Meliá Hotels International has signed a strategic agreement to build and operate five INNSIDE by Meliá hotels in Chile with a private investment fund led by Grupo Armas. The agreement will see the first INNSIDE by Meliá launch in the Americas, following the rapid international growth of the brand over the past year.
As part of the agreement, the company also signed the management contract for the first of the five hotels to be developed in Santiago de Chile in the next five years. INNSIDE Santiago, a modern and avant-garde hotel located in Bucarest Street in the heart of the Providencia district – the city’s financial and commercial centre – will open in 2014. The hotel will offer 120 rooms, restaurant, bar and gym, as well as 250m² of meeting and event rooms.
After signing the agreement, Gabriel Escarrer, vice chairman and CEO of Meliá Hotels International, comments: “Our company is very excited about the prospect of operating in Chile – in particular with INNSIDE by Meliá, a brand that is proving to be a revelation in the city hotel industry – and also about the prospect of working with a such a solvent and powerful company as Grupo Armas – a perfect partner for us, and one which offers the best guarantees for development of an ambitious project which will undoubtedly change the face of the urban hotel industry in Chile.”
Meliá Hotels International has committed to a growth rate of approximately one hotel every three weeks, both in consolidated and emerging markets. The company has opened new markets in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East this year.