The race to enter the Cuban hotel market for U.S. groups was officially declared after Saturday's announcement by Starwood of the signature of three Havana hotels (Inglaterra, Quinta Avenida and Santa Isabel). Fantastic news for the industry and for this market, but here is where the similarities with other world hotel markets end. Cuba is the world’s most concentrated hotel market in terms of ownership. No wonder the largest Latam hotel group is Cuban. Eight hotel groups control the entire inventory of 67,000+ rooms in the island. Just three groups own 82% of the hotel assets. Even Airbnb has a long way to go. They are still at 3,700 properties of a total of 19,000+ authorized by the Ministry of Tourism.

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