La Quinta Inns and Suites
La Quinta Franchising LLC
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryHotels
Founded1968 (1968)
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Headquarters
909 Hidden Ridge
Irving, Texas, U.S. 75038
Number of locations
914 (December 31, 2018)[1]
Area served
North America
Key people
Krishna Paliwal, Brand President
Keith Cline, Former President and CEO
Number of employees
9000
ParentWyndham Hotels & Resorts
Websitewww.lq.com

La Quinta Inns & Suites (Spanish: La Quinta, "the country villa", pronounced [la ˈkinta]) is a chain of limited service hotels in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Honduras. La Quinta Holdings, Inc. first sold shares to the public in April 2014. La Quinta has headquarters in Irving, Texas. As of December 31, 2018, the company owns and operates 914 properties with 89,456 rooms.[1]

History

1968 launch

The first La Quinta Inn location was opened in 1968 by real estate entrepreneur Sam Barshop (1929–2013) and his brother Phil (1935–1998) in San Antonio, Texas, across the street from the site of HemisFair '68 World's Fair.[2]

La Quinta's first headquarters were in San Antonio. In 1999 the company announced it was going to move, transferring over 100 jobs from city to city. The company cited the lack of nonstop flights from San Antonio International Airport as a reason for moving.[3] The company wished to have its headquarters near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, a large airport. The company kept around 300 employees who worked in accounting, information systems, and reservations in San Antonio.[4]

2005 Blackstone acquisition

LQ Corporation, the parent company to subsidiary LQ Properties, Inc, announced on November 9, 2005, that it had agreed to be acquired by the private-equity firm Blackstone Group for $3.4 billion in cash and debt. The merger closed on January 25, 2006. At that point, the La Quinta group ranked 13th hotel group worldwide, owned 360 hotels, and franchised 250 under the names La Quinta Inns, La Quinta Inn & Suites, Baymont Inn & Suites, Woodfield Suites and Budgetel (about 65,000 rooms).[5] Blackstone had just bought Wyndham Hotels a few months before, the hotel group that would acquire La Quinta in 2018.[6]

In 2011, La Quinta gave up on pay-per-view in-room entertainment to focus on letting customers use their own devices. In 2012, La Quinta launched the Instant hold option, allowing customers to make last-minute reservations with their phone numbers.[7]

In 2013, Blackstone started to pave the way for the sale of La Quinta.[8] Up until the 2014 stock offering, all La Quinta properties were owned or franchised by the company's subsidiary La Quinta Properties, Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT), which leased the properties back to the parent company.[1] In 2015, La Quinta launched its Del Sol prototype featuring LED lighting, indoor and outdoor pools, and a modernized decoration.[9] In September 2015, the President and CEO Wayne Goldberg stepped down. CFO Keith Cline became the interim CEO.[10][11]

2018 Wyndham acquisition

On January 18, 2018, Wyndham Worldwide Corporation and La Quinta Holdings Inc. announced they had entered into a definitive agreement under which Wyndham Worldwide will acquire La Quinta's hotel franchise and hotel management businesses for $1.95 billion in cash. The loyalty programs of La Quinta and Wyndham were planned to be combined into a single one. The deal also included that La Quinta's real estate be spun off into a separate company, CorePoint Lodging, a publicly-traded real estate investment trust. Buying La Quinta enabled Wyndham to become the third-largest hotel rooms operator in the world, pipping InterContinental.[12][13] The acquisition was completed on May 31, 2018 adding over 900 franchised hotel properties to the Wyndham portfolio.[14]

In June 2019, La Quinta signed a deal with the Caribbean developer Profusion Group to engage in the rapid development of the brand in the Dominican Republic (8 locations in 5 years).[15]

Description

La Quinta hotel in Gillette, Wyoming.

La Quinta in some Spanish-speaking countries means "the country place"; it also could mean "mansion".[2]

Room types and settings vary by hotel. The price rate changes daily, and Company-owned hotels are standardized. Franchised hotels vary more. The hotel chain targets middle-income, price-conscious travelers. The reservation cancellation fees are flexible. Most properties have a pool.[7]

LQ Management LLC, the owner, has its headquarters in the Las Colinas area of Irving, Texas, near Dallas.[3][16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 http://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001722684/07a66b37-b5b1-4c86-9949-cba03f9f3417.pdf
  2. 1 2 La Quinta Inns, Inc., History
  3. 1 2 Travis E. Poling and Bonnie Pfister (March 17, 1999). "La Quinta moving to Dallas suburb;Hotelier cites S.A.'s lack of nonstop flights". San Antonio Express-News.
  4. ↑ "La Quinta to move office to Las Colinas The hotel chain's officials say the company needs to be near a major airport". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. March 18, 1999. p. 12 Business. Retrieved March 24, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Blackstone now controls fifteen brands, over 560,000 rooms". 4hoteliers.com. 19 July 2009. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  6. ↑ "Blackstone to Buy Wyndham Hotels". Los Angeles Times. 15 June 2005. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  7. 1 2 Brad Tuttle (9 April 2014). "Why La Quinta Is Not Just Another Cheap Motel Brand". Time.com. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  8. ↑ Craig Karmin (6 August 2013). "Blackstone Prepares to Sell La Quinta Hotels". Wsj.com. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  9. ↑ Danni Santana (25 July 2019). "The La Quinta Brand Is Receiving Plenty of TLC From Wyndham". Skift.com. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  10. ↑ Josh Beckerman (17 September 2015). "La Quinta CEO Goldberg Steps Down by Mutual Agreement With Board". Wsj.com. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  11. ↑ Korri Kezar (17 September 2015). "Wayne Goldberg stepping down as La Quinta's CEO". Bizjournals.com. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  12. ↑ Nancy Trejos (18 January 2018). "Wyndham Hotels to buy La Quinta hotels". Usatoday.com. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  13. ↑ Sanjana Shivdas (18 January 2018). "Wyndham to buy La Quinta hotel business for $1.95 billion". Reuters.com. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  14. ↑ Worldwide, Wyndham. "Wyndham Worldwide Completes Acquisition Of La Quinta Holdings". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  15. ↑ "La Quinta Planning Major Expansion to Dominican Republic". Caribjournal.com. 3 June 2019. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
  16. ↑ "Fact Sheet Archived 2012-08-17 at the Wayback Machine." La Quinta Inns & Suites. Retrieved on March 24, 2010.
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