One of the conversations in luxury hospitality in 2026 is that many owners have become detached from operations in many of the bigger hotels and resorts. There’s much to be said for why, but the end result is that luxury guests are now increasingly favoring independent, intimate and if-you-know-you-know (IYKYK) properties. That’s why a verifiable IYKYK property like Baoase Curaçao with only 23 rooms, suites and villas is worth discussing.
Small in key count but mighty in loyalty, the awards this property has and continues to win speaks for itself. Most recently, Baoase ranked in the 10 resorts in the Caribbean for Travel + Leisure’s World’s Best Awards for 2026, while the resort was also named the Best Resort in the Caribbean in 2025 by both Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure. Given this caliber of prestige, it was an honor to speak with brothers Niels and Thijs van der Valk, co-directors of the property and, notably, fourth-generation hoteliers.
From our conversation and what we already surmised going into the interview, that generational aspect is a huge driver for why Baoase continues to win over guests. This is on an investment play but a living, breathing reflection of the family where now the torch is being passed and it’s time for Niels and Thijs to meticulously steward the resort forward.
For context here, Curaçao is one of the most layered cultures in the Caribbean, with more than 50 nationalities on an island shaped by the Arawak, the Spanish and then Dutch rule. All of it surfaces in Papiamentu, the creole that stitches Portuguese and Spanish together with Dutch, West African languages and traces of Arawak. Keshi yena, the national dish, involving filling the discarded rinds of Dutch Edam and Gouda with meat, olives, raisins and spices. The team at Baoase draws on that instinct for blending various influences to make something whole.
To backtrack a bit, it was the two brothers’ grandfather and father who bought their first Curaçao property in 1989. Baoase, though, started as something more private. In 2002, the brothers’ father bought a house in a quiet neighborhood, then bought the neighbor, then the one after that, and eventually built five villas around a single pool for his five children. A year later he pointed out that none of them ever visited and announced the villas were becoming a hotel.
What followed was 14 years of passionate expansion, tinkering and constant evolution to figure out what the place wanted to be. By the third phase of construction in 2016, Baoase had become what the world has come to love: 23 one-of-a-kind accommodations, fewer than 100 guests at full occupancy, and earning the number one spot in whole Caribbean within four years.
Throughout these years of growth and refinement, Niels and Thijs remarked that perhaps one of the main reasons why the resort has drawn such acclaim is that their father – who lives on property for part of the year – still to this day walks table to table at dinner and talks with every guest. They ask him who he is, and he gives the answer he has given for two decades: I’m the biggest employee. Everyone laughs – a true Maître de Maison, with each generation handling down a mindset rather than a manual.
Building and growing Baoase was not without its challenges, noted Niels and Thijs. For an island like Curaçao, salt air gets into everything, so, as an example, they quickly learned which woods survive and which ones warp, which glue holds, which refrigerator will rust from the inside out. Oftentimes for Caribbean resorts, the moist air dictates that outdoor cushions need to be replaced twice a year at a minimum. Then don’t forget about the termites in the tropics!
For a building this close to the water, there’s always erosion and the forces of nature acting on all things, and care from ownership is the only true counterforce. This is why Baoase builds and maintains almost everything in-house. As Thijs remarked, literally ten minutes before our interview, Thijs had been in old clothes on the construction site, working with the crew to get ready for the opening of14 new junior suites and ocean-view plunge-pool suites combined – with the latter coming in at a spacious 800-900 square feet – all planned for opening in mid-December this year.
To speak some more on this expansion, the new ocean-view suites will take the most-loved room from 2016 and rebuild it with ten more years of accumulated learning and a deepening of the sense of place for the island. On the surface, this looks like an investment play as we earlier noted as one of the things Baoase is not. In reality, it’s to make the resort feel less busy! All that salt air means constant maintenance, with combined with high occupancy can make the grounds feel strained. More keys means occupancy can be spread, rooms can be rested and renovated, and the standard can hold.
Besides the awards, the net result of this constant crafting and recrafting is almost zero low season and a large number of repeat visitors – some now on their 20th or 30th stay – who come precisely for the personal touch. For these types of loyal followers, Baoase thanks them with a family photo shoot on the beach rather than a discount or points. Or maybe a chef will fly in an ingredient for someone who has already tried the entire menu. Or, as the brothers added, when one guest wanted an unforgettable toast on the beach, divers surfaced from the water carrying magnums of red wine.
And that’s only the surface for the incredible hospitality happening at this illustrious Caribbean resort. Baoase Curaçao is firmly in the IYKYK camp where quality beats quantity, and where that level of achievement only happens through a mindset of cultivation applied over decades.
