Extended Stay America was founded on January 9, 1995 in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida by George D. Johnson, Jr. and
Wayne Huizenga, both former executives from
Viacom and its subsidiary
Blockbuster LLC. The first two Extended Stay America hotels opened in August 1995 in
Spartanburg, South Carolina and
Marietta, Georgia. The company became a
public company via an
initial public offering on December 14, 1995. Extended Stay America acquired the extended-stay hotel chain StudioPLUS on April 11, 1997. The company also developed the Crossland Economy Studios brand as a budget extended-stay hotel brand. The 47 unit Crossland brand was sold to Westmont Hospitality Group for $285 Million in December, 2015. In 2013, the company moved its headquarters from
Spartanburg, South Carolina to Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Blackstone Group, a
private equity firm, acquired Extended Stay America in May 2004 for
US$3.1 billion in cash and debt. At the time of the merger, Extended Stay America operated 475 hotels; Blackstone increased that number with the addition of 132 from Homestead Studio Suites. Homestead, which was founded by Security Capital in 1992, had been acquired by Blackstone in November 2001 for US$740 million. All of Blackstone's extended-stay hotels consisting of the Crossland, Extended Stay America, Homestead, StudioPlus, and, eventually, Extended Stay Deluxe brands were managed together by Extended Stay Hotels. In June 2007, Blackstone sold Extended Stay Hotels to
the Lightstone Group for US$8 billion. The deal, financed with US$7 billion of debt, was one of several multibillion-dollar hotel and casino sales made that year. The
Great Recession decimated leisure and business travel and Extended Stay faced shortages in
liquidity stemming from the
leveraged buyout by Lightstone. On June 15, 2009, Extended Stay America filed for
bankruptcy protection under
Chapter 11. Through
debtor-in-possession financing, it was able to continue operating rather than to face
liquidation. In July 2010, an investment consortium made up of Blackstone,
Paulson & Co., and
Centerbridge Partners bought Extended Stay America through a bankruptcy auction for US$3.93 billion. After its successful
reorganization, Extended Stay America emerged from bankruptcy in October 2010. A year after the bankruptcy, Blackstone was sued by creditors of Extended Stay America alleging that Blackstone "skimmed" US$2.1 billion off of the sale to Lightstone and knew that the amount of debt would have been unsustainable for the hotel chain; Blackstone settled the lawsuit in June 2013 for US$10 million. In April 2020,
The Blackstone Group acquired a 4.9% stake in the company and
Starwood Capital Group acquired an 8.5% stake in the company. The company went private in June 2021 when Blackstone Real Estate and the Starwood Capital Group acquired the remaining shares and the company was delisted from Nasdaq. ==Properties==