How AMResorts got here
Secrets, Dreams, Zoëtry and Breathless are four brands from one company, built in that order over eleven years, each aimed at a different trip. This is the story of all four, and of the man who argued that an all-inclusive did not have to feel like a bargain.
Founded 2001 · Run from Newtown Square, Pennsylvania · Last reviewed August 2026
- 2001
Founded weeks before the worst possible moment
Alejandro Zozaya sets up AMResorts in August, initially under the Apple Vacations umbrella, having proposed upscale all-inclusives in Mexico and the Caribbean at Grupo Posadas in the 1990s and been turned down. The September 11 attacks follow within weeks and international travel collapses. As established operators pull back, Zozaya finds distressed and underperforming beachfront properties available to take over, and the timing that looked catastrophic becomes the opening.
- 2002
Secrets, and the adults-only original
The first brand is aimed at couples, honeymooners and anniversaries: quiet pools, spas, restaurants with some ambition, and the convenience of an all-inclusive without the mass-market feel that came with it. Adults-only here meant seclusion rather than a party, a distinction that matters later.
- 2004
Dreams, for when they had children
The obvious question about a brand built on couples is what happens when the couples have kids. Dreams keeps the rooms, the restaurants and the inclusions and adds kids' clubs, teen spaces and family activities. It is why a Dreams and a Secrets so often sit next to each other: one development serves both audiences and shares the machinery behind the scenes.
- 2008
Zoëtry, and the opposite bet
In December, the intimate Paraíso de la Bonita on the Riviera Maya converts to become the first Zoëtry. It competes on none of the things the others compete on: no contest over pool count or nightly shows, just privacy, wellness, personal service and small properties. It gets its own inclusions, Endless Privileges, leaning to organic and health-conscious food, spa, culture and a slower pace. The name is a compound of zoe, Greek for life, and poetry, which gives the brand its Art of Life line.
- 2013
Breathless, for the ones who did not want a honeymoon
The 750-suite Breathless Punta Cana opens in November. The gap it fills is adults who want the upscale rooms without the hush: DJs, pool parties, nightlife, group trips, other guests to meet. It is an early attempt to bring the feel of a fashionable city hotel or beach club into an all-inclusive resort. The same year, Zozaya becomes chief executive of Apple Leisure Group.
- 2021
Hyatt pays $2.7 billion
Hyatt announces in August that it will buy Apple Leisure Group from KKR and KSL Capital Partners for $2.7 billion in cash, and completes on 2 November. It adds roughly 100 resorts and 32,000 rooms plus a development pipeline, and hands Hyatt a leading position in luxury all-inclusives that would have taken years to assemble property by property. The brands gather briefly as the AMR Collection, then become part of the Hyatt Inclusive Collection. The AMResorts name largely leaves the consumer's view; Secrets, Dreams, Zoëtry and Breathless do not.
What the dates leave out
What Unlimited-Luxury actually was
À-la-carte restaurants you did not have to reserve, premium spirits rather than house pours, room and concierge service around the clock, daily activities and evening entertainment, minibars restocked, no wristband at many properties, and taxes and tips already in the price. Almost none of those was new on its own. Packaging them into one recognisable promise across a portfolio was the invention, and Hyatt still uses the name for Secrets and Dreams.
Selling the absence of friction
The argument Zozaya made was that an all-inclusive did not have to feel cheap, crowded or standardised, and that people would pay considerably more for one that removed the inconvenience without removing the quality. It moved the pitch from a bargain because everything is prepaid to a luxury because you never have to think about money or logistics. Removing decisions, reservations, bills, tipping and the wristband, was as much of the product as the food and drink.
Four brands, four kinds of trip
Read in order they map onto a life rather than a price ladder. Breathless is the social trip, Secrets the romantic one, Dreams the family one and Zoëtry the restorative one. The names do the explaining by themselves, which was part of the point.
It managed more than it owned
AMResorts was not built as a property owner. Its business was creating, selling and running resort brands, often on buildings somebody else owned. Guests saw one chain; the real estate behind it belonged to many different people.
The pipeline behind the resorts
Apple Leisure Group assembled an unusually complete vacation business: AMResorts made and ran the brands, Apple Vacations and other tour operators sold the packages, Amstar handled the transfers and destination services, CheapCaribbean and others reached the online shopper, and Unlimited Vacation Club sold memberships for the next trip. The group could touch the advertising, the booking, the flight, the transfer, the hotel and the repeat visit. When Hyatt bought it, it was buying that machine as much as the hotels.
Everything we read on Secrets
Where the company's own materials disagree with each other, we print both readings rather than choosing the tidier one.