Senior Advisor in Luxury Hospitality. Based in Marbella.
Gretel Kutan spent close to fifteen years inside one of the most recognisable lifestyle hospitality brands in the world, with a career rooted in brand and marketing leadership before evolving into business development and strategic projects at group level. Her experience spans the full lifecycle of a luxury hospitality asset, from pre-opening and brand rollout through to commercial growth, sponsorships and brand partnerships, and business development.
She began her hospitality career in 2008, progressing through brand and marketing leadership across Spain, pre-opening assignments in Europe and the Middle East, and Regional Director of Sales & Marketing across eight locations in five countries. Along the way, she built a private events and banqueting sales division from scratch, achieving 4x revenue growth in two years, and developed a sponsorship and brand partnerships function generating new revenue streams across the portfolio.
Earlier in her career, she spent two years at Atlantis The Palm in Dubai leading marketing for one of the most ambitious lifestyle hospitality assets in the region and contributing to the opening of the first European beach club brand in the UAE, ahead of any other international lifestyle operator entering the market.
Most recently, she served as Global Director of Business Development & Strategic Projects, leading worldwide expansion across hotels, resorts, and lifestyle F&B in Europe, the Caribbean, and the United States. Her work at group level has covered identifying expansion opportunities and shaping and structuring management agreements, branded residences, and lifestyle partnerships, bridging owners, operators, and capital partners.
She has also led the full redevelopment of the Nikki Beach Hospitality Group's digital presence, including website architecture, SEO foundations, and group-wide digital strategy across the portfolio. The brief extended beyond brand: navigating the regulatory and compliance landscape that now sits underneath any serious multi-market digital footprint, including data handling, accessibility, and regional standards. She acted as project lead and primary client-side counterpart to the external agencies over the sixteen-month build.
Outside her corporate role, Gretel holds a minority stake in ICONFIT Sports Nutrition, the Estonian sports nutrition brand, for which she is the exclusive Spanish distributor. She is also active in the residential real estate markets of Spain and Estonia, and former host of the Marbella Property Podcast.