I can’t even count now the number of time that ownership of Radisson Hotels or its subsidiaries has changed hands over the past few decades and it continues this week with Choice Hotels announcing the acquisition of Radisson Hotels Americas. The Americas portion of Radisson only emerged about a year ago after the parent company had to split their Radisson family of brands in two due to Chinese ownership and U.S. privacy rules. Thus they created Radisson Hotels Worldwide and Radisson Hotel Americas, the latter to appease to the U.S. government. It is the latter as well that is subject of this purchase.
Choice Hotels to acquire Radisson Hotels Americas
The Radisson Hotels Americas brand has 624 hotels in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and Caribbean to the hotel chain that has nearly 7,000 hotels worldwide. They are acquiring the franchise business, operations and intellectual property of these locations for US$675 million and in all it will add over 68,000 rooms to their portfolio.
The loyalty programs
For the time being Radisson Hotels Americas will continue as is and will continue offering their own loyalty program Radisson Rewards Americas.
We are in the initial stages of this process, and our two companies will
operate separately for the time being. This means this will be seamless
for you as our hotels will continue to provide the same high quality
and premier services. Also, there will be no immediate changes to your
Radisson Rewards Americas membership and benefits. As always, we will
strive to maintain the richest loyalty program with exceptional rewards.
One can only surmise that the hotels will eventually move over to the Choice Privileges in the coming years once they have a better idea of the integration of the hotels into the Choice family of hotels. It can also be assumed Radisson Rewards Americas will be folded into Choice Privileges as that integration takes place.
Wrapping it up
The Radisson Hotels Americas acquisition by Choice Hotels makes a lot of sense for Choice as the majority of the Radisson brands closely align with Choice’s family of hotels. This is an easy way for Choice to quickly grow their presence even more than they have been over the past couple years – which has been quite aggressive in the U.S.. It also seems like a good move for the parent company of the Radisson brands as now they don’t have to deal with two separate companies and loyalty programs.