Regenera Luxury Regenera Luxury
About Regenera Luxury

The global standard for the regenerative era of luxury.

Presented by UN Tourism. Built on an independently audited methodology. Created to help the world's finest hotels lead — by leaving their places measurably better than they found them.

Why We Exist

For a century, luxury meant the finest things. The next century will be defined by the finest impact.

Sustainability asks a hotel to do less harm. Regeneration asks it to leave its place — its nature, its culture, its community — measurably better than it found it. Regenera Luxury exists to make that shift real, and provable.

We are the first complete system built exclusively for luxury boutique hotels, retreats and destinations: a way to measure regenerative performance, manage it across every department, prove it through independent third-party audit, and turn it into lasting brand and asset value.

It began with one conviction. After two decades leading luxury hotel development across six continents, our founder Héctor De Castro had seen how rarely the value created by extraordinary hotels reached the families, cultures and communities that made them possible. Regenera Luxury is his answer.

150+Ecosystem properties
18Countries
4Continents
1stRegenerative-luxury
certification
A Category of One

Where Regenera Luxury fits in the
global certification landscape

Complementary to respected sustainability frameworks — not a replacement. Where others stop at green claims and “beyond sustainability” slogans, Regenera Luxury delivers revenue, quality and trust.

Dimension Sustainability & Regenerative Travel Platforms Regenera Luxury
Core promise Green claims & “beyond sustainability” messaging More revenue and higher quality, proven through regeneration
Revenue impact Indirect — rarely tied to financial return ADR +15–35% · RevPAR +18–30% · asset value +15–25% (indep. benchmarks)
Quality system Static checklist or philosophy, no operating system Live internal-audit & quality system — 13 modules, 300 KPIs, 9 sections
Trust & verification Self-declared badge or membership Independent third-party audit · graded RLI score · protection against greenwashing
Hotel support Self-directed or community only Consulting & accompaniment throughout — senior partner at Platinum
Reach Single badge or directory listing Booking, marketing, awards & destination programs in one ecosystem
Specialisation Cross-sector or broad concept Exclusively luxury boutique hotels, retreats & destinations
Relationship Annual renewal or optional membership Ongoing performance partner · graded standard · destination level
Héctor De Castro, Founder & President of Regenera Luxury
Héctor De Castro
Founder & President

The future of luxury will not be measured only by profit, but by the positive legacy it leaves behind. I invite you to lead that future.

Héctor De Castro’s perspective was shaped early — an international life lived across several countries and, over his career, work in more than forty. The premature loss of his father, and its toll on a fourth-generation family business, taught him young that legacy is fragile, and that what we build must be made to outlast us.

For more than two decades he led luxury hospitality from the inside — as managing director of hotel-development and FF&E companies, on the ground for landmark openings with Hilton, Meliá Paradisus and Royalton across Europe and the Caribbean, and auditing properties such as Shangri-La and Banyan Tree across South-East Asia. A Global Executive MBA from IE Business School (2014) and years teaching senior management, quality and regenerative tourism at Anáhuac Cancún University sharpened a single question.

Why did the wealth generated by extraordinary hotels so rarely reach the owner families, the cultural heirs and the communities of the destinations themselves? In 2022 he founded Regenera Luxury — a private company and a registered non-profit in Playa del Carmen, Mexico — to prove by example that luxury hospitality can create value far beyond the P&L: transforming its environment and strengthening the communities around it. Today he carries that case to international stages, from ITB Berlin’s Hospitality Track to summits across the Americas.

IE Business School · Global Executive MBA Professor · Anáhuac Cancún University 40+ countries · 6 continents
Héctor De Castro Founder & President · Regenera Luxury LinkedIn
The Team Behind It

A growing team, balanced by design.

From a founding handful to a multidisciplinary team of seventeen, Regenera Luxury has grown steadily year on year — and grown deliberately balanced.

2021 — 2026

Team growth

People at Regenera Luxury, year on year

People 20 15 10 5 0 3 5 7 10 14 17 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Current team · 17 people

Gender balance

Across the Regenera Luxury team

54%Men
46%Women
On the World Stage

Global Thought Leadership & Industry Dialogues.

Héctor De Castro on the ITB Berlin Hospitality Track panel
“The Luxury We Are Leaving Behind: Why Regenerative Hospitality is the Future” ITB Berlin · Hospitality Track
Héctor De Castro keynote at Cancún World Fest 2024
Keynote on the future of luxuryCancún World Fest · 2024
1st Ibero-American Sustainable Tourism Summit, Cancún 2024
Ibero-American Sustainable Tourism SummitCancún · 2024
Héctor De Castro with Randy Durband, CEO of the GSTC
Randy DurbandCEO of the GSTC
Héctor De Castro on stage with UN Tourism, Honduras 2025
On stage with UN TourismHonduras · 2025
Héctor De Castro with Glenn Manziuk, CEO of the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance
Glenn ManziukCEO · World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance
Héctor De Castro with Dr Alessandro Inversini, professor at EHL School, Switzerland
Alessandro InversiniProfessor at EHL · ITB Berlin
Héctor De Castro with Juan Pablo de Zulueta, Secretario de Turismo de Cancún
Juan Pablo de ZuluetaSecretary of Tourism, Cancún
Héctor De Castro with Gustavo Santos of UN Tourism, Honduras 2025
Enjoying with Gustavo Santos, UN TourismAfter sharing stage at an international conference
Héctor De Castro with Albert Salman, CEO of Green Destinations
Albert SalmanCEO of Green Destinations
Héctor De Castro with Martin Bäuerle, Director of Regeneration at Red Sea Global
Martin BäuerleDirector of Regeneration · Red Sea Global
RL World Map

A global team, on the ground.

Auditors, ambassadors and consultants across six continents — present where regenerative luxury is being built, from boutique retreats to entire destinations.

AustraliaBangladeshBelize ChileCosta RicaCroatia CuraçaoDominican RepublicEngland FinlandFranceHonduras IndiaIndonesiaIreland KenyaMálaga, SpainMexico NepalPeruPlaya del Carmen Saudi ArabiaSloveniaSpain SwedenSwitzerlandThailand Trinidad & TobagoUAEUnited Kingdom United States

Presented by UN Tourism  ·  Recognized by WSHA · SECTUR · AMFORHT · IHT

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