Meliá Hotels International

Foundation and early years

The origins of the company reach back to 1956, when the then-21-year-old Gabriel Escarrer Juliá leased the Altair Hotel in Palma, Majorca. Over the subsequent years Escarrer took advantage of the island's increasing popularity as a tourist destination for package holidaymakers, adding further properties to the portfolio of his company, Hoteles Mallorquines. The company expanded geographically in the 1960s and 70s, acquiring hotels in the Canaries as well as the other Balearic Islands. After the transition 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.

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. Another merger followed three years later as the company combined with the upmarket Meliá chain, founded by Josep Melià i Sinisterra, to form Sol Meliá. The deal increased the geographical scope of the company into the Caribbean, Americas and other parts of Europe.

A 1996 split of the company into two separate businesses, one for hotel ownership (Inmotel) and another for management (Sol Meliá, which listed on the Bolsa de Madrid), was reversed three years later amid major consolidation in the industry. Gabriel Escarrer Sr. subsequently stepped down from the chief executive role, replaced by his sons Gabriel Jr. and Sebastian, who became deputy CEO. The following year brief takeover talks were held with Hilton International, but Sol Meliá instead chose to make an acquisition of its own, paying €360 million for smaller peer Tryp Hotels. Tryp had come close to being purchased by rival chain NH Hoteles a year earlier. Tryp continued to exist as a separate brand within the Sol Meliá group.

Development since 2010

Rights to the Tryp brand were sold to Wyndham Worldwide in 2010, but Meliá continues to own and operate the hotels under a licensing agreement. On 3 June 2011 the company changed its name to Meliá Hotels International.

Meliá Hotels received strong criticism because of hosting a tribute to the caudillo Francisco Franco in 2015. More than 62,000 people signed against this, but the hotel decided to keep the tribute anyway. Also, the hotel board rejected to meet the representative of the association "Foro por la Memoria de la Comunidad de Madrid", representing signatories.

The company later sought to forge partnerships with other companies in the leisure industry, opening hotels based on the Hard Rock Cafe concept in conjunction with then-parent The Rank Group (joint venture dissolved in 2007), and Flintstones-themed hotels with Warner Bros.

Although publicly traded since 1996, the Escarrer family continues to control Meliá Hotels, holding a combined stake of over 63% at the end of 2010.

In June 2017, Meliá Hotels International confirmed Spanish badminton player, Carolina Marín as their new brand ambassador.

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 countries in which Meliá Hotels International operates, the largest numbers of hotels are located in Cuba, Germany, Croatia, Brazil and Portugal.