Meliá to Manage Lionel Messi’s Boutique Hotels
Photo Credit: MiM Sotogrande, Spain, exterior. Meliá Hotels International
Skift Take
For football icon Lionel Messi, the partnership allows his hotel brand to scale without the burden of direct management. For Meliá, there's a potential to turn athlete branding into long-term global growth.
Meliá Hotels International will take over management of Lionel Messi’s boutique hotel brand, MiM Hotels, beginning November 1, bringing the six-property boutique chain into its upscale soft brand, The Meliá Collection.
The agreement, announced Monday, marks a shift for the athlete's hotel venture. Spain’s Majestic Hotel Group had managed them since the brand's launch in 2017. Lionel Messi is one of the most famous football (soccer) players in the world, often called the greatest of all time.
Messi's portfolio includes properties in Sitges, Sotogrande, Mallorca, Ibiza, and Baqueira Beret, in Spain, as well as one hotel in Andorra. Each hotel features Messi-branded elements like a “Messi Suite” and memorabilia, i