Who Owns Radisson Hotels?

The Radisson name dates to 1960 when Minneapolis entrepreneur Curt Carlson bought the Radisson Hotel downtown and began building a hotel business inside his Carlson Companies conglomerate. Carlson expanded through the 1970s and 1980s, adding management contracts and launching the Country Inn and Suites brand in 1986.

International growth came through a 1994 licensing partnership with SAS International Hotels, creating Radisson SAS for European properties, and the Radisson Blu branding for the upscale tier arrived in 2009. Park Inn and Park Plaza filled mid-market positions in a brand architecture that eventually spanned a dozen names.

The Carlson companies merged their hotel business with Rezidor Hotel Group in 2010 to form Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, combining American franchising strength with European management expertise.

Ownership turbulence followed in the 2010s. HNA Group, the aggressive Chinese conglomerate, acquired Carlson Rezidor in 2016 before collapsing under its own debt. Jin Jiang International, the state-backed Shanghai hotel giant, bought the business in 2018, renaming it Radisson Hotel Group and making it the international arm of one of the world's largest hotel owners.

The 2022 divestiture of Radisson Hotels Americas to Choice Hotels for $675 million simplified the business by geography: Choice took the Americas brands while Radisson Hotel Group concentrated on EMEA and Asia-Pacific growth, particularly China, where Jin Jiang's infrastructure provides pipeline advantages.

Under Jin Jiang, the group has grown to more than 1,640 hotels in operation and development with 259,770 rooms as of March 2026, adding a record nearly 40,000 rooms in 2024 alone through a China-focused development strategy.