India - Luxury Hotels - Le Meridien 22.11.2013

Le Méridien

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Le Méridien, New Delhi, India

Le Méridien, Dead Sea, Israel

Le Méridien, Kuwait City

Le Méridien is an international hotel brand with a European perspective, formerly headquartered in the United Kingdom, with 130 properties. It is owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, and has a portfolio of more than 120 hotels in over 50 countries worldwide.

History[edit]

The Le Méridien brand was established in 1972 by Air France "to provide on a home away from home for its customers." The first Le Méridien property was a 1,000-room hotel in Paris— Le Méridien Etoile. Within two years of operation, the group had 10 hotels in Europe and Africa. Within the first six years, the number of hotels had risen to 21 hotels in Europe, Africa, the French West Indies, Canada, South America, the Middle East and Mauritius. By 1991, the total number of Le Méridien properties had risen to 58.

In late 1994, Le Méridien was acquired by UK hotel company Forte Group, which in turn was acquired by Granada plc in 1996. Through a merger in the summer of 2000 between Granada Group and global contract caterer Compass Group — and the subsequent de-merger of the two companies in February 2001 — the ownership of the Forte Hotels division and its three brands (Le Méridien, Heritage Hotels and Posthouse Forte) passed solely to Compass.

In May 2001, Nomura Group announced the acquisition of Le Méridien Hotels & Resorts from Compass Group plc for £1.9 billion and Le Méridien was merged with Principal Hotels, which was acquired in February 2001. In December 2003, Lehman Brothers Holdingsacquired the senior debt of Le Méridien.

On November 24, 2005, the Le Méridien brand and management fee business was acquired by Starwood Hotels & Resorts.^[1] The leased and owned real estate assets were acquired in a separate deal by a joint venture formed by Lehman Brothers and Starwood Capital.

In 2011, Le Méridien opened up its 100th hotel in Coimbatore, India.^[2]

In mid-2012, during the search conducted by Maradu Municipality, the food safety officials seized damaged food from star hotels including Le Méridien Kochi.^[3][4]