Constructing 10,500 hotel rooms in Barra da Tijuca, Brazil for Rio Olympics 2016

Ever heard of Barra da Tijuca?

I learned the name yesterday. Barra da Tijuca is the beach area west of Rio de Janeiro where the 2016 Olympic Village and many of the events will take place. In preparation for the worldwide sports event, Barra Da Tijuca is adding several major hotels with plans for 10,500 hotel rooms to be constructed and ready for the August 2016 Olympics.

There are currently around 34,000 hotel rooms available in the Rio de Janeiro area. There are expected to be 50% more rooms completed in the next 16 months in time for the Olympics when over 50,000 rooms should be available. Most of the new rooms will be Barra Da Tijuca.

In the past five years, more than 70 hotel projects were approved with seven 5-star hotels and 25 new 4-star hotel projects.

Grand Hyatt Rio de Janeiro will open in late 2015 with 436 rooms including 42 suites and a Presidential Suite with its own pool. All rooms have balconies.

The beach at Barra da Tijuca is considered one of the best in Rio de Janeiro.

Hilton Barra Rio de Janeiro

Hilton Barra Rio de Janeiro will open its new hotel with 298 guest rooms in Barra da Tijuca on April 19, 2015. This HHonors category 7 hotel has reward night rates at 60,000 points in May 2015.

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article last July about the hotel development in Barra Da Tijuca, some ten miles west of Rio’s Copacabana Beach with a comment that traffic gridlock means the location is about a one hour drive from downtown Rio, depending on traffic conditions. A new subway line connecting Barra da Tijuca to downtown Rio is anticipated to be completed in time for the Olympics. Barra has the largest convention center in the region and one of the most affluent communities.

Brazil’s Windsor hotel chain has the beachfront 434-room luxury hotel Windsor Barra.

There will be a new build AC Hotel in Barra da Tijuca. I do not see a Marriott link yet, but here is a YouTube video on the AC Hotel project in Portuguese. Marriott has JW Marriott Rio de Janeiro directly across from the beach at Copacabana.

Radisson Hotel Barra, Rio de Janeiro is already open with 292 rooms. This hotel was the Sheraton Barra until last summer and rebranded to Radisson (green, not Blu). Here is a 2014 review of the property with lots of photos from Travel Summary blog. The hotel is Club Carlson category 6 at 50,000 points per night.

The rates are under $200 per night this weekend.

The reality is most of the hotels in Rio de Janeiro and Barra Da Tijuca are not major chain hotel brands.

Olympics 2016 will result in sky high rates for all hotels in Rio de Janeiro. The real opportunity for loyalty travelers comes after the Olympics when an oversupply of hotel rooms will likely result in far lower prices and good opportunities for hotel deals in Rio de Janeiro.