Hospitality West Llc history

Among those who arrived was a physician named William A. Bowles, who established the French Lick Springs Hotel in 1845.

1846: Mere months after Bowles opened his resort hotel, the country declared war on Mexico.

In 1855, the town of Mile Lick, a mile north of the giant salt lick and springs in French Lick was renamed West Baden.

1883: After operating the West Baden Springs Hotel for the better part of four decades, Lane eventually sold the destination to a group of investors led by Amos and John Stout.

In 1887, a wave of new tourist traffic arrived in the area when the Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville Railway established an extension of its line (called the Monon Railroad) to both French Lick Springs Hotel and West Baden Springs Hotel.

Forming an investment company with his friend, E.B. Rhodes, the two men purchased West Baden Springs Hotel and 667 acres of nearby land for a sum of $23,000 in 1888.

Susanna’s grandfather was Harrison Albright, the hotel’s architect when it was built in 1901-02.

Historical Image of Exterior, West Baden Springs Hotel, 1902, Member of Historic Hotels of America, in West Baden, Indiana.

The hotel owner's son, Harold E. Maltby, became friends with Thurston and, eventually, they decided to enter the hotel business, forming the Maltby-Thurston Corporation in 1910.

But when he died in 1916, his daughter and heir, Lillian, initiated a thorough series of renovations wit her husband, Charles.

In the year 1919, Conard Hilton opened his first hotel in Texas.

1922: Despite the resort opening once again three years prior, the Rexfords decided to sell it to a creditor named Edward Ballard.

Carlson, who would eventually become chair and chief executive officer of United Airlines parent UAL, Inc., started as a page boy at the Benjamin Franklin in 1929, then became the hotel's elevator operator and bellhop.

The following year, in 1930, Frank Dupar and Severt Thurston were seated at different tables in a coffee shop in a small town east of Seattle called Yakima.

The following year, in 1931, Western assumed the management of its first property outside United States borders by adding Vancouver, British Columbia's Georgia Hotel to its consortium of hotels.

Struggling to keep the destination afloat during the early years of the Great Depression, he closed West Baden Springs Hotel in 1932.

The insurance company recommended Western, and DeGolia began negotiations with Thurston and Dupar (the Schmidts had returned to brewing beer when prohibition was repealed in 1933). Thurston and Dupar agreed to manage the hotel, provided they receive an equity share in the hotel.

1934: Edward Ballard saw the West Baden Springs Hotel reach new heights under his stewardship, but the onset of the Great Depression greatly affected the business’ financial stability.

In 1941 managers at a meeting in Seattle began to precisely describe the role of Western in relation to the hotels it managed.

By 1946, however, Western had begun a gradual shift toward assuming a more prominent image within its hotels.

With names such as the "Matador Room," "The Outrigger," and the "Hitching Post," the lounges and dining rooms experienced increased revenues and were greatly augmented when Idaho and Washington legalized the sale of liquor by the drink in 1949.

In 1952 Western's "Family Plan" was introduced, allowing children under the age of 14 to stay without charge in their parents' rooms.

Later on, Conard also bought the Ellsworth Statler’s chain of hotels in the year 1954.

On Easter Sunday, 1955, Roland ‘Aime’ and Rita Lafrance took the biggest risk of their lives when they opened a family restaurant in Westport, MA, named it White’s, hired customer service driven employees and embarked on a family enterprise.

In 1956 the company began managing the massive, 1,200-room Hawaiian Village in Honolulu and, by the end of the decade, had assumed control of four hotels in Guatemala.

To better reflect this dramatic entry into foreign countries, Western changed its name in 1963 to "Western International Hotels."

The major attraction of the new hotel was the circular building topped by a spectacular dome, designed by architect Harrison Albright which was the world's largest free-spanning dome until the Houston Astrodome in 1965.

1966: The Jesuits subsequently sold the erstwhile resort to Macauley and Helen Whiting, who, in turn, donated it to the Northwood Institute.

Building projects for the decade ended in 1969 with the construction of the Washington Plaza in Seattle.

In 1970 a 525-room hotel was opened in Bangkok and, a year later, a hotel of similar size was opened in Singapore, both of which were constructed by Western.

Two other Western-built hotels brought the company into South Africa and Norway, with the opening of Johannesburg's Carlton in 1972 and the Hotel Scandinavia three years later in Oslo.

1974: While the West Baden Springs Hotel functioned as a satellite campus for the Northwood Institute, the United States Department of the Interior listed the site on the National Register of Historic Places.

In the year 1980, the United Nations World Tourism Organization announced the day of September 27 as “World Tourism Day”. The idea of this celebration is to bring sustainability to the tourism sector all around the world.

In 1981 Western changed its name to Westin Hotels, and then four years later to Westin Hotels & Resorts.

The school operated until 1983 when it was purchased by H. Eugene MacDonald who could not secure financing for a hotel conversion.

1984 Opens Bois du Lac condominiums in Dallas, TX

1985 Opens Bois du Cheve condominiums in Dallas, TXOpens Village on the Creek in College Station, TX

United Airlines' strategy to develop a vertically integrated travel empire, which had begun with its merger with Westin, had proved unsuccessful and, by 1987, United was looking to divest the hotel chain.

An interested party, the Aoki Corporation of Japan, began negotiations with United and, in 1988, Aoki Corp.--a diversified international corporation with major lines of business in engineering, construction, and hotels--purchased Westin for $1.53 billion.

Lafrance Hospitality Company took a step in a new direction in 1989, with the opening of it’s first limited service Hampton Inn hotel, adjacent to White’s of Westport.

A massive restructuring in 1991 consolidated Aoki's hotel assets with the Westin operating company.

1992: The National Trust for Historic Preservation partnered with the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana to try and save the West Baden Springs Hotel.

To differentiate itself, in January 1993 Westin launched the Service Express program as well as Westin Royal Vacations.

A group led by Starwood Capital and Goldman, Sachs bought the chain for $537 million in cash and debt in late 1994.

True salvation arrived in 1996, when the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana struck a deal with the Cook Group of to thoroughly restore the West Baden Springs Hotel.

Inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998 for his playing career, Bird today is regarded as one of the sport’s most prolific figures.

It opened nine new properties in 1999 "from Texas to Taiwan." The Rio Mar Beach Resort in Puerto Rico and Westin La Cantera Resort at San Antonio, Texas together cost about $280 million to build.

2002 Texas Western Hospitality is founded

In 2006, the Cook Group became the sole owner of the West Baden Springs Hotel, joining the resort with its longtime rival — French Lick Springs Hotel — to form the new French Lick Resort.

With the sale of the Fairhaven and Franklin Hampton Inn properties in 2007 to the Claremont Company, Lafrance launched its first non-owned Hotel Service Contracts.

Founded in the year 2008, Airbnb opened up a new segment in the hospitality industry.

In 2010, the Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott & Waypoint Event Center openined in Historic Downtown New Bedford, MA, and has since won many awards for its near perfect guest service scores.

2012 brought on the acquisition of a Holiday Inn Express in Milford, Massachusetts and the opening of Ten Cousins Brick Oven, on Main Road in Westport, MA.

Turkel was designated as the “2014 Historian of the Year by Historic Hotels of America,” the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

A member of Historic Hotels of America since 2015, West Baden Springs Hotel has stood as an iconic landmark in Indiana for the better part of three centuries.

Courtyard by Marriott Boston Littleton, located at The Point in Littleton, MA, a mixed-use retail destination on I-495, opened in May of 2016 and soon after, a Fairfield Inn & Suites hotel in Plymouth, NH, at the foothills of the White Mountains, opened in September 2016.