RIO GRANDE, PUERTO RICO — Perched between the Atlantic Ocean and El Yunque National Rainforest, the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar Puerto Rico Golf & Beach Resort has always had an enviable location. What it lacked, until recently, was a strategy fully aligned with both its setting and today’s experience-hungry traveler.
Following a $70 million reinvestment and full repositioning led by owner-operator LionGrove, in partnership with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, the property is emerging as a flagship for both companies—one that blends brand scale and distribution with local storytelling, environmental programming and immersive guest experiences.
Chris Sariego, chief operating officer of LionGrove, and Gustavo Viescas, president, Latin America at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, both framed Rio Mar’s “rebirth” as a template for the region.
“We called it a renacimiento—a rebirth,” Viescas said. “This $70 million renovation elevates and raises the bar for all the other resorts and Wyndham brands in the area. It’s a new level.”
Developing a Strategy
When LionGrove acquired the resort, previously owned and managed by Wyndham, it found a large, well-built asset run “like a conventional hotel,” Sariego said. The physical bones were strong, but many of the property’s inherent advantages were underutilized.
“The bones of the hotel were fantastic. The location you cannot renovate,” he noted. “We saw a lot of things that had been dormant, and nobody had really taken advantage of them.”
LionGrove’s strategy was not a cosmetic renovation but a full repositioning into a destination resort, designed around distinct guest types and layered experiences.
“What a great opportunity to turn this hotel into a destination resort,” Sariego said. “The experience for couples on a honeymoon is very different than for a couple with children, very different from a group of friends or business travelers. On a resort of this scale, we can create experiences for each of them.”
That thinking reshaped everything from pools and public spaces to nightlife, programming and even how the surrounding ecosystem is leveraged.
One early target was the resort’s four pools—previously identical in function and feel. LionGrove reprogrammed them around clearly defined segments:
- An adults-only pool with a dedicated butler service, adults-only cabanas, a unique food-and-beverage menu not available elsewhere on property, a “chill-out” atmosphere—quiet, curated and kid-free.
- A family-focused pool complex where the existing pool was demolished and rebuilt to include a zero-entry “beach”-style section suited to young children, two water slides, a neighboring toddler splash zone, family cabanas surrounding the area, an adjacent restaurant with kid-friendly, fun menus and outdoor games, and a nearby lawn designed for outdoor movie nights on a massive screen, with headphones so films don’t disturb other guests.
These changes turned generic amenity zones into purpose-built environments—a key theme throughout the repositioning.
Nightlife as Cultural Hub
Historically, the resort went quiet at night. The new Rio Mar caters to night owls with a bar and lounge concept and a speakeasy inside the casino.
LionGrove introduced Caicu, a bar and lounge that has become the property’s main nightlife anchor, with live music. The casino was gutted and updated with new technology, refreshed uniforms and a sharper service focus.
Inside the casino, a hidden speakeasy, The Vault, adds a second layer of evening experience, with cabaret shows featuring local musicians, singers and dancers.
The first show is performance-centric with drinks and small plates; the second transitions into a more lounge-like format where guests stay, socialize and dance.
“It doesn’t exist on the island,” Sariego said of the concept. Viescas echoed that the combination of speakeasy, casino and live programming positions Rio Mar as a broader cultural hub, not just a resort amenity.
“This is not just a resort,” Viescas said. “It becomes a hub—experiences, culture, local feeling—while still being a beachfront destination.”
Brand Scale Meets Local Adaptation
For Wyndham, Rio Mar is a cornerstone of its luxury and resort strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly as the company expands in the resort and all-inclusive segments post-pandemic.
“We have been growing in the resort space and even in the all-inclusive space,” Viescas said. “This resort, with this rebirth, is a perfect example for all the other resorts and luxury properties we have in this area.”
Core brand standards define a minimum level of quality and consistency but at the same time, Wyndham is deliberately loosening the reins on how its upper-tier brands express themselves locally. “Under those brand standards, connecting with the local community, local food, local art, the local feeling—that is amazing,” Viescas added. “It’s all about experiences now, and you cannot have a good experience if you don’t have that connection.”
Viescas said that, in the past, guests in international branded hotels might not know what city they were in if they covered their eyes. “That is not happening now. We are promoting, in all our hotels, the connection with the community.”
He cited Rio Mar as “extremely well representative of that mission,” noting that local food, local art and local culture are built into the experience—from dinner menus with Puerto Rican twists to the work of local artists displayed across public spaces.
According to Viescas, even the governor of Puerto Rico remarked that at Rio Mar, “you really live and feel Puerto Rico” at the resort.
Environment, Culture and Experience as Differentiators
In an increasingly crowded Caribbean luxury market, both executives see Rio Mar’s edge in how deeply it engages with its surroundings.
Rather than create a standard kids club, LionGrove hired a full-time local scientist and environmentalist and built an Explorers Club that uses the ocean, river, mangroves and rainforest as its playground. The resort invested in kayaks, paddleboards, bikes, microscopes and telescopes, then layered in a team of naturalists to deliver programming that combines adventure with education and conservation.
The property also now manages a sea turtle conservation program directly on its stretch of beach, working under government approvals to monitor nests, coordinate releases and educate guests—turning a protected habitat into both a stewardship responsibility and a signature guest experience.
Food and beverage is treated with the same intentionality. Menus lean into local ingredients and flavors, while virtually all chefs and musicians are from Puerto Rico. International expertise, such as a French pastry chef, is brought in primarily to train local teams rather than replace them.
Other Wyndham resorts in the region are experimenting with their own forms of experiential programming—from nature-driven offerings to nightlife concepts—but Viescas is clear that Rio Mar’s comprehensive approach makes it a reference point.
The Template for the Region
For Wyndham, Rio Mar demonstrates how a global brand and flexible standards can support an owner’s ambitious repositioning. For LionGrove, it validates a model that combines private equity discipline with in-house management and design-driven, experiential thinking.
Early performance suggests the strategy is working; Sariego said the asset is already running ahead of its original pro forma, even as the final phases of improvement continue.
For both companies, the property shows that a large, branded resort in the Caribbean can feel connected to its location—rainforest, beach, culture and community included—while still benefiting from the reach and reliability of a global flag.
“This resort raises the bar,” Viescas said. “It’s not just about rooms and amenities anymore. It’s about how deeply a place lets you understand and feel where you are.”