All-inclusive resorts lose low-budget image with chic decor, luxe spas

ByABC News
November 14, 2008, 11:48 AM

PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic -- Your retirement savings back home may be draining, but here you feel like a big shot guzzling rounds of complimentary piña coladas and premium-liquor drinks from an attentive server at the Paradisus Palma Real's swim-up bar. You can sip them in submerged concrete chaises built into in the vast serpentine pool while a Dominican band plays upbeat merengue tunes.

Elsewhere on the resort's groomed grounds, adorned with modern sculpture and white-columned walkways, flamingos strut, housekeepers strew flower petals on beds and concierges make bookings for a half-dozen eateries with South Beach-chic décor. All this drinks, food, activities, shows, a room that's boutique-hotel heaven is covered in a daily rate as low as $150 a person in early fall, $230 this week.

Lobster and steak are on the menu, and pig-out-till-you-can't is the rule. Room service runs 24 hours, and that 3 a.m. burger and fries are gratis, too.

Chicago-area honeymooners Erin and Gary Greiss are here enjoying Palma Real's no-extra-charge horseback rides on the beach, yoga and snorkeling. Their Royal Service suite (about $4,500 in a seven-night package with airfare) includes a butler and bottles of rum, vodka and Scotch. "It's like a cruise, but less structured," says Erin, 27. And unlike aboard most love boats, 24/7 cocktails are included.

This all-inclusive concept popular with Europeans for years and catching on with a growing number of Americans is more attractive than ever in a time of financial free-fall.

Once viewed as a bare-bones vacation option, the everything-covered industry is wooing guests with new, over-the-top Shangri-Las at prices as low as $100 a person daily. And they're courting resort sophisticates with Architectural Digest-style décor, non-buffet eateries, butlers, family freebies and velvet-rope VIP areas with their own pools and restaurants.

"There's an increasing demand," says Becky Veith, affiliated with Travel Experts of Raleigh, N.C. "It's not just Joe Six-pack pounding beers all day by the pool." All-inclusive chains mainly Spanish, French, Jamaican and Mexican are "growing aggressively, and the experience they offer is unbelievably consistent," she says.