Senator wants to become greater: generational relief in the dome and 10,000 rooms as a goal

The Costablanca hostel had the wrapped walls and a small terrace where to sunbathe. It barely had 42 beds. Less than half had the pension Los Arcos, which included restaurant. Sixty -one beds added the two establishments that in 1967 rented A Catalan with long lights that a year before he had convinced a German tour operator – for whom he had worked as a tour guide in Tunisia – to prove as a destination a then forgotten corner of southern Spain, Garrucha, on the coast of Almería. On March 15, the first group of Germanic tourists arrives at the San Javier Military Airport, in Murcia, after negotiating a special permit, and from there to Costablanca and Los Arcos.

The experiment was all A success And, the following year, German tourists returned and were more. They no longer had to land at a military airport, since Almería had inaugurated their own track. Fuel the tourist takeoff of Almeria and that of that Catalan entrepreneur with smell for business.

That pension and that hostel have become, over the years, more than a quarantine of three, four (especially) and five -star hotels and the 42 beds where those German tourists slept have multiplied until exceeding 8,000 Rooms that have overwhelmed the Almeria coast until reaching 23 different destinations, most in national territory but also some international. Of the Costablanca and the arches are hardly historical references, but with those wickers it has woven One of the most important hotel chains From Spain and the first Andalusian, Senator Hotels & Resorts, a conglomerate that includes a theme park, Minihollywood Oasis, in the Tabernas Desert, the stage of the Spaghetti Western.

That Catalan Hornpit, named José María Rosell, was opening a hotel after hotel after inaugurating his first great establishment In sea roquetas110 kilometers from his first adventure in Garrucha. Deterred last November, their two children, José María and Daniel, pilot a new stage in which the goal is to grow, grow and grow.

The goal, explains Daniel Rosell, vice president and CEO of Senator, is in the 60 establishments in 2028 Or, what is the same, exceed the border more than symbolic of the 10,000 rooms. In short, Senator wants to become older and definitely pass to play in the first league of the hotel business.

The circumstances, Rosell explains, have changed a lot in these almost 60 years. Neither the tourist is the same nor the hotel sector has anything to do with which he helped to lift his father in the 70s and 80s of the last century. Therefore, the path that the company has undertaken has little to do with the one who toured from the founder’s hand. If Rosell Padre focused on opening a hotel and then another and then another … their children now bet on alliances and franchisesfor sealing agreements with large chains (including some worldwide leaders) to manage establishments under their brands. IHG (with which Indigo Gandía has opened this July), Marriott, Radisson or Hilton are some of the partners that Senator has sought to complete their road map from here to three years.

That does not mean, says the company’s CEO, that new hotels are not going to open with any of their own brands -hotels for coastal establishments and Senator for urban ones -but they will be the least. Most of the projects are framed in the third leg of the business, that of the franchise. Because? Because, Rosell explains, it’s a lot simpler than lift a hotel from nothing. “No great investments are needed” and Senator can face it, without problems, with own funds.

The jump to the maturity of Senator will have as its main scenario the national territory, and within the Andalusia National is, and it will be, the main Operations field. In fact, of the eight openings that are currently managed from the company’s headquarters in Roquetas de Mar, five are in the Andalusian community. “Andalusia is our first market,” says Daniel Rosell, although the business plan designed by the two brothers includes international incursions. Mainly in the Caribbean, where the chain maintains a resort in the Dominican Republic and where it had investment projects that were paralyzed with the Covid-19 pandemic and now they want to reactivate. But there are also closer projects, such as that located in Dakhla, in Morocco.

Rosell distinguishes Three great stages Within the company’s history, each marked by a specific milestone. The first, obviously, the birth of the chain with the opening of the first hotels and growth, throughout the 70s and 80s without leaving the province of Almería.

Then a second chapter would come, marked, precisely by the openings in other provinces of the Autonomous Community. Marbella, in the middle of the 90s of the last century, was the great milestone. The jump to the rest of Spain and a shy international incursion. And the third is the one that Senator faces at this time.

Although the company faces a new (and decisive) stage after the death of the founder, everything that is being done was designed before. In fact, that the two brothers took the reins of the Almeria group was a decision of Rosell Padre, who designed to the millimeter his own Succession plan.

Senator’s road map began to be applied between 2019 and 2020, in fact. It was then that Daniel and his brother José María assumed the Global address of the family business, which was none of them. On the contrary, since both had been in positions of responsibility for some time and, before, they had known the business in depth. At ancient, Daniel Rosell tells, who started working summers in his father’s hotels when he was 14 years old. After training and accumulating some experience in the financial sector, in 2008 his father recruited for the position of commercial director.

For the head of the two heirs it has not passed, or for a moment, the possibility that Senator ceases to be A primarily familiar business. The company, says the CEO, is and will be owned by the Rosell family and the control will continue to be, as it is right now, distributed equally between the two brothers.

“The great advantage of the family model is flexibility and speed with which we can make decisions. Or you are great or you are fast, “defends the entrepreneur, who is decided to reduce the bureaucracy to the minimum expression.

The formula, Daniel Rosell defends, has been proven successful and the numbers support it. The ultimate exercise, that of 2024, closed with a turnover of 200 million euros and a benefit of 51 million. The forecast is that the 2025 year is closed with sales of more than 220 million euros. Exponential growth if compared to 158 million euros in 2019, just before the pandemic broke the upward stream and recovered in 2022, with 166 million, and 2023, with 181 million euros.

In the tourist campaign peaks, the Rosell family hotels get to use 3.000 personas And the business plan contemplates that, when the objective of 60 establishments is reached, between 600 and 700 additional workers are necessary.

All with the view put in a clientele in which they are clearly distinguished Two profiles. On the one hand, a profile of families seeking to enjoy their vacation on the coasts and for which beach hotels, in which aquatic parks are one of their greatest attractions. And, on the other hand, a more urban and business profile, which emphasizes the establishments under the Senator.

The hotel group faces the future with optimism, according to its CEO, and that despite some clouds that are common to the entire sector, such as the Togin Africanof which Daniel Rosell defends himself, with data in his hand and distinguishing between the “regulated” and the “unregulated” activity and highlighting the “value we provide at the level of jobs.”

Hardly criticizes the relaxation with which, until now, the development of the Tourist flatsthat “they have gone out of hand”, and claims that “the rules of the game are maintained”, rather than a reduction or an increase in regulation. There are rules, and many, Rosell points out, but for the prosperity of the sector, the fundamental thing is that there is legal security and stability.