
If you want to see the full project list, please send us a message here so we know who you are and we will be in touch.
So, the scene was set for Latin America’s most exclusive hotel design event with the people who make the region’s biggest and best luxury hotel projects happen checking into the Hyatt Regency Grand Reserve Puerto Rico. All 50 manufacturer places had been claimed weeks earlier.
On your marks, get set, relax!
Sometimes you need to break the ice with yourself before you can break it with anyone else and what better way to relax and get into the Latin American spirit than with a Salsa and Merengue class! A generously prepared mojito or two helped to get hips moving and the room soon filled with real smiles and laughter - both scientifically proven to be more effective at winning friends and influencing people than any handshake. Fact!
Ice officially broken, conversation and laughter continued over some delicious local foods.
Pre-event session over, there was time to freshen up, call home or just do whatever you do before all delegates were welcomed with the sounds of a traditional Puerto Rican parranda, setting the tone for a magical few days on the Island of Enchantment.
Latin America’s most passionate and well-connected luxury hotel project community
The hard work of identifying and bringing Latin America’s true luxury hotel project influencers together is done. Your 1-on-1 meetings schedule and everything else is arranged so all you have to do is take a genuine interest in the people around you - say hello and see what happens. And, if the person you’re talking to just happens to be one of the most influential people in Latin American hotel design, just breathe, relax and be yourself. Let the opportunities open up in front of you – and they will, often from where you least expect... Welcome to La Isla del Encanto and to Five Star Latin America!
659 1-on-1 meetings
Over the following two days a total of 659 1-on-1 meetings took place. That’s 659 conversations with some of the most difficult to pin down decision makers in Latin American hotel design, each of which would have otherwise taken months or more of sustained effort, charm and a useful bit of luck from any determined manufacturer.
BOND gives attending suppliers an absolute minimum of 12 of those meetings guaranteed, according to your chosen package. That’s 12 meetings minimum over two days with people who can transform your hotel project prospects. And then there’s all that networking…
For roughly the same cost as putting a seasoned rep on the road for a months, a manufacturer can have BOND pre-select and pre-qualify the architectural 1-on-1 meetings, amidst a setting that allows for relationship building, not just a sales call.
Dean Moilanen, Director of Architectural Sales, The Noble Group
And the meetings really are just the start of it. Because, outside of the meetings over breakfast, coffee, lunch, dinner, at the bar and as far into the night as our delegates found themselves being drawn, hundreds of other conversations happened.
And it’s often these conversations, when the meetings are done and there’s no time pressure, where everyone’s more relaxed and literally bumping into someone can spark a conversation that leads to an introduction that can end up being one of the most valuable business contacts of your professional career.
Night 2, with the first day of meetings done, the vibe was palpably more relaxed for the beachfront dinner around the converted cart bar.
Being on the beach, string lights all around, with amazing food (especially that prime rib), made for one of those magical nights where the barriers came down and conversations started that would develop long after the event ended.
The numbers and the quality of attending luxury hotel project leaders are guaranteed
The numbers and the quality of attending luxury hotel project directors are guaranteed at every Five Star Latin America as is the access you get to them but you need to do your bit. You need to do your prep, read up on who’s here and start to imagine some of the conversations you would like to have with them.
You also need to believe in your product, in yourself and in your team because these seasoned hotel design leaders are looking for something that goes deeper than a well-rehearsed sales pitch. They need long term project partners they can depend on and who go about their business with the same level of passion and dedication that they do.
Yes, they’ll get an impression from your handshake and, if you’ve got what it takes, they’ll see it in your eyes. Or they might just know it from the way you moved your hips (or at least tried to) in the Salsa class. Or, on the final night, when the dust has settled from the intense brain activity of all that business talk over the last couple of days and a growing throng of now familiar faces, all dressed in white, beckons you onto the dancefloor where you find yourself moving those hips once more, despite promising yourself you wouldn’t dance…
Valuable connections and opportunities will come your way
Five Star LATAM is three whole days and nights of quality, get-to-know-you time with the people behind Latin America’s most spectacular luxury hotel projects.
Turn up with a great product under your arm, some good notes on who you’re meeting and a genuine curiosity to get to know whoever else you might encounter. And don’t be shy – talk to people. Find out their story and you’ll get your cue to share yours. And, in the midst of it all, valuable connections and opportunities will come your way.
Oh, and bring your best all-white look for the Blanco Finale – it’s becoming a ‘thing’…
BOND will deliver the people with the projects and create an environment that’s designed to help relationships to thrive. You just need to come and get stuck in!
The next edition of BOND Five Star Latin America is happening on May 13-16, 2027, venue tbc. If you want to know more about who's coming, how it works and what you can achieve, please get in touch.
The following stats and comments are taken from the onsite survey and from comments posted on Linkedin.
How do you rate BOND Five Star LATAM 2026 overall? 4.4/5
How likely are you to recommend BOND Five Star LATAM to your peers and colleagues? 91%
The architects' participation was one of the most positive aspects of the event. Their willingness to interact with suppliers generated valuable conversations and opened up opportunities for future collaborations and projects.
ANAYELI TAPIA - KURARAY - MARKETING LATAM
