Renaissance Hotels

Renaissance Hotels is a worldwide brand of hotels and resorts. The brand is owned by Marriott International and many Renaissance Hotels are managed by Marriott; however, some are operated under a franchise license. Renaissance Hotels, Resorts and Suites cater to an upmarket segment of the traveling public. While initially acquired by Marriott as a secondary-brand, in recent years Renaissance has been promoted to a primary brand.

Renaissance Hotels was founded in 1982 as Ramada Renaissance Hotels, the upscale division of Ramada Inns, Inc.

In 1989, the bulk of the Ramada hospitality and franchise system was acquired by New World Development Company of Hong Kong (the U.S. rights to the Ramada name were sold to Prime Hospitality), and the former Ramada Corp. was renamed Aztar Corp. New World established Renaissance as a stand-alone brand.

In 1993, New World purchased Stouffer Hotels from Nestle and re-branded as Stouffer-Renaissance Hotels until early 1996, the hotels dropped the Stouffer affiliation and become Renaissance Hotels. Stouffer Hotels no longer existed from that period. New World took their management and franchising company public, while retaining ownership of many of the individual hotels through its CTF Holdings subsidiary.

In 1997 Marriott acquired the Netherlands-incorporated Renaissance Hotel Group N.V., and retained the Renaissance brand, while eventually shedding the Ramada International business in phases to Cendant Corp. In 2005 Marriott acquired most of the remaining New World/CTF owned Renaissance Hotels in North America and Europe, with the intent of selling them under long-term management and/or franchise contracts.