Above: the Dream Inn
By the Caribbean Journal staff
This is the Caribbean’s newest bed and breakfast, and it’s not quite like any other guest house in the region.
It’s modern, it’s artful, it’s a bit funky. It’s called the Dream Inn, and it’s now open in the Ocean Park area of San Juan, Puerto Rico.
The opening of the guest house is part of a wider effort by the Puerto Rico Tourism Company to push for more small-property hotel development.
The Dream Inn, which has 13 rooms, is the brainchild of entrepreneur Nimu Shamdasani.
The project involved an investment of $1.1 million, according to the Tourism Company.
“I had this dream of establishing a guest house in Puerto Rico under the name Dream Inn a long time ago,” Shamdasani said.
Under the Puerto Rico Tourism Company’s Guest House programme, each property must have between seven to 25 rooms and must appeal to quiet, family tourism.
Ingrid Rivera Rocafort, the executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, said that the company’s guest house development plan had 1,209 rooms in the pipeline, in the San Juan area alone.
“It is gratifying to note that in Puerto Rico we have a wide variety of products or types to satisfy the tastes and expectations of our visitors, which strengthen the industry and show that Puerto Rico is a five-star destination,” Rivera Rocafort said.