Casa de Campo Raises the Bar on Its Resort Offerings

Casa de Campo Resort & Villas, the legendary 7,000-acre golf resort in the Dominican Republic, opened 50 years ago as an executive retreat for sugar producer Gulf+Western employees and now is known worldwide as an upscale vacation and golf destination.

AGENTatHOME caught up with Jason Kycek, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Casa de Campo (CDC), to discuss the resort’s growth in recent years and future plans.

The resort underwent many major renovations over the decades. However, as more major resort companies discovered the Dominican Republic, all-inclusive resorts proliferated. Did Casa de Campo experience a lull in business for a few years?

As most historic properties tend to experience, CDC went through cycles of ups and downs as new resorts and hotels started being built not only in the Dominican Republic, but the entire Caribbean and throughout Mexico. The shift in consumer demand towards the all-inclusive market prompted CDC to adjust and adapt to this emerging market accordingly.

However, the property never lost its positioning within the affluent travel agency, consumer and golf markets. CDC has maintained an incredible group of loyal guests and travel advisors that have been visiting and selling the property since the 80s.

When you joined Casa de Campo in 2017, what were your first goals?

Our first priority was to stop the bleeding, right the ship and then rebuild our sales team with the end goal to get the company profitable.

[Editor’s Note: Seven years later, the company said, revenue is up 86 percent, average daily rate is 41 percent higher, occupancy rates have jumped to 75 percent and revenue per available room has increased 130 percent.

]The Pete Dye-designed Teeth of the Dog golf course, widely regarded as the top course in the Caribbean, now has increased rounds from a previous high of 40,000 rounds to 90,000.

CDC is one of the best golf resorts in the world, but the courses were never full. For a legendary course like Teeth of the Dog to not have golf aficionados enjoying it every day was a motivating factor for us to turn our golf business around.

It became an internal and personal challenge of mine to see this course and the other two Pete Dye courses full.

We’ve come a long way, but I know we are still just scratching the surface of our true potential.

How important are travel advisors to your business?

We rely heavily on our travel advisor partners and do all we can to support them. We invest heavily in participating with all the luxury consortia, hosting fam trips and have created a Travel Advisor Board of Directors.

If you haven’t been to CDC, we would love to welcome you and if you haven’t been within the last five years, you really need to come back and experience it again.

We have made substantial improvements throughout the property, and it really is a completely different property today than it was five years ago.

CDC has taken the bar to another level with the addition of the Minitas Beach Club, adult-only pool and pool deck, the family pool and food truck area at the beach, the new Premier Suites and Premier Club, the new Spa & Wellness Center, all the renovations we have done throughout the golf courses, shooting center, equestrian center, and our tennis/ racquet center with pickleball and padel tennis courts.

We have come a long way in our 50 years, but I have no doubt CDC’s best days are still ahead.