Fairmont Hotels and Resorts

Fairmont Hotels and Resorts
Subsidiary
Industry Luxury hotels
Founded 1907[1]
Founder Tessie and Virginia Fair[1]
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Area served
 Worldwide
Parent FRHI Hotels & Resorts
Website www.fairmont.com

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is a Canadian-based operator of luxury hotels and resorts. Currently, Fairmont operates properties in 19 countries including Canada, the United States, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Bermuda, People's Republic of China, Egypt, Germany, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Monaco, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.

Fairmont is known in Canada for its famous historic hotels and resorts such as the Empress Hotel (Victoria) and Hotel Vancouver in British Columbia, the Palliser in Calgary, the Château Laurier in Ottawa, the Royal York in Toronto, Banff Springs in Alberta and Château Frontenac in Quebec City. Many of these hotels were originally built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Fairmont's portfolio also includes several other landmark and icon properties including The Plaza in New York, the Savoy Hotel in London and the Peace Hotel in Shanghai.

History

The original Fairmont Hotel, in San Francisco, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The first hotel to bear the Fairmont name is located in the city of San Francisco. The nearly completed structure survived the earthquake of 1906. Although heavily damaged by the subsequent fires, the hotel was renovated under the eye of architect Julia Morgan and finally opened in 1907. It was later acquired by Benjamin Swig in 1945.

Starting in the 1960s, Fairmont began developing a small chain of luxury hotels in major cities across the United States. The Fairmont chain consisted of seven properties in the United States when it was bought by Canadian Pacific Hotels & Resorts in 1999:

In addition, the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia had operated for a time in the 1970s as The Fairmont Philadelphia.

After purchasing Fairmont, in 2001 Canadian Pacific took on the name of the much smaller chain to reflect the new international focus of the company.

In early 2006, after a contentious bidding war started by investor Carl Icahn. Icahn lost the bid and Fairmont agreed to be sold for $3.9 billion USD to Colony Capital, LLC and Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Hotels International.

As a result of that purchase, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts was merged with Kingdoms's Raffles Hotels and Resorts and Swissôtel to form Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI), though the four chains still operate under their individual names. At the time of the purchase, FRHI also owned Canada's Delta Hotels & Resorts; however, Delta was sold on October 2, 2007 to bcIMC (British Columbia Investment Management Corporation).

In October 2008, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine. Later that month, it was also named one of Greater Toronto's Top Employers, which was announced by the Toronto Star newspaper.[2]

Properties

Canadian properties

British Columbia

Alberta

Manitoba

Ontario

Quebec

United States properties

Fairmont Heritage Place (Private Residence Club, All Suite hotels)

Central American, Atlantic and Caribbean properties

European properties

Middle Eastern and African properties

Asia properties

Gallery of photos

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Celebrating over a century of rich history and exemplary hospitality". Our history. Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
  2. ↑ "Reasons for Selection, 2009 Canada's Top 100 Employers Competition".

External links