Rafa Nadal reveals how years of living out of hotels as a player inspired his new business

Rafa Nadal is fully committed to his business empire. As he embraces a new era in his life, Nadal is taking his past business experiences into the future of his brand. 

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In an interview with CNBC Meets, Nadal shared his plans for his expanding hotel empire. He revealed that his connection to hospitality dates back to his childhood in Mallorca, where tourism was so prominent, and it heavily influenced his life as a player, where he spent many years living in hotels and on the road. 

“That’s what I did during half of my life, and I know what I like the most,” he said. Nadal's experiences have influenced his hospitality brand, called Zel Hotels, which he founded in 2022 in a partnership with Meliá Hotels International. The brand has hotels in numerous locations, including Mallorca, Costa Brava, and the Dominican Republic.

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He shared that people's approach to their finances has changed in recent years, making hospitality a good space to invest in, even despite fierce competition. While before people would focus on building their savings, nowadays people are spending on travel and experiences. 

Nadal's other business ventures are also personal

Aside from his hospitality brand, Nadal has also built a name in the business world in the realm of sports. He opened the Rafa Nadal Academy in Mallorca in 2016, with the business becoming profitable and expanding to areas all over the world, including Mexico, Greece, and Hong Kong. 

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“I think every day you have more and more people with more information that taking care of your body is super important now, so investing in education for kids, investing in well-being, and in sports,” he said.

“This is something that, of course, is a lifetime project for me, very personal." 

Since his retirement, Nadal has dived fully into his businesses, also investing on sports like padel and electric boat racing. After building a net worth of an estimated $200 million, Nadal has no plans of slowing down, even after hanging up his tennis racquet. “I am not the kind of guy that likes to wake up in the morning and don’t know what to do,” he said. 

“My goal was to keep going.”

© @rafaelnadal