Making up the basis for the hospitality’s illustrious and innovative history, countless famous firsts during the past 100 years have set the stage for the industry’s continued growth and prosperity.
These Lodging Legacies come from the people, ideas, and momentous achievements that characterize our industry, and go far beyond the 100 that will be unveiled on this Webpage as AH&LA’s Centennial year goes on. Enjoy our stroll through memory lane and get inspired for the future by recognizing hospitality’s pioneering past.
Be sure to visit this page often as we expand our list throughout the year to share the most 100 impressive legacies of the last century.
"Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit." – Conrad Hilton
In 1947, Sheraton is the first hotel corporation to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
 E. M. Statler: creator of the modern hotel. The lodging industry before the turn of the century had neither the heart, soul, nor vision that this Pennsylvania native brought to his business. In addition to Statler’s detailed and structured approach to service, he also brought hotels the amenities, profits, and reputation that revolutionized the hospitality experience and have thus been built upon for the past 100 years.
In 1969, Westin is the first hotel chain to implement 24-hour room service.
Loews Hotels' Good Neighbor Policy became the industry's first comprehensive community outreach program. Created in 1990, the policy outlines the company's formal commitment to the communities where they own and operate hotels. Each destination conducts specific activities including donating excess food to local hunger relief programs; supporting local literacy programs; implementing extensive recycling programs; donating used goods such as linens and furniture to local organizations and shelters; encouraging volunteer activities for hotel employees.
In 1924, the association became a federation of state associations, welcoming Washington State, Montana, Ohio, Illinois, Mississippi, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, California, and New Hampshire.
J. W. Marriott: philosophic innovator. From a very young age, J. Willard Marriott learned to rely on his own judgment and initiative. It was his pioneering spirit that took Marriott from his first business endeavor harvesting lettuce when he was 13 to creating and leading one of the world’s most respected hotel chains.
In the 1970, Sheraton pioneered an 800 number for toll-free reservation calls.
"We are going to make each hotel obscenely rich and obscenely beautiful and position them at the top off their markets." – Barry Sternlicht
 The Ohio Hotel & Lodging Association (OH&LA) surpassed their 100-year mark in 1993. Back in 1893, 19 members paid annual dues varying between $5 and $10. During 1928, the OH&LA gave birth to two city associations in Cleveland and Dayton. That same year, OH&LA also helped to create the first hotel course of study in 1928 at the Ohio State University (OSU). Today, OH&LA maintains a close relationship with OSU and other universities around the state. On the legislative side of things, OH&LA is working closely with local councils in all major cities in Ohio.
David Kong, dishwasher to driven leader. With nearly 40 years of hospitality management under his belt, David Kong’s tireless need to challenge status quo has catapulted him up the ranks from his first hospitality job as a dishwasher. As president and CEO of Best Western International, he has brought successive years of double-digit reservations system revenue growth, its healthiest balance sheet ever, and the highest member satisfaction levels. Kong’s secret: he works locally but thinks globally.
In 1981, Bill Kimpton opened the first U.S. boutique hotel with specialty chef-driven restaurant. Cafe Bedford in San Francisco's Bedford Hotel was followed by many other hotels enlisting celebrity chefs to make their menus shine. Soon thereafter, Kimpton star chef Masa Kobiyashi satisfied palates at Masa's in the Hotel Vintage Court and Wolfgang Puck reigned at the Prescott Hotel and Postrio Restaurant.
“Here we start with one question 'Who are these people and what do they want?' The answer controls everything we do. We respond to the emotional and psychological desires of our visitors. If this place has any other redeeming feature, I don't know what it is.” – Steve Wynn
In 1793, the first building to be called a hotel was constructed in Washington, D.C., the Union Public Hotel.
“Like many other virtues, hospitality is practiced in its perfection by the poor. If the rich did their share, how would the woes of this world be lightened!” – C.M. Kirkland, American author
 Creating an era of customization, with the fanfare of celebrity, the Hotel Triton in San Francisco opened doors to its first celebrity suite in 1991. It paid homage to Dr. Winkie, followed by Jerry Garcia, Carlos Santana, Wyland, and Joe Boxer.
“All intellectual improvement arises from leisure." – Samuel Johnson, American writer
Records detailing the exact origin of the association vary, but many indicate that the Montana Innkeepers Association was formed in 1888 – the year before Montana itself became a state. The innovative founders formed the association at this time to have representation at the first Montana Legislative Session in 1889. Since then, the association has exercised its influence often, including in the 1987 legislative session, establishing a statewide 4% lodging tax with proceeds to fund the successful state Travel Montana Program that is still thriving today.
In the early ‘50s, the first black and white television sets were placed in hotel lobbies or other public spaces.
Bill Kimpton, the eternal optimist. Convinced that the average consumer was frustrated by a choice between hotels that were either overly pricey and luxurious or else bland and generic, Bill Kimpton introduced to America the small, European-style hotel, the “boutique” hotel. His prototype of a tasteful, moderately priced boutique property, often with a high-profile restaurant attached, has been widely emulated.
In 1927, the Hotel Statler in Boston became the first hotel to offer free radio programs to guests; 1,300 rooms were originally equipped with individual headsets to receive broadcasts from a central control room. The hotel also first introduced private baths, full-length mirrors, and free morning newspaper for each guest.
 "The customer is always right." – E. M. Statler
In 1950, the word “motel” is included in dictionaries, a full 25 years after it was introduced on a sign on the Pacific Coast Highway.
M.K. Guertin: making Best Western a reality. On a road trip from California to Tacoma, Washington, hotelier M.K. Guertin recorded the distances between motels, paying special attention to those just a tank of gas away from one another, and then published his findings as a guide for road travelers. The motels began recommending one another to guests, and in 1946, what began simply as a network of informally affiliated establishments become Best Western Hotels.
In the early 1950s, Quality Courts becomes the first to offer innovations such as wall-to-wall carpeting, daily change of linens, 24-hour desk service, and in-room telephones.
Jack DeBoer: accidental extended-stay visionary. A successful apartment developer who is best known as the forefather of the extended-stay concept, Jack DeBoer came up with the idea by chance. He built the first Residence Inn in 1975 in Wichita when the only way to finance new structures was to secure lodging rates. He founded several all-suite chains, including Residence Inns, Summerfield Hotel Corporation, and Candlewood Hotel Company. The concept resonated with business travelers and is now a mainstay of the industry.
In 1967, Pritzker bought a half-finished hotel in Atlanta and turned it into the Hyatt Regency, the first of the giant atrium hotels.
 Kemmons Wilson: changing the motel landscape. In 1951, Kemmons Wilson, the 38-year-old future founder of the Holiday Inn hotel chain, decided to take his wife and children on vacation to Washington, D.C., and drive the 800 miles from Memphis. After experiencing at a number of motels dotting the highways between the two cities, Wilson vowed to get into the motel business and make some changes. Within a matter of years his company consisted of more than 450 properties. Along the way, he set the industry parameter for room size (12 feet by 30 feet), along with design, amenities (including free TV), franchising, and development.
In 1995, Choice Hotels launches Choicehotels.com, the first Website in the lodging industry to offer real-time access to a CRS.
In 1941, members formally found Quality Courts United, Inc. an association that would be comprised of independent owners, and set the criteria of membership, creating the country’s first hotel chain, which eventually became Choice Hotels International.
In 1958, Sheraton created the first automated, electronic reservations system.
Ernest Henderson and Robert Moore, co-founders of the Sheraton Corporation, transformed the hospitality industry in the 1930s. Buying poorly performing or foreclosed hotels and turning them around at a considerable profit became their recipe for success. In 1937, they acquired the Stonehaven Hotel in Springfield, Mass. Over the next decade, they expanded their holding from Maine to Florida and in 1945 became the first hotel chain to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Using their experience and thriftiness, they expanded the Sheraton name, all while minimizing corporate expenditures by taking on the management of hotels built by others. With their ingenuity, Sheraton became the first hotel company to use the telex system for reservations in 1948.
 The first extended-stay property, the Residence Inn, was built in 1975 in Wichita, Kansas.
Laurance Spelman Rockefeller: the path to eco-tourism. Known for his savvy assimilation of luxury hotel resort structures and amenities into tropical landscapes, Laurance Spelman Rockefeller's vision to create exclusive sanctuaries on such quiet Caribbean beaches as Caneel Day and Dorado Beach in the mid-1950s gained him a reputation as a top hotelier. As a conservationist, his strong belief that building should not intrude on the natural surroundings ushered in what is now known as “eco-tourism.”
In 1984 Quality becomes the first hotel chain to introduce a mandatory program of non-smoking rooms in guest rooms worldwide.
Conrad Hilton had been in the hotel business for 20 years when he finally expanded his Texas hotel chain in 1939, buying a property in New Mexico. Just seven years later, in 1946, he founded Hilton Hotel Corporation, the first coast-to-coast hotel chain in the country. The 1940s were Hilton’s Golden Age as he acquired the Plaza, Waldorf=Astoria, and Roosevelt Hotels in New York City, the Drake in San Francisco, the Palmer House in Chicago. He was also a dedicated philanthropist, setting up a foundation to raise money for humanitarian projects throughout the world.
"If I never do anything else worth remembering in my life, children are going to stay free to motels." – Kemmons Wilson
 Jay Pritzker: the airport innovator. In 1957, while waiting for a flight at a Los Angeles International Airport hotel coffee shop, Jay Pritzker noticed the shop seemed to be unusually busy, and the hotel did not have any vacancies. The hotel — named after its owner, Hyatt von Dehn — was for sale, and Pritzker decided on the spot to buy it, writing his offer of $2.2 million on a napkin. Pritzker bet, correctly, that business executives like himself would want to stay at a high-quality hotel near a large airport. After building a second Hyatt hotel in Burlingame, Calif., near San Francisco International Airport, Jay and his brothers went on to develop properties near airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, then around the country and internationally.
"Whatever you do, do with integrity. Wherever you do, go as a leader. Whomever you serve, serve with caring. Whenever you dream, dream with your all. And never, ever give up." – Curt Carlson
For over 116 years, the California Hotel & Lodging Association (CH&LA) has been protecting the rights and interests of the lodging industry. Thirty-six pioneering lodging professions formed the first organized statewide group of innkeepers, the Southern California Hotel Association, on November 15, 1893. In 1911, this group then joined the American Hotel Association and due to the rapid growth of the lodging industry in Northern California, a second organization was formed; the California Northern Hotel Association. In 1970, the two associations merged and became what is now known as the California Hotel & Lodging Association.
Curt Carlson: the birth of an empire. Having founded the Gold Bond Stamp Company in 1938 with a $55 loan, Curt Carlson decided to diversify in 1962 with the purchase of the Radisson, the premier hotel in Minniapolis. Carlson Companies expanded to become one of the largest privately held corporations in the world and includes Regent International Hotels, Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, TGI Friday’s, and the Radisson Seven Seas luxury cruise line.
In 1980, the first annual Gold Key Awards for Excellence in Hospitality Design are held in conjunction with IH/M&RS.
"If they hand me a key to a room and let me carry my bags, it s motel; if they hand them to a bellboy, it’s a hotel.” – Anonymous AH&LA member
 In 1915, the International Hotel/Motel & Restaurant Show launches as the National Hotel Exposition.
The New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association (NYSH&TA), the country’s oldest state lodging association, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1987 and returned to the city in which it was founded in 1887, Saratoga Springs, NY, for its Annual Meeting. In 1887, the organization was known as the New York State Men’s Hotel Association because in the late 1800s men and woman did not stay in the same hotel. During its 100-year celebration, the Association decided to take a more high profile role advocating for its members on important legislative issues and becoming more involved in tourism marketing statewide, and thus changed its name from the New York State Hotel & Motel Association to the New York State Hospitality & Tourism Association.
In 1985, Shearton becomes the first international hotel chain in the People's Republic of China.
In 1904, New York City's St. Regis provides individually controlled heating and cooling units in each room.
In 1908, Hotel Statler in Buffalo opens with private baths, full legnth mirrors, telephones, and built in radios, serving as the model of hotel construction for the next 40 years.
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