La Quinta Inns & Suites
La Quinta Inn is a chain of limited service hotels in the United States and Canada. The headquarters is in Irving, Texas.
All properties are owned by the company's subsidiary La Quinta Properties, Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT), which leases the properties back to the parent company. The company owns and operates about 370 properties and franchises approximately 225 under the various brand names.
La Quinta competes in the limited-service, mid-priced hotel segment, along with Comfort Inn, Baymont Inn & Suites, and Hampton Inn. This means that there is usually no on-site dining on the premises. Most La Quinta Inns are built with Spanish or Southern architecture, although with the rapid expansion of the brand, this is quickly changing. A free deluxe continental breakfast bar is offered at the majority of locations, and swimming pools are available at most of them as well.
History
La Quinta opened its first hotel in 1968 to host guests of the HemisFair '68 World's Fair, in San Antonio, Texas. The company's headquarters remained in San Antonio until 1999 when they were relocated to Irving, Texas; a suburb of Dallas.
LQ Corporation, 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.
Each room has a television, iron, hair dryer, and coffee pot. La Quinta Inns are usually located in areas that are surrounded by nearby restaurants and shopping malls.
Today LQ Management LLC is one of the largest operators of limited-service hotels in the United States with over 500 hotels in 40 US states and Canada operating under the La Quinta Inns and La Quinta Inns & Suites brands.
References
- "La Quinta inks $3.4B deal, shares soar". CNN. Retrieved Nov. 9, 2005.