From Caribbean360

WILLEMSTAD, Curacao, Thursday December 4, 2014 – Curaçao’s ACOYA Hotel Suites and Villas, a member of theAscend Hotel Collection by Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH), is anticipating a strong winter season as it generates exciting buzz following its opening in September.

A recent addition to the Choice Hotels Caribbean portfolio, the four-star hotel is easy to spot. It’s the only resort in Curaçao with a natural lake on its property and is surrounded by 118 accommodations with a total of 200 rooms on 10 pristine tropical acres.

“We are an exclusive vacation home rental resort with hotel services,” said Henry Martijn, sales manager of ACOYA Hotel Suites and Villas.

At ACOYA, guests can choose from spacious Deluxe Rooms, suites and villas some of which have their own private pools. Accommodations are fully equipped with upscale amenities such as LCD TV, fully equipped kitchens, 220 and 110 volt electric outlets, coffee makers and in-room safes. Additional hotel amenities include free Wi-Fi, a wellness center, laundry service, beach towel service, daily housekeeping, car rental, shuttle service to neighboring beaches, downtown, and the well-known Vreugdenhil Supermarket.

Martijn, who brings to ACOYA close to 25 years’ experience in the hotel and airline sectors, believes “the service we give is personalized and differentiates us.”

And, it’s one of three Ascend Hotel Collection members now open in the Caribbean which Martijn sees as a big plus. “Being part of Choice Hotels International, especially as an Ascend Hotel Collection member, helps us, for sure, to increase our presence in the North American market.”

Deep in the southern Caribbean and near the islands of Aruba and Bonaire, Curaçao and ACOYA are looking forward to increased airline service from North America. This week, JetBlue became the only airline to offer non-stop flights from New York to Curaçao, while Air Canada has announced its new non-stop service from Montreal to Curaçao starting January 1, 2015.

READY FOR WINTER: Henry Martijn, Sales Manager, ACOYA Hotel Suites and Villas from Marketplace Excellence on Vimeo.

Martijn has no doubt new visitors to the resort and to Curaçao will feel right at home, largely due to the multi-lingual capacity of the local people. “Our education is multilingual so it’s easier to recruit staff comfortable in a variety of languages: Dutch, Papiamento, English and Spanish. Others go further with French, German and Portuguese. That’s why we can communicate so easily with many markets.”

The capital Willemstad is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, featuring historic architecture which melds Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese colonial styles. Martijn said the local cuisine mixes Latin American with Caribbean food. His favorite is “funchi” – a local delicacy of cornmeal and polenta with goat meat or fresh fried fish or salted cod. “For me funchi, a good piece of fish with creole sauce, wow, that’s heaven!”

Looking back at his two decades of experience in the tourism sector with hotels and airlines, Martijn said he was accustomed to launching start-ups from scratch, “and this property will be a hit for Curaçao.”

Ascend Hotel Collection is an international portfolio of independent hotels that uniquely reflect the character of their host cities. For guests, Ascend hotels deliver a richly local experience. For hoteliers, the great appeal of Ascend is that the collection allows operators to maintain their individuality while giving them access to Choice Hotels International’s robust distribution system and industry leading Choice Privileges loyalty rewards program along with support from a vast network of other member hotels around the globe.

The Choice Hotels International Caribbean portfolio currently includes hotels in the Caribbean islands of Aruba, the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Curaçao and Puerto Rico. For further information, visit www.choicecaribbean.com

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbean360.com/travel/ascend-hotel-collections-new-curacao-hotel-primed-winter-season#ixzz3KxwOMlQU