As Melia ramps up its Cuba expansion, the company is adding a new brand to the island: Innside, a group of boutique lifestyle hotels meant for urban areas — and it’s part of a broader expansion in Havana. 

The first-ever Innside in Cuba will be the Innside Cabana Catedral, a new-build hotel the will be set in the Cathedral Square of Cuba’s capital. 

The idea, the Spanish hotel giant says, is to “connect the tourist community with the city, so that it is part of their discovery experience.” 

Innside Habana Catedral will have a total of 50 rooms, the latest addition to what is an increasingly active hotel scene in Havana. 

That includes last year’s move by Cuba’s other major hotel player, Canada’s Blue Diamond, to take over management of the Paseo del Prado hotel on the city’s Malecon. 

That hotel, one of the newest and most anticipated luxury hotels in the capital, opened under the Blue Diamond brand last year; it had been part of the SO/hotels collection by Accor. 

And the Innside is just the beginning. Melia says it will also add the Hotel Plaza in Havana to its Melia Collection, a new luxury brand, along with the historic Hotel Sevilla, close to the Paseo del Prado, a 178-room hotel that will join the Affiliated by Melia network.