Taco Bell faced a barrage of complaints after its Palm Springs hotel sold out in 2 minutes
- Taco Bell faced a barrage of complaints after its pop-up hotel sold out within two minutes.
- "I probably had more customer complaints about [how] they couldn't get a room at the hotel than I've had anything at Taco Bell in the last 5 years," Yum! Brands CEO Greg Creed said.
- Taco Bell's hotel in Palm Springs, California, boasts more than 70 rooms, a gift shop, new menu items, and a beauty bar.
- Watch Yum! Brands trade live.
Taco Bell faced a barrage of complaints after its pop-up hotel sold out within two minutes.
"I probably had more customer complaints about [how] they couldn't get a room at the hotel than I've had anything at Taco Bell in the last 5 years," Yum! Brands CEO Greg Creed said on the parent company's earnings call this week.
"Greg, please add me in the customer complaints about not getting the hotel reservation," one analyst joked in response.
The Mexican fast-food chain is opening a hotel in Palm Springs, California, between August 8 and August 12. The Taco Bell-themed hotel boasts more than 70 rooms, a gift shop, and a nail-art, fades, and braid bar. It will also be serving new menu items to guests.
"This idea of allowing people to kind of fully experience and embrace and immerse themselves in every aspect of the Taco Bell lifestyle led us to the idea of doing a hotel," Taco Bell's chief global brand officer, Marisa Thalberg, told Business Insider in June, shortly before the hotel began taking reservations.
Taco Bell's same-store sales rose 7% in the second quarter, outpacing growth of 2% for Pizza Hut and 6% for KFC, its sister brands. Its core operating profit also rose 7%, but fell short of KFC's 17% gain and Pizza Hut's 21% increase.