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đź”´ PRIVATE EQUITY OWNED
Extended Stay America
extended stay hotel · Charlotte, NC
PE Firm
Blackstone & Starwood Capital
Year Acquired
2021
“Bought, bankrupted, bought back at half price. The Blackstone special.”
The PE Playbook
- •Blackstone sold Extended Stay in 2007 for $8 billion; buyer saddled it with $7.4B in debt and it filed Chapter 11 in 2009
- •Blackstone then bought it back out of bankruptcy in 2010 for $3.93 billion — less than half what it sold for
- •Creditors sued Blackstone alleging it 'skimmed' $2.1 billion; Blackstone settled for just $10 million
- •Blackstone and Starwood acquired it again in 2021 for $6 billion, loading it with a $4.7 billion CMBS loan
Since the Acquisition
- ▸Over 100 hotels rebranded to budget tier 'Select Suites' with reduced amenities — housekeeping cut from weekly to biweekly
- â–¸Consumer reviews plummeted to 1.6-star average with reports of bed bug infestations, roach droppings in kitchen cabinets, and sticky floors from bug spray
- â–¸989 formal BBB complaints from 2019 to 2022, with guests reporting having to vacuum rooms themselves and request their own bed sheets