Sol Meliá, S.A. was founded by Gabriel Escarrer Juliá in 1956 in Mallorca, when he leased the Altair Hotel in Palma. Over the subsequent years Escarrer took advantage of the island's increasing popularity as a tourist destination for package holidaymakers, adding further properties to the portfolio of his company
Nowadays, the company is the world's largest operator of holiday resorts and the 13th biggest hotel chain worldwide. Domestically the company is the market leader in both resort and urban hotels. Currently Sol Meliá operates more than 300 hotels in 30 countries worldwide, employing over 35,000 people.
Although publicly-traded since 1996, the Escarrer family continues to control Sol Meliá, holding a combined stake of over 61% at the end of 2007.
