Twenty-five hotels, one meetings programme
Sonesta International Hotels Corporation has launched the Sonesta F1RST Meetings Collection, a portfolio of 25 hotels across The Royal Sonesta and Sonesta Hotels & Resorts brands in the United States and Canada. The company dated its release Newton, Massachusetts, 9 October 2026. LODGING Magazine carried the announcement on 13 October 2026.
The collection covers city centre locations, resort destinations and convention markets. Sonesta presents it as a set of properties built for meeting and event business.
The space at each property
Meeting spaces in the collection range from four to twenty-six rooms per location. Each location holds 10,000 to 65,000 total square feet. Sonesta counts a combined 500,000 square feet of event space across the network, and describes the spaces as purpose-built for mid-size, multi-city meetings and events.
Guest room counts run from 200 to 500 per property.
The markets in the collection
Participating hotels sit in Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Toronto. Sonesta states that the list continues beyond those four markets. Hotel Dive used The Royal Sonesta Chicago Downtown to illustrate its own report on the launch.
Mooney on the planning model
Jim Mooney, vice president of sales for the managed portfolio at Sonesta, said: “We’re pleased to launch the Sonesta F1RST Meetings Collection across key cities in the U.S. and Canada.”
Mooney said the programme is designed to help planners elevate the meeting experience with Sonesta’s high-touch support, seamless execution and designed packages for all types of meetings and events. He said Sonesta acts as one coordinated partner across the properties in the collection, which simplifies the planning process.
What planners get
Sonesta lists concession packages aligned with planner priorities. Planners earn Sonesta Travel Pass Planner Perks at 2 points for every dollar spent. The company names five further points: one consistent experience across multiple locations, flexible solutions for mid-size and multi-city programmes, personalized service, value through incentives and efficiencies, and simplified planning for repeat events.
F1RST expands to Flexible, Innovative, Reliable, Swift and Transparent. Sonesta uses the five words as the service standard across the collection.
The middle market is the target
Sonesta states the collection is curated for the underserved middle market and positions it around mid-size and multi-city programmes that need one point of contact across several cities. Hotel Dive placed the launch against a 2025 Cendyn and ConferenceDirect survey, which found that meeting planners want hotels to improve services and amenities for diverse group sizes.
Behind the collection
Sonesta states that it is the 8th largest hotel company in the United States according to Smith Travel Research. It gives its scale as approximately 1,100 properties, 100,000 guest rooms, 13 brands and 11 countries. Its meetings portal prints “120+ locations with meeting space”, and the F1RST Meetings Collection is a subset of that footprint.
Hotel Dive published its report on 13 October 2026, the same day as LODGING Magazine. Business Travel Executive and Hospitality Net carried the release in the days after.