Jamaica's Hotel Rebuild After Melissa:
What Has Reopened and What Is Planned

Jamaica's hotel story in 2026 is mostly about reopening, not new construction. The scale of the recovery is large, and the dates are still moving.

What has reopened

Royalton Negril, a 573-room resort, reopened on 25 August 2026 after a full closure and restoration, bringing about 960 employees back to work. Royalton Blue Waters and Royalton Hideaway Blue Waters in Montego Bay were scheduled to follow on 15 September. A Hospitality Net announcement seen in a news listing says Royalton has now reopened all five of its Jamaica properties, with a sixth adults-only resort planned for summer 2027, though the announcement itself was not read in full.

The Jamaica Tourist Board says about 80,000 tourism workers have returned to employment and about 5,648 hotel rooms were scheduled to return to inventory through 2026. Sandals reopened five of its eight Jamaica properties in December 2025.

Sandals' overhaul

The three Sandals resorts that stayed closed are being rebuilt in a US$200 million programme the company calls "Sandals 2.0". Sandals South Coast is scheduled to reopen on 18 November 2026. Sandals Montego Bay and the resort formerly called Sandals Royal Caribbean, now reported as Sandals Caribbean Cay, are scheduled for 18 December 2026, with Sandals Montego Bay reported to gain 84 rooms. These are scheduled dates from travel sources, and the rename should be confirmed with the operator.

RIU

RIU says it plans to reopen all its Jamaica hotels, seven properties with more than 4,000 rooms, before the end of the year, according to a Hospitality Net headline. The detail was not read.

What is still closed

The Associated Press has reported that about 20 hotels remained closed nearly a year after Melissa, with high insurance deductibles and delays in claim settlements straining operators' cash ahead of the winter season. A secondary report quotes the tourism minister saying about 9,000 rooms stay shut until early 2027. The Melissa lifestyle article earlier in this series covers the damage.

Planned capacity

A trade report in December 2025 said another 5,000 rooms were coming to the Montego Bay area, naming UNICO, Hard Rock Resort and Casino and Moon Palace The Grand. No opening dates, investment figures or construction status were found, and the report is nearly a year old, so treat these as planned. The government has also said it wants to use the rebuild to reshape tourism on the south coast, with Black River named as a future hub, according to a secondary report.

What this means for a buyer

Reopenings return demand and jobs, and they are lower risk than unbuilt projects, but several dates slipped during the recovery, as Royalton's did from 15 December 2025 to 25 August 2026. Check the status of any hotel near a property you are considering, and confirm planned projects directly with the developer. The best-parishes and market articles earlier in this series should be read alongside this one, since the western and south-coast parishes took the heaviest damage.