La Quinta Inns & Suites
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hotels |
| Founded | 1968 |
| Headquarters | Irving, Texas |
Number of locations | 700+ |
Area served | North America |
Key people | Wayne B. Goldberg, President and CEO |
| Owner | The Blackstone Group |
Number of employees | 9,000 |
| Website | La Quinta Inns & Suites |
La Quinta Inn is a chain of limited service hotels in the United States, Canada and Mexico. LQ Management LLC, the owner, has its headquarters in the Las Colinas area of Irving, Texas, near Dallas.
All properties are owned or franchised 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 over 700 properties and franchises approximately 295 under the various brand names.
La Quinta competes in the limited-service, mid-priced hotel segment, along with AmericInn Hotels, Comfort Inn, Baymont Inn & Suites, Fairfield Inn, Country Inns & 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; in particular the conversion of a lot of the former Budgetel Inns to La Quinta has diluted the southern roots of the architecture. A free "Bright Side" deluxe continental breakfast bar is offered at the majority of locations, and swimming pools are available at most of them as well.
La Quinta is Spanish for "the fifth," but it can also mean "a country-style building found in a village, like a villa".
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 relocated to Irving, Texas; a suburb of Dallas.[citation needed]
LQ Corporation, parent company to subsidiary LQ Properties, Inc, announced on 9 November 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 25 January 2006.
Each room has a television, iron, hair dryer, coffee maker, and complimentary breakfast, and the hotel has an on-site gym or complimentary passes to a local gym. Most La Quinta Inns are near restaurants and shopping malls.
Today, LQ Management LLC is one of the largest operators of limited-service hotels in North America with over 800 hotels in 45 US states, Canada and Mexico operating under the La Quinta Inns and La Quinta Inns & Suites brands as an international company.
Room types and setting vary by hotel. Corporate owned hotels are standardized, and franchise owned hotels have a little more freedom when it comes to what is offered and room contents.
La Quinta is one of the few chains in the United States to allow pets to accompany travelers without any additional fees or deposits, however, some individual site policies restrict pets from residing in rooms unattended even while crated.[citation needed]
Headquarters
LQ Management LLC, the owner, has its headquarters in the Las Colinas area of Irving, Texas, near Dallas.[1][2] Originally La Quinta had its headquarters 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.[2] 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.[3]
References
- ^ "Fact Sheet." La Quinta Inns & Suites. Retrieved on March 24, 2010.
- ^ a b "La Quinta moving to Dallas suburb Hotelier cites S.A.'s lack of nonstop flights." San Antonio Express-News. March 17, 1999. Business Page 1E. Retrieved on March 24, 2010.
- ^ "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. 12 Business. Retrieved on March 24, 2010.
- "La Quinta inks $3.4B deal, shares soar". CNN. Retrieved Nov. 9, 2005.
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