The sixteenth of August in Mallorca is the feast day for Sant Roc, whose good works included getting rid of the plague. There won't be fiestas in Puerto Pollensa on the sixteenth, and with any luck there won't be any plague either, but it will be celebration time on the Formentor peninsula because the hotel will finally and officially reopen.
Plagued by controversies and delays, the Four Seasons Resort Mallorca at Formentor, as the hotel is now referred to, is now accepting reservations. The website offers a 15% discount for the bed and breakfast rate until end of October. And what are the rates? Average prices, depending on room/suite, range from 1,920 to 3,790 euros per night. The 'all-in' rate is from 2,116 euros to 4,173 euros per night.
The hotel opened in 1929, the Argentine Adan Diehl and his wife having planned a haven to attract artists and celebrities. It was notoriously bad timing because of the Great Depression. The Diehls were bankrupted. People of Pollensa clubbed together to help fund their return to Buenos Aires. But that is just one of the stories to have contributed to the history of one of Mallorca's most iconic hotels - arguably the most iconic.
In 2020, it was bought from the Mallorcan Barceló group by Emin Capital. Management of the hotel is by Four Seasons. Adrian Messerli, president of hotel operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, says: "Every now and then we get the chance to revive a legendary hotel and take it into the future by turning it into a Four Seasons experience."
The Formentor will join the company’s "growing portfolio of historically significant properties across the Mediterranean". With its re-emergence, "a new chapter begins that will connect guests with the island of Mallorca".
For such a luxury hotel like this, CEO Estreya Gosalbez gives an idea of the type of service that will be available - to collect guests from the airport and take them by boat "across the crystal-clear waters of our private dock, just as celebrities did before there were roads on the peninsula".