I just came across a story from GulfNews.com, a Persian Gulf region news website which gave a quick and concise history of how the companies brands came to form Louvre Hotel Group & Societe Du Louvre which is now owned by Starwood Capital:

Louvre Hotels is one of the pioneers of franchised hotels and has long experience, built over 150 years through its parent company Société du Louvre, in the hospitality business and franchise development.

Louvre Hotels dates back to 1855 when the Grand Hôtel du Louvre opened in Paris. In 1879 the owners of the next door clothing store, Les Galeries du Louvre, bought the hotel, expanded the store and moved the hotel operation to where the luxury Hôtel du Louvre stands today.

In 1889 the company opened a second hotel and adopted the name Société du Louvre. Twenty years later, the most famous Concorde property, the Hôtel de Crillon, opened after refurbishment. By 1930 the company was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.

In 1970 the luxury hotel portfolio was grouped under the Concorde name and six years later Société du Louvre acquired its first budget hotel chain, Campanile. Campanile forms the basis of Louvre Hotels budget hotel offering. It is arguably Europe’s best-known hotel brand, benefiting from a 30 year history, and was joined by Première Classe in 1989 and the brand offer completed by the creation in 2000 of the Kyriad and Kyriad Prestige brands.

Read the article here in its entirety.

The excerpt above doesn’t mention how Golden Tulip was purchased by Starwood Capital earlier this year and has since been merged into the Louvre Hotel Group. They’ll spend the beginning part of next year integrating Golden Tulip’s systems, and I think we’ll see Golden Tulip and Tulip Inn’s become sister brands with the Concord, Kyriad, Kyriad Prestige, Campanile, and Premiere Classe brands which already make up the Societe Du Lovure portfolio..

andrew@alconic-inc.com