Articles tagged “la quinta”

Newly public company La Quinta has been doing some innovative things, and it is a hotel chain that is in growth mode.

Despite the fact that the La Quinta IPO priced below the brand's intended range due to the overall tumble of the markets in recent days, investors are buying into La Quinta's growth story. With a CAGR of 18% from 2003 to 2013, there's little not to love.

The actual or prospective IPOs of Hilton Worldwide, Extended Stay America and La Quinta notwithstanding, Blackstone is adding pieces to the empire.

Kudos to La Quinta for its 2012 launch of LQ Instant Hold, which enables guests using smartphones to hold a room for up to four hours by just entering a phone number with no other inputting required. It's part of La Quinta's digital and mobile push, both of which appear to be working.

Blackstone had a superb 2013 with several high-profile hotel and other IPOs, but the stock markets are more dicey so far in 2014. Still, Blackstone has shown that it is a highly skilled hotel-chain owner, and this IPO will attract great interest.

Not only did La Quinta file its draft IPO registration statement confidentially with the SEC, the limited service chain issued a press release about it after market hours, a day before Christmas Eve. After the success of the Extended Stay America and Hilton IPOs, Blackstone wants another Christmas present, although Santa wouldn't be arriving this time with another IPO gift until well into 2014.

What is the right formula for Blackstone? Two IPOs and a sale or perhaps three IPOs -- namely for Extended Stay America, Hilton, and possibly La Quinta. It is so nice to have options.

Some smart thinking and moves from a brand you would not expect to be on the cutting edge of technology. The wi-fi bandwidth management, described later in the story, is pretty unique too.

Most of the hotel marketers are looking to drive app installs, which of course once downloaded on the smartphones, rarely get opened up.