Marriott Acquires Mexican Hotel Brand City Express for $100 Million

Marriott International on Wednesday announced that it has reached a deal to acquire the City Express Brand from Hoteles City Express for $100 million.

The deal makes City Express, considered an affordable midscale brand, the 31^st brand for Marriott. City Express is regarded as an affordable midscale brand and has a range of hotels in urban, suburban, and extended stay locations in Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Chile.

The deal adds 152 hotels and 17,356 rooms across 75 cities in Mexico and three additional countries in Latin America to its portfolio. It also adds five under-construction properties to the Marriott portfolio, which includes another 676 rooms.

According to Marriott, the transaction is expected to make it the largest hotel company in the Caribbean and Latin America, boosting its presence in the region by 45% to 486 properties across 37 countries.

“This transaction with Hoteles City Express is a strategic win for Marriott and our customers, associates and owners and franchisees,” said Anthony Capuano, Chief Executive Officer, Marriott International.

“We’re excited to enter a new lodging category – the popular affordable midscale segment where we see significant potential. With City Express by Marriott, we will be providing our customers with more choice through a new, approachable, moderate-priced offering, increasing opportunity for owners and franchisees as well as associates.”

Once the deal is completed, which is anticipated to be sometime between the end of 2022 and the first half of 2023, Marriott expects to keep the City Express brand around, but add “by Marriott” to it.