NEWTON, Mass. — Sonesta International Hotels Corporation announced the addition of 88 hotels to its global portfolio. Service Properties Trust transitioned branding and management from Marriott International, Inc., to Sonesta for 78 of the hotels, with 10 additional hotels expected to transition to Sonesta by the end of March. This adds to Sonesta’s recent expansion, including a 350 percent increase in hotels over the last six months.
The 88 hotels fall under five of the Sonesta brands: one distinctive full-service hotel and resort under the Royal Sonesta brand; two full-service destinations under the Sonesta Hotels & Resorts brand; 32 premier all-suite extended-stay hotels under the Sonesta ES Suites brand; four all-suite extended-stay hotels under the recently launched Sonesta Simply Suites brand; and 49 upscale focused-service hotels under Sonesta Select—marking one of the largest hospitality-brand launches in the United States.
As a result of this expansion, Sonesta will be introduced for the first time to the following destinations: Kaua’i, Hawaii, via the Royal Sonesta Kaua’i Resort; Charleston, S.C., via the Sonesta Select Charleston Airport and the Sonesta ES Suites Charleston; and Boca Raton, Fla., via the Sonesta Select Boca Raton.
This latest expansion also significantly extends Sonesta’s presence in U.S. cities, including Atlanta (13), Boston (12), Chicago (14), Dallas-Fort Worth (12), Kansas City (3), Nashville (3), Scottsdale, Ariz. (4), and the San Francisco Bay Area (10).
“Over the last six months, we have nearly quadrupled our presence in North America, added over 200 hotels to our national portfolio, and launched two new hotel brands, Sonesta Simply Suites and Sonesta Select. This allows us to provide a greater variety of service offerings to meet the diverse and changing needs of today’s travelers,” said Carlos Flores, president and CEO, Sonesta International Hotels Corporation. “We are immensely proud of our recent growth and plan to leverage our newly acquired scale for the benefit of Sonesta’s guests, employees, and hotel owners.”
Sonesta will soon have 300 properties across seven brands operating in the United States, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Peru, and St. Maarten. In addition, the company announced at the end of 2020 that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire RLH Corporation, the 10th-largest U.S.-based hotel franchise company with more than 900 hotels—an acquisition that the company expected to close in the first half of 2021.
