Renaissance Hotels

The first Ramada Renaissance Hotel, opened in 1981 in Aurora, Colorado (today a Radisson)

An upscale hotel room in the Renaissance Hotels chain in Downtown Columbus, Ohio

Older Renaissance logo

Renaissance Hotels was founded in 1981 as Ramada Renaissance, an upscale division of Ramada Inns.[1] The first property was located in Aurora, Colorado, outside Denver. Ramada Inc Hotels & restaurants were sold to Hong Kong-based New World Development Ltd. in 1989 for $540 million. New World divided the Renaissance Hotels brand into a separate chain and developed Renaissance & Ramada as independent hotel brands. (the U.S. rights to the Ramada name were sold to Prime Hospitality), and the former Ramada Corp. was renamed Aztar Corp.

In 1993, New World Development acquired the Stouffer Hotels (40 Hotels) chain from Nestle for an estimated $1.5 Billion,[3] As New World Development strategically planned to rebrand the existing Stouffer Hotels properties to Renaissance. They secured the rights to maximize the Stouffer Hotels successful name for 3 years. In 1995, Stouffer Hotels senior executive, Thomas G. Stauffer was named president of the Americas division of Renaissance Hotels International. All 28 U.S. Stouffer properties were temporarily reflagged as Stouffer Renaissance during the transitional period until 1996,[4] (excluding Stouffer Presidente properties in Mexico with became Intercontinental hotels).[5] Stouffer co-branding was retired by 1996 and remaining operational properties became part of the 1981 founded Renaissance Hotels. Primordial acquired the rights to relaunch Stouffer Hotels in 2013.[6]

On September 27, 1995, New World Development (NWD), took their management and franchising company public (listing on the New York Stock Exchange) and created a new company called Renaissance Hotel Group N.V..[7] which operated the brands New World, Renaissance & Ramada International Hotels. New World Development retained ownership of many of the individual hotel structures through CTF Holdings, a private company owned by the Cheng family, the owner of NWD group.[8]

On February 18, 1997 Marriott International bought Renaissance Hotel Group N.V. for US$1 billion from NWD. The deal dramatically expand Marriott's presence in fast-growing Asian markets.[9] The Marriott announcement comes only a few weeks after Renaissance Hotel Group N.V., had tentatively agreed to be sold to rapidly expanding Doubletree Corp. However, Marriott topped Doubletree's $890-million offer.[10] The Marriott acquisition did not include the Stouffer Hotels brand. The Ramada International brand was included in the acquisition.[11] Renaissance Hotel Group N.V. operated & franchised 150 hotels with 35 based in USA. Marriott had 1,035 Hotels based in the US with 75 hotels operating outside of USA. The acquisition of the Renaissance & Ramada portfolio was important to Marriott expanding its footprint globally.[12] In September 2004, Marriott sold the Ramada International brand to Cendant Corp. (today known as Wyndham).

Renaissance Hotel, Nashville

The Ramada Renaissance brand began with large hotels in major urban centers.[30] However, as Marriott has decided to expand their "lifestyle" collection, including the Renaissance brand, the hotels can be found in 176 locations globally.[2][31]

• Rosewood Hotel Group, another hotel group, established by Renaissance Hotels former owner New World Development
•  Hotels portal

• Official website