Meliá Reaches an Agreement with BBVA to Extend the Benefits of its Franchise Model and Boost Growth

Meliá Hotels International, the leading hotel company in Spain and one of the largest hotel groups in the world, continues to boost growth through franchising, leveraging the strength of its sales relations with major travel partners, the strong positioning of its brands and its advanced digitalisation to provided added value to independent hotels that sign up to its portfolio. As a further boost to its strategy, the company has now reached an agreement with BBVA bank to offer potential Meliá franchisees access to preferential financing conditions to meet their cash needs, together with a wide range of complementary financial products.

For Gabriel Escarrer, Vice President and CEO of Meliá, “the agreement is based on the high degree of confidence that Meliá and its strong sales and marketing platform inspire among financial companies as they are the basis of our support for all those independent hotels that join the company's franchise network". An alliance with Meliá is an additional guarantee for financial companies and has encouraged the BBVA to offer beneficial conditions, which for many hotel owners is a fundamental requirement to face investments in renovating or repositioning their hotels or operational investments that will allow them to enhance their competitiveness in the new post-Covid business environment.

Escarrer emphasised today during the signature of the agreement with the BBVA that “our objective is to increase the benefits and attractiveness of our franchise system to deliver far more than just greater profitability to hotels that join our portfolio. We aim to cover all their needs as far as we possibly can and open up new avenues for improvement".

Carlos Rodríguez Escudero, Eastern Regional Director at BBVA, highlighted that “this agreement reaffirms the BBVA commitment to the franchise industry in Spain, allowing Meliá franchisees access to all of the products and advice required to get their projects up and running".

​The Meliá franchise model allows independent hotels to join the Meliá group, maintaining control over their operations, but also getting access to Meliá's sales and distribution platform and its 14 million loyal customers, as well as a wide range of optional hotel management services. The relationship with Meliá can be based on the hotel adopting one of the Meliá brands (depending on the nature of the hotel, its positioning and operating standards) or keeping its own name and identity under the “Affiliated by Meliá" umbrella.

The company already has a portfolio of 50 franchised hotels all over the world and another 7 hotels scheduled to join in the near future. As explained by the Meliá Director of Expansion, María Zarraluqui, “it's a really attractive model, especially for hotels that are highly dependent on tour operators and are not up to speed on the digital side of things, many of which have suffered a great deal during the pandemic, and who will find Meliá the perfect partner to boost their revenues and become part of the hotel industry of the future".

About Melia Hotels International

Founded in 1956 in Palma de Mallorca (Spain), Meliá Hotels International has more than 400 hotels open or in the process of opening in more than 40 countries, and a portfolio of nine brands: Gran Meliá Hotels & Resorts, ME by Meliá, The Meliá Collection, Paradisus by Meliá, Meliá Hotels & Resorts, ZEL, INNSiDE by Meliá, Sol by Meliá and Affiliated by Meliá. The Company is one of the world's leading hotel chains in the leisure segment and its experience in this area has allowed it to consolidate itself in the growing market of urban hotels inspired by leisure. Its commitment to responsible tourism has led it to be recognised as the most sustainable European hotel company according to S&P Global's Sustainability Yearbook 2024, as well as being a "Top Employer 2024" brand in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Italy, Germany, France and Vietnam. Meliá Hotels International is also part of the IBEX 35. For more information, please visit www.meliahotelsinternational.com