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| Company type | Public (Sociedad Anónima) |
|---|---|
| BMAD: MEL WBAG: MEL OTC Pink Limited:SMIZF FWB: MEL IBEX 35 component | |
| ISIN | ES0176252718 |
| Industry | Travel,tourism |
| Founded | 1956 |
| Founder | José Meliá Sinisterra |
| Headquarters | Palma de Mallorca,Spain |
Key people | |
| Products | Hotels andresorts |
| Revenue | €1.251 billion(2010)[1] |
| €141.8 million(2010)[1] | |
| €50.1 million(2010)[1] | |
| Total assets | €3.390 billion(end 2010)[1] |
| Total equity | €1.116 billion(end 2010)[1] |
Number of employees | 40000(average, 2010)[1] |
| Website | www |
Meliá Hotels International, S.A. (formerlySol Meliá) is a Spanishhotel chain. Sol was founded byGabriel Escarrer Juliá in 1956 inPalma de Mallorca and Meliá was founded by José Meliá Sinisterra (1911–1999). It is also known as and referred to by its former name of Sol Meliá. The company is one of Spain's largest domestic operators ofholiday resorts[2] and the 17th biggest hotel chain worldwide.[3] Domestically in Spain the company is themarket leader in both resort andurban hotels.[4] Currently the hotel chain operates 374 hotels in 40 countries on 4 continents under the brands Meliá, Gran Meliá, ME by Meliá, Paradisus, Innside by Meliá, TRYP by Wyndham, Sol Hotels and Club Meliá.[5]
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The origins of the company reach back to 1956, when the then-21-year-old Gabriel Escarrer Juliá leased the Altair Hotel inPalma,Majorca.[6] Over the subsequent years Escarrer took advantage of the island's increasing popularity as atourist destination forpackage holidaymakers, adding further properties to theportfolio of his company, Hoteles Mallorquines.[6][7] The company expanded geographically in the 1960s and 70s, acquiring hotels in theCanaries as well as the otherBalearic Islands. After thetransition to democracy in Spain,tourism in Spain developed more rapidly and Hoteles Mallorquines aggressively moved onto the Spanish mainland, establishing a presence in much of the country by the early 1980s.[6]
In 1984 the company renamed itself Hoteles Sol (English:Sun Hotels), before establishing itself as the largest hotel chain in the country with the acquisition of the 32 location-strong Hotasa group.[6][failed verification] Anothermerger followed three years later as the company combined with the upmarket Meliá chain, founded by Josep Melià i Sinisterra, to form Sol Meliá.[6] The deal increased the geographical scope of the company into theCaribbean,Americas and other parts ofEurope.
A 1996 split of the company into two separate businesses, one for hotel ownership (Inmotel) and another for management (Sol Meliá, which listed on theBolsa de Madrid), was reversed three years later amid majorconsolidation in the industry.[6] Gabriel Escarrer Sr. subsequently stepped down from thechief executive role, replaced by his sons Gabriel Jr. and Sebastian, who became deputy CEO.[8] The following year brief takeover talks were held withHilton International,[6] but Sol Meliá instead chose to make an acquisition of its own, paying €360 million for smaller peer Tryp Hotels.[9] Tryp had come close to being purchased by rival chainNH Hoteles a year earlier.[10] Tryp continued to exist as a separate brand within the Sol Meliá group.
Rights to the Tryp brand were sold toWyndham Worldwide in 2010, but Meliá continues to own and operate the hotels under alicensing agreement.[11] On 3 June 2011 the company changed its name to Meliá Hotels International.[citation needed]
Meliá Hotels received strong criticism because of hosting a tribute to thecaudilloFrancisco Franco in 2015.[12][13] More than 62,000 people signed against this, but the hotel decided to keep the tribute anyway.[14] Also, the hotel board rejected to meet the representative of the association "Foro por la Memoria de la Comunidad de Madrid", representing signatories.[15]
The company later sought to forge partnerships with other companies in the leisure industry, opening hotels based on theHard Rock Cafe concept in conjunction with then-parentThe Rank Group (joint venture dissolved in 2007),[16][17] andFlintstones-themed hotels withWarner Bros.[6]
Althoughpublicly traded since 1996, the Escarrer family continues to control Meliá Hotels, holding a combined stake of over 63% at the end of 2010.[1]
In June 2017, Meliá Hotels International confirmed Spanish badminton player,Carolina Marín as their new brand ambassador.[18]
The company employs various commercial brands to offer their product, including Gran Meliá Hotels & Resorts, The Meliá Collection, ME by Meliá, Paradisus by Meliá, Meliá Hotels & Resorts, Zel, INNSiDE by Meliá, Sol by Meliá, Affiliated by Meliá and Club Meliá (formerly known as Sol Meliá Vacation Club). In 2010, they divested themselves of their Tryp Hotels brand when it was sold to Wyndham Hotels.
The firm operates more than 350 hotels as of November 2023, of which over 160 are in Spain. Of the other 230 countries in which Meliá Hotels International operates, the largest numbers of hotels are located in Cuba, Germany, Croatia, Brazil and Portugal.[19]
In late 2008,Hotel Meliá, a century-old family-owned hotel inPonce, Puerto Rico, filed a complaint against Sol Meliá in theCourt of First Instance after he attempted to register the name "Meliá" with thePuerto Rico Department of State asserting that Hotel Meliá Inc. "had the sole right to use the Meliá mark in connection with hotel and restaurant services throughout Puerto Rico."[20] As a result, Sol Meliá withdrew its application. But S.L. Dorpan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sol Meliá, subsequently filed a complaint against the hotel in theUnited States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, "seeking a declaration that under the Lanham Act, Dorpan had the right to use the mark Meliá throughout Puerto Rico" and that the hotel had the right to use the name Meliá only in the city of Ponce. The District Court issued an opinion on 31 March 2012 ruling in favor of Sol Meliá.[21] Hotel Meliá then appealed the decision of the district court to theFirst Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. On 28 August 2013, the Court of Appeals issued its opinion vacating the lower district court's decision and ruling in favor of Ponce's local Hotel Meliá.[22]
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