Predecessors (1886–1999) Canadian Pacific Hotels in 1887. Opened a year earlier, it was one of the first hotels operated by
Canadian Pacific Hotels. Canadian Pacific Hotels (CP Hotels) began as a division of the
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) hotels department. The division operated a series of hotels along CPR's rail lines as early as 1886. Many of these resort hotels were built and operated by the railway's hotel department, while a few were later acquired from
Canadian National Hotels, a hotel division of the
Canadian National Railway. Over the years, a collection of
grand railway hotels was assembled throughout Canada, both rural and urban. By the 1980s, CP Hotels' collection included the
Chateau Lake Louise, the
Banff Springs Hotel, the
Château Frontenac, the
Empress Hotel, the
Palliser Hotel, the
Fairmont Royal York, and others. In addition to its properties in Canada, the hotel chain operated a few hotels outside Canada, with properties in
Germany,
Israel,
Mexico, and the
United States. CPR's rival, the
Grand Trunk Railway, and later the
Canadian National Railway, copied Van Horne's approach by building hotels such as the
Jasper Park Lodge in Jasper, Alberta, and the
Château Laurier in Ottawa. CPR purchased
Canadian National Hotels, the Canadian National Railway's hotel division, in 1988, making CP Hotels the nation's largest hotel owner. In the 1990s, CP Hotels expanded and purchased the Canadian
Delta Hotels chain and the international Princess Hotels chain in 1998, which became wholly owned subsidiaries of CP Hotels. In 1999, CP Hotels purchased the San Francisco-based Fairmont Hotels & Resorts chain.
Fairmont Hotels During the 1890s,
James Graham Fair bought the land where the
Fairmont San Francisco now stands, the first hotel to bear the Fairmont namesake. The nearly completed structure survived the
earthquake of 1906. Although heavily damaged by the subsequent fires, the hotel was renovated under the eye of architect
Julia Morgan and finally opened in 1907. In 1926, the Penthouse Suite was created with three secret passageways to access it. is one of seven properties managed by Fairmont prior to being acquired by Canadian Pacific Hotels. In 1945, the Fairmont San Francisco was acquired by
Benjamin Swig. Beginning in the 1960s, the Swig family developed Fairmont into a small chain of luxury hotels throughout the United States. Operating as Fairmont Hotels Management, the hotel chain acquired, and built a number of hotel properties. The chain acquired the
Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans in 1965, renaming it the Fairmont Roosevelt, and then Fairmont New Orleans. The
Fairmont San Jose was opened by the hotel chain in 1987. The company assumed management of the
Plaza Hotel in New York in 1995 and purchased the Copley Plaza Hotel in 1996, renaming it
The Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel. By 1998, the company managed seven properties in the United States. In addition to those properties, the company also operated the
Colony Square Hotel in Atlanta as Fairmont Colony Square Hotel from its opening in 1974 to 1977, and
The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia as Fairmont Philadelphia from 1979 to 1980.
Merger (1999–2001) In April 1999, Canadian Pacific Hotels,
Kingdom Hotels International and Maritz Wolff & Co. bought Fairmont Hotels Management L.P., with Canadian Pacific Hotels holding the majority of the shares (67%). The newly re-organized Fairmont company transferred several properties to its Delta Hotels subsidiary, although it retained most of the "signature" hotels and resorts under the new Fairmont banner. Later that year in October 2001, Canadian Pacific Limited spun off all of its subsidiary companies into separately traded "independent" companies, including Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. Companies like Fairmont Hotels & Resorts were split into smaller companies in a 2001 "
starburst" move designed to increase the valuations of its individual divisions. In 2001, Fairmont introduced the Willow Stream Spa prototype, a $7 million 2-floor 8,000-square-foot spa located inside the Fairmont Empress Hotel. The signature spa brand was then implemented in many of Fairmont's locations. In July 2001, Fairmont Hotels signed a joint-venture with Sheikh
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan for a minority-stake purchase and the management of a luxury 393-room hotel in
Dubai. The Fairmont Dubai property was the first Fairmont branded hotel in the Middle East. In 2003, Fairmont introduced Fairmont Heritage Place, a chain of
timeshare hotels, with the first opening in
Mexico. In 2004, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc. paid $70 million to take full control of the management company that runs its properties. Then in early 2006, a cluster of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts was sold for US$3.9 billion to
Colony Capital, LLC. As a result of that purchase, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts was united with Raffles Hotels and Resorts and Swissôtel to form
Fairmont Raffles Hotels International (FRHI), though the four chains still operate under their individual names. skyscraper complex. In April 2010, Kingdom Hotels sold 22% of its shares of FRHI (from 58% to 35%) to Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment, giving them 40% of FRHI and became the second largest shareholder of the company. The remaining 60% belonged to a private shares holding in Sweden, trusted in ACCOR hotels, and other investors. The Middle East became Fairmont's new target market, where Fairmont opened in the
Makkah Royal Clock Tower Hotel in 2010 and at the
Palm Jumeirah in 2012. In Asia, Fairmont reopened the
Peace Hotel in
Shanghai in 2010, opened in
Baku’s
Flame Towers in 2011, and opened its first hotel in
India in 2012. In the USA, Fairmont acquired the
Claremont Hotel in
Berkeley, California in 2014. In 2015, AccorHotels, with the approval and support of the external party, announced the acquisition of FRHI, thus adding
Raffles Hotels and Resorts, Fairmont and
Swissôtel to its Luxury Hotel Brands portfolio. Acquiring Fairmont Hotels & Resorts enabled the French hotel group to gain greater access to the lucrative North American market. In 2015, Fairmont stated it would invest in two new hotels in Egypt, in addition to its existing
Fairmont hotel located in Cairo. In 2017, Fairmont opened the Fairmont Quasar Istanbul, its first hotel in
Turkey. In 2019, Fairmont opened its first South American hotel in Brazil. In 2021, Fairmont opened the Fairmont Taghazout Bay hotel in
Morocco, and the Fairmont Ambassador Seoul in South Korea. In 2025, Fairmont made its debut in Japan with the opening of Fairmont Tokyo, a 217-room hotel located in
Shibaura, Tokyo. ==Properties==