RIU Hotels & Resorts marked 25 years operating in Jamaica in June 2026, and the milestone lands alongside two very different pieces of recent company news: a full recovery from Hurricane Melissa across its Jamaica portfolio, and a newly announced closure and renovation at one of its flagship properties.

Recovering from Hurricane Melissa

RIU’s seven Jamaica hotels, spread across Negril, Montego Bay, Falmouth and Ocho Rios and totalling more than 4,000 rooms, were affected by Hurricane Melissa in late 2025. According to RIU’s own newsroom, the company mobilized a 1 million US dollar relief fund following the storm, with 800,000 dollars directed to employee assistance, split between 570,000 dollars for home reconstruction materials and 230,000 dollars for immediate aid packages, and a further 200,000 dollars donated to the Jamaica Basic School Foundation. RIU also arranged a 1.3 million dollar interest-free credit line for damage management. Riu Ocho Rios never closed during the recovery period; Riu Montego Bay and Riu Palace Jamaica reopened on November 23 and 24, 2025 respectively, and Riu Reggae, Riu Negril, Riu Palace Tropical Bay and Riu Palace Aquarelle followed between late November and mid-December 2025.

Five years, 287 million dollars

Separately from storm recovery spending, RIU states it has invested 287 million US dollars in construction and property upgrades across its Jamaica operations over the past five years, according to comments from Niurka Garcia Linton, the company’s director of sales, reported by the Jamaica Gleaner. That figure includes the construction of Riu Palace Aquarelle, which opened in May 2024. RIU’s Jamaica operation now spans more than 4,200 rooms and roughly 4,000 employees, 99 percent of them Jamaican nationals, according to the same reporting. Garcia Linton described the company’s approach to renovation directly: “every time we take on a hotel, it’s completely gutted; when handed back, it’s essentially a brand-new property.”

How Jamaica fits into RIU’s wider footprint

Jamaica’s more than 4,200 rooms sit alongside RIU’s larger Mexican Caribbean operation, where the company now runs 15 hotels across Quintana Roo state out of 23 total Mexican properties, a scale we cover in our reporting on RIU’s recent Cancun and Playa del Carmen renovations. Seeing sustained five-year investment in both regions at the same time suggests Jamaica is being treated as a core, ongoing market for the company rather than a smaller or secondary destination behind its larger Mexican presence, which is relevant context for travelers weighing the long-term direction of a specific property’s brand before booking a multi-year loyalty relationship with it.

Riu Palace Jamaica: a further closure, unrelated to storm recovery

Separately from the Hurricane Melissa recovery, Riu Palace Jamaica, the adults-only, 288-room property near Montego Bay, is scheduled to close again at the end of August 2026 for a planned full-scale renovation, with a reopening date of December 12, 2026, according to Jamaica Gleaner reporting. The renovation covers completely redecorated rooms, refurbished general areas, and changes to some of the property’s restaurants, including its steakhouse, moving toward a brighter, more contemporary design direction consistent with RIU’s recent work elsewhere in its portfolio.

What this means for travelers with a Jamaica trip planned

Anyone with a stay booked at Riu Palace Jamaica between the end of August and December 12, 2026 should expect the property to be closed for renovation during that window and should confirm directly with RIU or their booking channel how an affected reservation will be handled. The other six RIU Jamaica properties are operating normally following their Hurricane Melissa recovery, based on RIU’s own reporting that all seven hotels had reopened by mid-December 2025.

What this means for the region’s coverage on this site

Hotel Riu Montego Bay, Hotel Riu Palace Jamaica, Hotel Riu Reggae, Hotel Riu Negril and Hotel Riu Ocho Rios are all profiled in our resort coverage; see our Riu Palace Jamaica page and our Montego Bay and Ocho Rios destination pages for the wider property line-up on this coast. We will update the Riu Palace Jamaica profile once the property reopens in December with any confirmed changes to its room categories or facilities.

What we are and are not confirming

The investment figures, closure dates and employee statistics above are drawn from RIU’s own newsroom and from Jamaica Gleaner and Jamaica Observer reporting quoting company representatives directly, not from an independent audit of RIU’s finances or construction timeline. As with any operator announcement, a published reopening date can shift, and travelers with a booking during the renovation window should confirm current status directly with RIU rather than relying on this article alone as the trip date approaches.

Sources: RIU Hotels & Resorts newsroom; Jamaica Gleaner; Jamaica Observer.