Owner Research
Five unexpected hotel owners in the Caribbean and Latin America
Bystreet
November 2026 · 3 min read
Las Ventanas al Paraíso, owned by Ty Warner and managed by Rosewood. Photo: Rosewood Hotels & Resorts.
Some hotel owners made their money in toys, electronics, technology or chocolate. Others came from film. These five examples from our November ownership research show the people and businesses behind hotels in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
Ty Warner: from Beanie Babies to Las Ventanas
Ty Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies, owns Las Ventanas al Paraíso in Los Cabos through Ty Warner Hotels & Resorts. His company bought the property in 2004. Rosewood manages the resort.
Las Ventanas has 84 suites and villas. The Rosewood name tells guests who runs the hotel. The ownership trail leads to the entrepreneur behind one of the best-known toy brands of the 1990s.
Richard Schulze: the Best Buy founder behind Aurora Anguilla
Richard Schulze acquired the former CuisinArt resort through Olympus Ventures, his family investment company, in late 2020. It became Aurora Anguilla Resort & Golf Club.
The 178-room resort sits on Rendezvous Bay. Schulze brought in Salamander Hotels & Resorts to manage it in 2022. Ownership sits with his investment company, while the operating role belongs to Salamander.
Steve Case: an AOL co-founder in Costa Rica
Steve Case’s Revolution is a co-owner of Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica Punta Cacique, alongside Cacique Investors and local developer Garnier & Garnier. Hilton manages the resort, which opened in April 2025.
The hotel forms part of Punta Cacique, a larger community being developed by Revolution Places. Case is one of the investors behind the project, not its sole owner.
The Mars family: a chocolate estate with a hotel
The Mars family’s hotel connection runs through the family-owned Mars business. Mars completed its purchase of Hotel Chocolat in January 2024. The acquisition included the Rabot Estate in Saint Lucia and its hotel.
Rabot Hotel has 25 lodges on a working cacao estate near Soufrière. It is an indirect family ownership link through a company acquisition, rather than a hotel bought personally by one family member.
Francis Ford Coppola: a family retreat becomes a hotel business
Francis Ford Coppola bought Blancaneaux Lodge in Belize in the early 1980s. He used it as a family retreat before opening it to guests in 1993.
The Coppola family’s Central American collection now includes 20-room Blancaneaux Lodge and 28-room Turtle Inn in Belize, plus 10-room La Lancha in Guatemala. The properties are presented through The Coppola Hideaways.
Finding the owner behind the hotel
Our ownership research traces hotels to the companies and people behind them. It separates owners from brands and operators, and records the sources supporting each connection. Reports can be built around a market, owner type or hotel portfolio.
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Hotel ownership research · Caribbean and Latin America