Sonesta International Hotels began reducing its corporate workforce last Friday, with departures affecting communications, marketing, loyalty programs, quality assurance, training, food and beverage, and accounting divisions. The layoffs were confirmed through anonymous employee accounts and multiple LinkedIn posts from affected staff members. Among those departing was the company’s chief brand officer, with additional marketing and creative personnel also leaving during this period.
The workforce reductions occur in the context of significant industry developments affecting Sonesta’s operations. TKO, a South Dakota-based hotel investor, made an unsolicited $2 billion cash offer for the complete hotel portfolio held by Service Properties Trust, the real estate investment trust that owns and has contracted Sonesta to manage a substantial portion of its holdings.
Service Properties Trust currently owns 68 hotels that are operated under the Sonesta brand, representing 17,013 rooms and approximately 17% of Sonesta’s total system of roughly 100,000 rooms. According to the trust’s second-quarter regulatory filings, these Sonesta-managed properties were carried at a book value of $3.98 billion. The unsolicited acquisition proposal has introduced uncertainty regarding the future status and management of these properties.
Sonesta declined to provide comment regarding the total number of employees affected by the layoffs or to address questions about the potential impact of TKO’s offer on its operations and staffing decisions. The company has not publicly detailed the scope or reasoning behind the workforce reductions.
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