Meliá Hotels International, a Spanish hotel group, has a portfolio of 8 brands positioned in the luxury, upscale and midscale segments. It operates more than 200 hotels in over 40 countries, mainly in Europe (where it is one of the main players) and in Latin America.
Key figures
Meliá Hotels International was born in 1956 in the city of Palma de Mallorca, under the impulse of Gabriel Escarrer. The company was originally known as Hoteles Mallorquines and expanded its portfolio in the 1960s, taking advantage of the growing popularity of the Balearic Islands among tourists. It developed massively in Spain in the 1970s and 1980s, and settled in the country's main cities.
Renamed Hoteles Sol, in 1984 it acquired the 32 hotels of the Spanish chain Hotasa, and one year later opened its first international hotel in Bali. In 1987, the group acquired the Meliá Hotels chain and became Sol Meliá. During the 1990s, it began its expansion in Latin America and continued to develop in Spain, notably through the creation of its Paradisus Resorts brand in 1995. Other brands, including ME by Meliá (2006) were launched in the 2000s, along with the acquisition of Tryp Hotels (eventually sold to the Wyndham group in 2010) and Innside, and the re-launch of Gran Meliá in 2008.
Renamed Meliá Hotels International in 2011, the group was hit by the crisis that affected the Spanish market and launched a real estate asset disposal program that enabled it to reduce its debt and return to Ibex 35, the benchmark index of the Madrid Stock Exchange, in 2017.
Melia currently has a portfolio of 8 brands -including Tryp by Wyndham, which it continues to operate under license- and covers the luxury, upscale and midscale segments. It is the world's 21st largest hotel group and 10th largest in Europe, with a total of more than 200 properties in some 40 countries and four continents.
