Marriott Stakes the JW Name on a Converted Guanacaste Resort

JW Marriott Costa Elena Resort & Spa is open as the brand’s first all-inclusive, a 415-room conversion on Costa Rica’s Guanacaste coast. Marriott International announced the debut on October 6, 2026, after the resort began taking guests in September. The building is the former Dreams Las Mareas, reworked by Mullen Real Estate Capital and run by Mullen Hospitality Management. Starting rates in that release begin at $900 per person, per night, based on double occupancy.

That is a large number for a flag that had never sold a prepaid stay. The JW Marriott Costa Elena is also a bet that a Dreams shell, a $50 million refit, and an operator who helped build AMResorts can wear the JW badge without looking like a buffet factory with better towels.

JW Marriott debuts its first all-inclusive resort with the opening of JW Marriott Costa Elena Resort & Spa. https://t.co/4WKFUdcTCF pic.twitter.com/tPkkhQEQDo

— Marriott International (@MarriottIntl) October 7, 2026

The Old Dreams Resort Now Flies a JW Flag

Marriott’s October 6 notice calls Costa Elena the brand’s first-ever all-inclusive resort worldwide. The rooms sit above the bay of Playa El Jobo in La Cruz, on the northern Pacific coast near the Nicaraguan line, inside the Costa Elena resort-residential community. Architecture firm Phiba by DCM led the redesign with local architects and artisans. The lobby’s walnut oculus is framed as the “aura of Sibú,” a creation figure in Bribri and Cabécar tradition.

Nothing about that copy changes the bones of the site. Katherine Button, speaking for Mullen Real Estate Capital on April 8, 2025, said the company would not raise a new hotel. It would convert Dreams Las Mareas, which had already run there for about a decade. Dreams left Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection in 2025, then went dark for the works. Button put the spend at $50 million and the hiring target at 700 jobs.

THE CONVERSION CLOCK

1. March 2025: Marriott and Mullen Real Estate Capital announce the JW conversion of Dreams Las Mareas.
2. April 8, 2025: Button details the $50 million plan, 415 rooms, and 700 jobs for La Cruz.
3. 2025: Dreams leaves Hyatt’s Inclusive Collection and closes for the refit.
4. September 2026: The JW Marriott Costa Elena begins receiving guests.
5. October 6, 2026: Marriott publishes the official opening notice from Bethesda.

Bruce Rohr, JW Marriott’s vice president and global brand leader, said the opening “represents more than our entry into the all-inclusive category, it introduces a new expression of the JW Marriott brand.” Federico Greppi, Marriott’s president for the Caribbean and Latin America, called Costa Rica a fit because luxury demand in the country has grown. The product they are selling is prepaid, 415 keys, and a hillside that used to check in as Dreams.

Javier Coll Brought the AMResorts Playbook With Him

Javier Coll, president of Mullen Hospitality Management, is the person who has to make that expression hold up at dinner. He co-founded AMResorts, the all-inclusive platform Hyatt bought in 2021, and now runs the first JW in that format. In an August 21, 2026 interview he said luxury guests already want the same food, service, and rooms they get at a classic hotel, with the bill settled before they land.

We really believe brands create demand, but operations create reputation. That is the core of what we do.

Javier Coll, president of Mullen Hospitality Management

He also said the aim is a hotel as good as other JW Marriotts, or better, and that “the fact that it is all-inclusive is irrelevant.” That line is the wager. If Griffin Club, the kitchens, and the spa feel like a JW, the prepaid wrapper becomes a billing choice. If they feel like a reflagged Dreams, the brand takes the hit, not the operator’s old logos.

Coll’s other distinction is blunt. A conventional hotel chases room revenue. An all-inclusive has to score every meal, drink, activity, and labor hour because the guest has already paid. “It’s like an orchestra,” he said, “and you have to understand how everything works.” Guests are, in his word, captive. Whatever happens on property goes home with them.

What Cash and Bonvoy Points Cost at Costa Elena

Marriott’s release puts the public starting rate at $900 per person, per night, based on double occupancy. That is the figure that stops a casual scroll. The hotel site has been a different door. Through the end of the year, nights for two guests have been listed from $656. Marriott Bonvoy awards start from 110,000 points a night. Those two booking paths are not the same product as the $900-a-head line in the press copy, and they should not be mashed into one average.

HOW A NIGHT IS PRICED

An award night at an All-Inclusive by Marriott Bonvoy resort is supposed to cover the all-inclusive package for up to two people, including the standard room, tax, service charge, resort fee, and standard food and drink. A third or fourth guest is a cash extra. Cash + Points, upgrade awards, and instant redemptions are off the menu. Book through Marriott, not an online agency, if you want the points and elite perks. Qualifying charges earn 10 base points per U.S. dollar, plus whatever elite bonus you already have.

The 110,000-point ask against a $656 cash night for two is a lousy use of a Bonvoy balance unless you are dumping a pile you cannot otherwise spend. The $900-a-person headline is the other trap. It is Marriott’s published starting rate, not the only number on the calendar. Anyone pricing a family of four needs the extra-person sheet before the points look kind.

15 Kitchens, 17 Pools, and a Root Beer Stand

The hardware is sized for a big, sticky stay. Marriott says the pool deck is Costa Rica’s largest resort poolscape at 44,000 square feet, with 17 pools, including an oceanfront infinity edge and cabanas. Select ground-floor suites open onto semi-private swim-out water. Presidential Suites split living space from the bedroom. Mindful Rooms and Suites are sold as quieter, more stripped-back stays.

Griffin Club is the hotel inside the hotel: a private arrival lounge, a well-being concierge before you fly, a personal assistant, well-being guides, a 24-hour lounge, a dedicated pool with concierge, and a private beach patch. A Yámi Companion handles unpacking, laundry, and turndown. Dining reservations and cabanas jump the line. Family by JW Club takes kids into nature walks, yoga, story time, and meditation, which is the brand trying to sell prepaid as wellness rather than as unlimited soda.

A 16,000-square-foot wellness block holds Spa by JW, a fitness center, and JW’s first Mindfulness House, set beside forest and shaded by a native guanacaste tree. Treatments use volcanic clay and cacao. The calendar lists a four-element Sibú ritual, hydrotherapy, a sunset sound bath, Reiki, and cacao ceremonies, with a nod to the nearby Nicoya Peninsula Blue Zone. Event space runs more than 9,000 square feet, including an oceanfront ballroom. The Sacred Fire Soiree is the sunset gathering Marriott wants groups to book.

WHERE THE PREPAID MEALS ARE SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE A JW

• Leal: A Guanacaste-themed hub where guests roast their own coffee and sit a seven-course tasting drawn from Costa Rica’s provinces.
• Casado: A wood-fired coastal grill built around fire and seafood.
• Puerto Limón: Afro-Caribbean cooking from the country’s east coast.
• Luciano, Santos, Namuyaki, Boga: Italian pasta, Mexican wood-fire and nixtamal, teppanyaki, and raw coastal plates, with Borbón mixing botanical drinks.
• LaGloria: A nine-seat root beer stand that nods to J. Willard Marriott’s first shop, which opened in Washington, D.C., in 1927, with craft sodas and diner food.
• The JW Garden: Herbs, flowers, fruit, and vegetables grown on site for menus, chef’s tables, and cocktails.

Guests can also cook in a culinary school that teaches local dishes. The weekly night market brings in artisans, food, music, and dance. Off-property, the desk will sell sunset hikes, kayaking, yacht charters, fishing, nature treks, and dives. That list is how Coll’s “orchestra” either plays in tune or does not. Fifteen venues on a converted hillside is a lot of kitchens to staff at JW level, every night, on a prepaid check.

On a Coast That Already Has a JW Marriott

Guanacaste is not empty luxury ground waiting for a first flag. Button, arguing for the conversion in 2025, placed the new JW against Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Secrets, Andaz, and the existing JW Marriott Guanacaste. Nekajui, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, had already opened on the same coast. The all-inclusive JW is trying to sit in that set while selling a rate that includes the bar tab.

THE FLAGS MULLEN SAID IT WOULD STAND BESIDE

• Already in Guanacaste: Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, Secrets, Andaz, and JW Marriott Guanacaste.
• The new pitch: The same coast, with food, drink, and most activities folded into the nightly rate.
• The local supply line: Button said the resort would buy farm produce and wooden furniture from nearby vendors.

Marriott’s Costa Rica pipeline, as Button described it in that April 2025 interview, was 15 properties and 1,776 rooms, with the company set to operate 22 hotels in the country under 15 brands by the end of 2025. Costa Elena is the prepaid JW inside that pile, not a lonely experiment. Coll’s job is to keep it from reading as the cheap room in a luxury province that already sells a JW without a wristband.

Why La Cruz Landed JW’s First All-Inclusive

La Cruz is the quieter end of Guanacaste, north of the Papagayo cluster, with El Jobo as the beach. Putting the first JW all-inclusive there is a geographic bet as much as a brand one. Button called the project a long-term tourism investment for the canton, with high-quality jobs, a higher profile next to those luxury flags, and a push for farm-to-table buying. Recruitment, she said, would start two to four months before opening.

WHAT MULLEN PROMISED LA CRUZ

• The spend: $50 million to take Dreams Las Mareas to JW standard, including 415 rooms and 17 pools.
• The payroll: about 700 jobs tied to the new operation.
• The next plot: possible JW Marriott residences on adjacent land.

Residences would lock the same flag into for-sale real estate, which is how a conversion stops being a one-off reflag and becomes a small branded district. That plan was still a “possible” in Button’s 2025 remarks, not a dated launch. The hotel, at least, is receiving guests.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Marriott Bonvoy Free Night Awards work at JW Marriott Costa Elena?

Yes. All-Inclusive by Marriott Bonvoy terms let a member apply a Free Night Award to a standard room with existing bedding at these resorts, on top of ordinary point redemptions and PointSavers, as long as award space is open and the stay is booked through Marriott’s own channels.

Does a points night cover more than two guests?

No. The award pays for the package for two people only. Mandatory extra-person charges for a third or fourth guest, and the correct ages of any children, must be paid in cash or by card, and Marriott can reset the rate if the guest count on the reservation is wrong.

Can you book Cash + Points or an upgrade award there?

No. Supplemental terms for All-Inclusive by Marriott Bonvoy resorts exclude Cash + Points, upgrade awards, and Instant Redemption Awards. The usable tools are a standard award, PointSavers, or a Free Night Award on a standard room.

What is included in the nightly all-inclusive rate?

The hotel’s own rate note lists the room, meals, snacks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, entertainment, non-motorized water sports, kids’ activities, taxes, service fees, and gratuities. Spa treatments, premium pours beyond the house list, extra guests, and most off-property tours sit outside that bundle.

Coll’s test is still the simple one he set in August: the only difference from a regular JW should be that the stay is prepaid. The $50 million conversion, the 700 jobs, and the possible residences next door all hang on whether those 15 kitchens and Griffin Club’s lounge can make a former Dreams feel like that. The rooms are open. The bill is supposed to be done before you land.