Diego Calvo: Ibiza in Technicolour
With bold colour and retro flair, Diego Calvo is reshaping Ibiza&rsquo;s hospitality scene. A conversation on identity, creativity and the stories behind his cult hotels.

Born and raised on the island, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/diegocalvoibiza/">Diego Calvo</a> has reimagined <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/hotel-los-felices-ibiza-an-oasis-of-chic">Ibiza&rsquo;s hospitality</a> scene with cinematic flair, retro fantasy and a fearless use of colour. Through Concept Hotel Group, he has turned the hotel experience into a curated world of music, nostalgia and storytelling &ndash; where every stay feels like a scene from a film.
Few people have reshaped Ibiza&rsquo;s aesthetic imagination like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/diegocalvoibiza/">Diego Calvo.</a> Immersed in hospitality since 1998, he became a cultural agitator in 2005 with the launch of Rock Nights &ndash; the now-mythical party that brought leather, glitter and a dose of pure rock &lsquo;n&rsquo; roll attitude to <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/an-audience-with-luciano-ibiza-dj-electronic-music-interview-dc-10">Ibiza&rsquo;s electronic playground</a>.
By 2013, he had channelled that rebellious energy into Concept Hotel Group, a hospitality venture that rejects clich&eacute;s in favour of storytelling, bold aesthetics and retro fantasy. From Cubanito to Paradiso, Romeo&rsquo;s to Los Felices, each hotel feels like the set of a film you want to live in &ndash; where colour, music and memory collide.
With a career rooted in instinct and irony, and a cameo in a Rolling Stones video to prove it, Diego is part entrepreneur, part curator, part showman. In this conversation, he reflects on identity, legacy and the cultural shift transforming Ibiza&rsquo;s creative landscape &ndash; one concept at a time.

&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always felt that Ibiza had a very defined aesthetic &ndash; the boho palette, the whites, the woods, the wicker. And while that visual identity is beautiful, it&rsquo;s also been repeated to the point of exhaustion. At some point, it lost its surprise. That&rsquo;s when I realised there was space &ndash; and a real need &ndash; to do something different.
For me, it was never about rejecting the Ibiza look, but expanding it. I&rsquo;ve always been drawn to American pop culture &ndash; music, cinema, design &ndash; and I knew from the beginning that this universe would be the visual DNA of my hotels. It wasn&rsquo;t something I saw on the island at the time, so it felt like the right kind of disruption. A colourful one, literally. (laughs)
For me, creating a hotel is a lot like making a record or designing a fashion collection. There&rsquo;s a rhythm to it &ndash; a constant flow of movement, evolution, trial and error. As a team, we&rsquo;re always in motion, and creativity is the engine behind everything we do.

&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always felt that Ibiza had a very defined aesthetic &ndash; the boho palette, the whites, the woods, the wicker... At some point, it lost its surprise. That&rsquo;s when I realised there was space &ndash; and a real need &ndash; to do something different.&rdquo;

When a new concept starts to take shape, I usually travel to the place that inspires it. With Mongibello, for example, we went to the Amalfi Coast. For Los Felices, it was Palm Springs. My wife and I immerse ourselves in the atmosphere &ndash; we take notes, photos, collect references. It&rsquo;s a kind of sensory download. Then we come back, share everything with the team, and begin translating all of that into a story, a space, an experience.
Nostalgia is always there. I tend to think &ndash; culturally, at least &ndash; that the past was better. (laughs) But what excites me is not copying the past, it&rsquo;s reactivating it. Making people feel something they thought they&rsquo;d forgotten.
It depends on the project, of course &ndash; each one pulls from a different world. But I do think there are certain artists and figures who are always there, even if unconsciously. People who have shaped the way I see and feel things aesthetically. Luis Barrag&aacute;n, for example, with his use of colour and space. Wes Anderson &ndash; I mean, who doesn&rsquo;t get pulled into his visual universe? And Liz Lambert, who I deeply admire for the way she brought soul into hospitality long before it became a trend. These references don&rsquo;t dictate the project, but they live in the background. They quietly inform the way we build a mood, a palette, a story.

That&rsquo;s probably one of the biggest challenges &ndash; maintaining a strong brand identity while allowing each project to have its own soul. For us, it comes down to balance. There&rsquo;s the DNA of Concept Hotel Group, which is built on five pillars: art, cinema, music, fashion and design. Those are the threads that hold everything together &ndash; our glue, in a way.
Then, beyond that foundation, each hotel tells its own story. We work hard to ensure that every space feels one-of-a-kind, with its own atmosphere, its own references, its own personality. That uniqueness is something we never want to lose.
At the moment, Mongibello is the only brand designed to be replicated &ndash; we see it expanding into other beach destinations like Mallorca or Marbella. But the rest &ndash; Romeo&rsquo;s, Paradiso, Cubanito &ndash; they belong to Ibiza. They&rsquo;re part of what we call The Concept Hotels: singular, bold, and meant to remain that way.
Honestly, the response has been incredibly positive &ndash; from both locals and international guests. What we do still surprises people, and I think that&rsquo;s part of the magic. They don&rsquo;t expect a hotel to feel like this: playful, immersive, culturally alive. It&rsquo;s not just about staying in a beautiful space or having good service &ndash; it&rsquo;s about being transported somewhere, even if just for a weekend.

&ldquo;For me, creating a hotel is a lot like making a record or designing a fashion collection. There&rsquo;s a rhythm to it &ndash; a constant flow of movement, evolution, trial and error.&rdquo;

Each concept has its own cultural rhythm. At Cubanito, we host salsa classes; at Paradiso, we curate art exhibitions; at Grand Paradiso, it&rsquo;s film and documentary screenings. These aren&rsquo;t just add-ons &ndash; they complete the world each hotel is trying to evoke. And that&rsquo;s what people connect with: the detail, the storytelling, the mood.

The feedback we receive &ndash; from the industry and from our guests &ndash; is a real push to keep going. I like to think we&rsquo;re part of a wider shift in hospitality. For a long time, the hotel world felt quite flat, a bit uninspired. We&rsquo;re trying to change that &ndash; one concept at a time.
Absolutely &ndash; we&rsquo;re definitely entering a new chapter. Not too long ago, Ibiza&rsquo;s hotel scene was relatively limited: a handful of chains, a few agritourism spots, and not much in between. Now, we&rsquo;re seeing the arrival of major international players &ndash; brands like The Standard, Soho House &ndash; and that changes the entire atmosphere.
It elevates expectations, broadens the audience, and opens the door to a more discerning kind of tourism. I see it as a positive evolution &ndash; it makes the landscape more dynamic, more layered, more competitive in the best sense. And that pushes all of us to raise the bar, to keep innovating, and to think more deeply about the kind of experiences we want to create on the island.

&ldquo;My wife and I immerse ourselves in the atmosphere &ndash; we take notes, photos, collect references. It&rsquo;s a kind of sensory download. Then we come back... and begin translating all of that into a story, a space, an experience.&rdquo;

I think it&rsquo;s a personal choice. If you know who you are and where you want to go &ndash; and that&rsquo;s already a lot &ndash; the path becomes much clearer. In my case, I&rsquo;ve always had a strong sense of what Concept stands for because it&rsquo;s an extension of myself. That clarity has shaped the team, the vision, and the way we work.
Enthusiasm, passion and real dedication are what allow you to transmit that essence &ndash; that personality that makes a project feel alive. I truly believe the difference lies in knowing who you are, and believing in it enough to build something that reflects it. That&rsquo;s how you stay authentic &ndash; even as you keep evolving.
We&rsquo;re currently developing several projects, and I&rsquo;m excited to see how they evolve. The most imminent one is a hotel inspired by the Pacific and its particular charm &ndash; specifically, the Acapulco of the 1950s. It&rsquo;s a universe we&rsquo;re diving into deeply, aesthetically and culturally.

The soul of Mexico will be very present &ndash; bold, vibrant, unapologetic &ndash; but always filtered through the Concept lens. It&rsquo;s that balance we love to play with: honouring a place while reimagining it through our own visual and emotional language. I think it&rsquo;s going to surprise people &ndash; in the best way.&rdquo;

People of Ibiza: Diego Calvo

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