In 2004, the Othon Hotels chain celebrated its sixtieth anniversary. This accomplishment was possible thanks to the extraordinary vision of its founder, Othon Lynch Bezerra de Mello who, expanding his businesses from the textile and sugar mills areas, took the initiative of offering to Brazil an extensive hotel chain built up using only national capital. With this history you can see why are a hotel chain focused on continuous development.

Founded in 1943, Companhia Brasileira de Novos Hotéis is now called Hotéis Othon S.A. The first hotel in the chain was in Rio de Janeiro the Aeroporto Othon, which opened in 1944.

In 1946, the Hotel São Paulo was inaugurated in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest industrial center. The largest expansion of the chain was in the late forties and early fifties in Rio de Janeiro, following the major development of Copacabana. Othon built the Hotel Castro Alves Othon in 1948 and bought six other areas of land in the sea front and surroundings where, during the fifties, sixties and seventies, other hotels of the chain were built under the administration of the heirs of our founder. In fact, Othon discovered the tourist potential of the Copacabana area and made it popular. In 1949, he built the Olinda Othon Hotel, which keeps the classic style of its time, with its entrance hall constructed only with Carrara marble.

The 50’s were dedicated to expansion, with the inauguration of medium size hotels which had comfortable and large rooms, some with verandas overlooking the sea.

In 1964 came the Leme Othon Palace, the first hotel to take advantage of the legislation which permitted the construction of buildings higher than 12 floors on Copacabana Beach. For a long time, the Leme Othon Palace Hotel was the highest building in Copacabana and the most modern hotel in Rio de Janeiro.

Between 1975 and 1979, the chain was expanded by building three major five-star hotels: the Rio Othon Palace, the Belo Horizonte Othon Palace and the Bahia Othon Palace. These hotels doubled the capacity of rooms offered by the chain, which became the largest in South America and introduced a new management concept for large hotels in Brazil.

In the 1990`s the Othon chain started to operate hotels through management contracts. Because of that system, Othon now operates Othon Pousadas, which consists of properties located in the most beautiful places of Brazil such as Buzios, Paraty and Petropolis.

Othon also started to operate hotels overseas in Lisbon, Portugal, Paris, France, Buenos Aires, Argentina, San Francisco, USA and Lima, Peru.

In 2003, Othon began operation of Jungle Othon Palace, a floating hotel on the Amazon River, Othon Palace in Fortaleza and started a new brand: Othon Flats, with properties in São Paulo.

In 2005, Othon made a management agreement with Plaza Hoteis, a traditional hotel chain in Santa Catarina and Porto Alegre, south of Brazil, adding more hotels, resorts and spas to our portfolio.

Othon Hotels now offer more than 5,000 rooms, in more than 40 properties. Today, Othon Hotels attracts people from Brazil for our offerings of food, festivals, shows of well-known national and international artists, and conventions and meetings.  We also attract individuals and groups from around the world for our famous tradition of offering accommodations at moderate rates, comfortable rooms and good quality of services as well as a chain of representatives in the countries that conduct business and major tourism transactions with Brazil.