Iconic five-star Marbella hotel to close for 12 months for 40-million-euro refurbishment
Thirty-two new suites will be added to the luxury Gran Meliá Don Pepe hotel and all 187 rooms will have sea views when it reopens in 2026
The Gran Meliá Don Pepe, a five-star luxury hotel in Marbella, will close its doors for a year on Thursday 16 October after serving breakfast to the last guests before a complete renovation.
The hotel is set to undergo the biggest transformation since opening on 27 June 1964 and this is the first time it has ceased operations to improve its facilities. It is a major project in which the Meliá Hotels chain plans to invest 40 million euros. According to Rocío Galán, director of operations in eastern Andalucía for Meliá Hotels, this figure rises to 60 million euros when the costs of maintaining these inactive facilities are added. "With the project we are going to undertake, we will have a hotel for the next 100 years. The new Don Pepe will have some of the best suites in Spain and will remain a benchmark of luxury," she says.
After being included in the Junta de Andalucía's Hotel Modernisation plan, the renovation focuses on the creation of 32 new suites with which the hotel will have one hundred percent of its offer with sea views. "We are going to join the 32 rooms we have with mountain views with those overlooking the sea and create new suites designed for guests who are looking for larger rooms," the luxury chain explains.
"If it has always been an icon, with this transformation we are going to position ourselves on another level", says Galán. After the refurbishment the hotel will have 187 rooms and will go from having 24 suites to almost sixty. In addition, the swimming pool will be renovated and two more infinity pools will be built. "In short, a great project that the president of the chain, Gabriel Escarrer, has taken on first hand," says Galán.
Agreement on the Erte furlough scheme for works
The hotel has reached an agreement with the unions on an Erte furlough scheme plan for the 240 staff for the coming year. "We have reached a favourable consensus for both permanent and non-permanent employees. We will have these professionals back from November 2026, which is the date we are considering for the reopening. What's more, we will add new staff because the aim is to make a leap forward in the service to become a benchmark in this aspect with a renewed air," the company has said.
The hotel has organised a party for the employees for this Thursday after the departure of the last customers to thank them for the work done in what has been a great season and to tell them that they are waiting for them with open arms next year.
The last refurbishment of this hotel was carried out in 2000, although on that occasion, as on previous occasions, it did not close completely. A circumstance that Galán also says has been felt by the regular customers: "they have sent us messages asking what they are going to do on their next holidays and assuring us that it will be a long year without those trips to the Don Pepe".
This investment is part of the 125 million euros that Escarrer announced at the inauguration of the ME Meliá to be carried out on the Costa del Sol, a destination where the chain is contemplating new projects and which it considers "a guarantee of success".
A history of luxury on the Costa del Sol
The Don Pepe opened its doors on 27 June 1964 and was considered at the time "one of the largest and most sumptuous" hotels on the Costa del Sol. It had 200 rooms and 18 suites, two restaurants, grill, pool buffet, tennis, three swimming pools and a party room with two orchestras, according to newspapers of the time. The same publications reported that Mateo Bosch was its first director and that the inauguration of this emblematic luxury hotel was presided over by Minister José Solís, who was accompanied by José Meliá and Bishop Rodrigo Bocanegra. The idea for its construction came from José Meliá himself, who owned 32,000 square metres of land next to the sea.
Important personalities have passed through its doors during its 61 years of life. In fact, its first illustrious guest was Audrey Hepburn, who stayed there just a month after its inauguration. The glamorous actress wrote in her own handwriting her fascination for this hotel in the book of honour that she herself published. Years later, it became popular among celebrities and distinguished people from different fields. Sean Connery, Omar Sharif, Prince, Arthur Rubinstein, Begun Aga Khan and Alain Delon, among others, visited the hotel and enjoyed the facilities designed by architects Eleuterio Población Knappe and José Luis Calvente del Castillo between 1961 and 1963.
In addition, the Gran Meliá Don Pepe hotel currently has a plaque from the Docomomo Foundation, which accredits its value as a paradigmatic building of modern architecture. They highlight the international projection of the building, emphasising that it "surpasses common criteria" and incorporates significant elements "such as the paraboloid membrane in exposed concrete that covers the open-air restaurant or that extends parallel to the coastline so as not to hide the views from inside, as well as the fact that the construction is configured following a gentle curved volume, with the rooms facing south and large open terraces".
