BOSTON | SONESTA INTERNATIONAL HOTELS CORPORATION (NASDAQ:SNSTA) announced today that it has completed the sale of Sonesta Beach Resort, in Key Biscayne, Florida to a Partnership between Sonesta and Fortune International, a Miami-based real estate development and brokerage firm.

As part of the $120,000,000 transaction, Sonesta received $30,000,000 in cash at closing, and a $30,000,000 mortgage loan on the hotel was discharged. Sonesta has also received a 50% limited partner interest in the Partnership and will receive the first $60,000,000 of net condominium sales proceeds after repayment of construction debt.

The new Partnership, SBR-Fortune Associates, LLLP, which will be headed by Fortune, will redevelop the Sonesta Beach Resort as a super luxury 300-plus room condominium hotel and residences. The existing Sonesta Beach Resort will remain in operation through August 2006, when construction of the new hotel and residences is expected to begin.

The new resort will feature oversized guest rooms, restaurants, meeting/function space, deluxe spa and fitness facility, and other facilities and amenities customary to the finest resorts in South Florida.

Fortune International will have sole responsibility for arranging financing and completing construction of the new Sonesta development.

Development of the new resort is subject to circumstances beyond the control of Sonesta or Fortune, and otherwise, including conditions affecting the real estate market in South Florida.

Based in Boston, Sonesta Hotels, operates fine hotels, resorts, and Nile cruise vessels in the United States and Egypt, and licenses its brand to hotels in St. Maarten, Italy, Peru and Brazil.

This document contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and federal securities laws. Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in such forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include the following: That the above statements represent Sonesta's intentions at the present time, but whether or not Sonesta Beach Resort is sold on the terms set forth above, redeveloped and/or re-sold as a condominium hotel is subject to future events, approvals, and conditions, some of which are not now known, as well as to changes in the size, structure, timing, management, budget and operation of the project that Sonesta deems necessary or advisable. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date they are made. Sonesta disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any such statements to reflect any change in expectations or in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements may be based, or that may affect the likelihood that actual results will differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Peter J. Sonnabend
617-421-5410
Sonesta