Swissôtel

Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Hospitality
Founded	1981; 43 years ago
Headquarters	Zurich Airport; Kloten, Switzerland
Area served	Worldwide
Products	Hotels
Parent	Accor
Website	swissotel.com

Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts, commonly known as Swissôtel, is a Swiss chain of luxury hotels owned by Accor, which acquired FRHI Hotels & Resorts in 2015.^[2]

The corporate offices for Swissôtel are located in the Prioria Business Centre on the property of Zurich Airport in Kloten, Switzerland,^[3]^[4] near Zürich.^[5]

History

Swissôtel was founded in 1981 as a joint venture between the Swissair and Nestlé groups, with its headquarters in the Swiss city of Zürich. Initially, hotels were operated in Bern, New York City, Geneva and Zürich. In 1990, the hotel group became a fully owned subsidiary of the Swissair group, and in 1996, its head office moved from Zürich to New York.^[6]

In 2001, with the parent airline in the serious financial difficulties due to the events of 9/11 that year in the United States that eventually lead to its demise, Swissôtel was sold to Raffles Holdings Limited, the owner of the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore. In July 2005, Colony Capital, a private international investment firm, acquired Raffles International Limited, the company that by this stage owned both the Raffles and Swissôtel brands.^[6]

In May 2006, Colony Capital, together with Kingdom Hotels International, acquired Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. With the completion of the transaction, the Fairmont and Raffles International portfolios were combined, transforming the companies into a global hotel leader (headquartered in Toronto) called Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, with 120 hotels in 23 countries under three brands – Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel. After the transaction, the corporate office of Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts moved back to Zürich, where it was headed by its president, Meinhard Huck, who retired in 2013.

In December 2015, AccorHotels purchased Swissôtel, along with Raffles and Fairmont hotels, in a $2.9 billion deal.^[2]

Properties

Swissôtel currently has 25 properties in 18 countries.^[7] The company also offers Swissôtel Living serviced apartments in three properties (two as part of hotels and one standalone).^[8]

Includes hotel and Swissôtel Living.

Standalone Swissôtel Living property.

Properties in operation
No.	Property	Location	Country
1	Swissôtel Al Ghurair Dubai	Dubai	United Arab Emirates
2	Swissôtel Al Maqam Makkah	Mecca	Saudi Arabia
3	Swissôtel Al Murooj Dubai	Dubai	United Arab Emirates
4	Swissôtel Amsterdam	Amsterdam	Netherlands
5	Swissôtel Bangkok Ratchada	Bangkok	Thailand
6	Swissôtel Büyük Efes	İzmir	Turkey
7	Swissôtel Chicago	Chicago	United States
8	Swissôtel Foshan Guangdong	Foshan	China
9	Swissôtel Grand Shanghai	Shanghai	China
10	Swissôtel Jakarta PIK Avenue	Jakarta	Indonesia
11	Swissôtel Krasnye Holmy Moscow	Moscow	Russia
12	Swissôtel Kursaal Bern	Bern	Switzerland
13	Swissôtel Lima	Lima	Peru
14	Swissôtel Living Jeddah	Jeddah	Saudi Arabia
15	Swissôtel Makkah	Mecca	Saudi Arabia
16	Swissôtel Nankai Osaka	Osaka	Japan
17	Swissôtel Quito	Quito	Ecuador
18	Swissôtel Resort Bodrum Beach	Bodrum	Turkey
19	Swissôtel Resort Sochi Kamelia	Sochi	Russia
20	Swissôtel Sarajevo	Sarajevo	Bosnia and Herzegovina
21	Swissôtel Sydney	Sydney	Australia
22	Swissôtel Tallinn Estonia	Tallinn	Estonia
23	Swissôtel The Bosphorus Istanbul	Istanbul	Turkey
24	Swissôtel The Stamford Singapore	Singapore	Singapore
25	Swissôtel Wellness Resort Alatau Almaty	Almaty	Kazakhstan
26	Swissôtel Tbilisi	Tbilisi	Georgia

Properties in development
No.	Property	Location	Country	Projected opening year	Ref.
1	Swissôtel Nusantara	Nusantara	Indonesia	2024	^[9]

Paolo Guerrero case

In November 2017, the Peruvian football player Paolo Guerrero tested positive for a metabolite of cocaine in the run up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup.^[10] His defence was that he had accidentally consumed the substance in herbal tea that was contaminated with coca tea^[11] at the Swissôtel in Lima, Peru.^[12]

Guerrero stated that the Swissôtel hindered him in obtaining evidence that was needed to sustain his case before the Court of Arbitration for Sport:

The hotel was an important factor that hurt me, that is very clear, when I came here to Peru to find the evidence of how this had been caused, the Swissotel turned its back on me, they did not support me at any time. What I wanted to know was the truth.^[13]^[14]

They threatened the waiter so he would not talk. At the hotel they did not allow us to talk to him.^[15]

In response, Peruvian citizens criticized Swissôtel, making negative comments in social networks like Facebook, Twitter and TripAdvisor, and calling for marches and boycotts against the hotel.^[12]^[15]^[16]