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| Hyatt |
Hyatt Hotels Corporation is an international operator of hotels. Hyatt Center (completed in 2005 & located in downtown Chicago at 71 South Wacker Drive) is the headquarters for Hyatt corporation. Prior to this, the corporate headquarters was around the corner at 200 West Madison Street.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation was born upon purchase of the Hyatt House, at Los Angeles International Airport on September 27, 1957. The original owners were entrepreneurs, Hyatt von Dehn and Jack D. Crouch. Von Dehn was eager to get out of the hotel business after a few years, so he sold his share in the hotel to Jay Pritzker. Jay's younger brother Donald, under Jack Crouch's mentorship, took over day-to-day operations of the company and acquired motels and hotels. Under Donald's leadership, Hyatt became the fastest growing hotel chain in the United States until his death in 1972.
Hyatt became famous after the chain opened the world's first atrium hotel in 1967, the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, a decade after opening its first hotel.
In 1969, Donald opened Hyatt's first overseas hotel, the Hyatt Regency Hong Kong (which closed at the end of 2005 and was demolished; a new facility replacing the old opened in 2009 ). In 1980, the Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt brands were introduced. Hyatt has become known for its resorts after the opening of Hyatt Regency Maui in 1980. Today Hyatt has over 434 hotels worldwide.
In 1972, Hyatt formed Elsinore Corporation, a subsidiary to operate the Four Queens Hotel and Casino and the Hyatt Lake Tahoe. After Hyatt became a private company in 1979, Elsinore was spun off into a public company. The company opened the Playboy Hotel and Casino as a joint venture with Playboy Enterprises.
In December 2004, Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced it would acquire AmeriSuites, an upscale chain of all suite business class hotels from affiliates of the Blackstone Group, a New York based private equity investment firm. Blackstone had inherited AmeriSuites from its 2004 acquisition of Prime Hospitality. The AmeriSuites chain is being rebranded and converted to a new concept called Hyatt Place. With Hyatt Place, Hyatt Hotels Corporation will better compete with the limited service products Courtyard by Marriott and Hilton Garden Inn offered by industry leaders Marriott International and Hilton Hotels Corp.
In December 2005, Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced a second limited service acquisition, Summerfield Suites. Again the seller was the Blackstone Group. Blackstone had inherited Summerfield Suites from its purchase of Wyndham International. Summerfield Suites will be rebranded as Hyatt Summerfield Suites and positioned to compete in the upscale extended stay market against brands such as Residence Inn, Homewood Suites and Staybridge Suites.
On August 6, 2009, it was reported that Hyatt Hotels Corporation filed plans to raise up to $1.15 billion in an initial share sale. Hyatt plans to list the shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol H. According to the filing, Mark S. Hoplamazian will serve as CEO and Thomas Pritzker will serve as Executive Chairman. The public offering is a result of the breakup of the Pritzker family empire. Accused of looting family trusts, Thomas and cousins Penny and Nicholas were forced to wrest control of the family businesses when she and other family members were sued by cousin Liesel Pritzker claiming fraud and seeking damages in excess of $6 billion.
On August 31, 2009 three Hyatt hotels in Boston laid off their entire housekeeping staffs, outsourcing the work to a Georgia company creating strong public backlash. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick threatened a boycott of the hotels by state employees traveling on official business. The housekeepers, who were fired without previous notice although some of them had worked for the Hyatt for over 20 years, became collectively known as the Hyatt 100. In December, 2009, Hyatt was named the "Massachusetts Scrooge of the Year" by Jobs with Justice.
As of December 31, 2010, Hyatt Hotels Corporation's worldwide portfolio consisted of 453 properties.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation operates several chains. The Hyatt Regency brand is the oldest brand in the company, with the Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt brands being introduced in 1980. Of these properties, some are styled as "resort" properties, and may feature spas or other recreational facilities. Other brands include the Hyatt Place, designed as a limited service offering targeted to the business traveler. An extended stay chain, Summerfield Suites, was acquired by Hyatt in 2005, and features 34 locations in the United States. Hyatt also launched a new brand, Andaz, in April 2007. The first hotel to bear this brand was The Great Eastern Hotel in London, with additional properties now open in San Diego, West Hollywood, and New York City (Andaz Wall Street & Andaz 5th Avenue). Hyatt recently announced a large expansion of the Andaz brand, with properties expected to open in Shanghai, Maui, Papagayo (Costa Rica), Turks and Caicos, Amsterdam, and Delhi.
In addition to hotels, Hyatt also operates an upscale timeshare program through Hyatt Vacation Ownership, Inc. The program is known as Hyatt Vacation Club. It currently has over a dozen locations, some of which are located within or connected to Hyatt hotels. Additionally, the group runs a chain of upscale retirement homes known as Vi Living by Hyatt and offers retail home décor and furnishings through Hyatt at Home, an online store featuring luxury products.
Notable properties
- Atlanta: The Hyatt Regency Atlanta was built in 1967 and was the first contemporary atrium hotel in the world. The hotel is also notable for being the first Regency hotel in the Hyatt brand. To this day it remains the only major downtown Atlanta hotel with a front drive on the famed Peachtree Street. Architect John Portman designed the building.
- Buenos Aires: Hyatt Hotels acquired the Duhau Palace, a Neoclassical former residence inspired in the Château du Marais, in 2002, and following the addition of a 13-story annex at the other end of the property, opened the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires in 2006.
- Chicago: At 2019 rooms, The Hyatt Regency Chicago is the 7th largest non-gaming hotel in the world. Big Bar (located on the green level of the east tower) holds the record for the largest freestanding bar in the world and is in possession of the two largest suspended plasma TV screens in North America.
- Cleveland: The Hyatt Regency Cleveland, is located in the 1890s built Cleveland, Ohio Arcade. The Cleveland Arcade was a shopping center, but between 1998–2002 was renovated as the Hyatt Regency Hotel. There is some retail on the two stories, and the rooms follow after that. In addition there is a five-star restaurant named 1890, a reference of the year the Cleveland Arcade opened.
- Connecticut: The Hyatt Regency Greenwich, located in Old Greenwich, CT is on the site of the former world headquarters of Conde Nast Publishing and retains the original building's corner tower.
- Dallas: The Hyatt Regency Dallas, along with the fifty-story Reunion Tower, were featured prominently at the beginning of the opening credits of the television series Dallas.
- Hollywood: The Continental Hyatt Hotel was in the movie Almost Famous starring Kate Hudson (2000), and its pool has featured in several films including This is Spinal Tap (1984), and the Park Hyatt Hotel in Century City was the scene of the "6th floor into swimming pool" scene in the 1989 movie Lethal Weapon 2 starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover.
- Kansas City, Missouri: Initially named the Hyatt Regency Kansas City, the atrium walkways collapsed in 1981 since they did not meet engineering code. The hotel was since renovated and renamed Hyatt Regency Crown Center and remains in operation,
- Los Angeles: Century Plaza Hotel, one of the 11 endangered historic sites (see Wikipedia article)
- Melbourne: Park Hyatt Melbourne, noted for the most efficient loading dock operation in the Hyatt Group.
- San Francisco: The Hyatt Regency San Francisco formerly provided a rooftop revolving restaurant called Equinox, offering 360-degree views of the city and the bay – the restaurant is now an elite club for certain hotel guests only and it no longer rotates. This hotel was sold for close to $200 million to Dune Capital Management and DiNapoli Capital Partners in January 2007 – roughly $250,000 for each of the hotel's 802 rooms. The property has been used several times as a filming location, featured most prominently in producer Irwin Allen's 1974 disaster film The Towering Inferno, the 1977 Mel Brooks comedy High Anxiety, Don Siegel's spy thriller Telefon of the same year, and the 1979 sc-fi thriller Time After Time.
- Shanghai: The Grand Hyatt Shanghai is located in the Jin Mao Tower (floors 53 to 87). It has a ballroom for 1200 people, and meeting rooms which seat 400 comfortably. The Park Hyatt occupying the 79th to 93rd floors of the Shanghai World Financial Center, is considered the highest hotel in the world.
- Tokyo: The Park Hyatt Tokyo was featured prominently in the movie Lost in Translation, and also in an episode of I Survived a Japanese Game Show where that episode's winning team stayed in the suite featured in that movie worth $12,000/night, plus a personal chef.
- Trinidad & Tobago: The Trinidad Hyatt was used for the 2009 5th Summit of the Americas from April 17 to 19, 2009.