Mark Young
Mark Young, Ph.D., is director of the Hospitality Industry Archives at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel & Restaurant Management, University of Houston.
How M.K. Guertin Defined Best Western’s Mission
Long before the inception of TripAdvisor and GPS, travelers relied on word-of-mouth recommendations, print directories, and guidebooks to find the right place to lay their heads. As early as the 1920s, motel owners began...
How Westin Originated from Operation Rather than Ownership
It all started with a chance meeting in Yakima, Washington. The year was 1930, and S.V. Thurston, a one time acrobat who found owning hotels to be a safer, more profitable line of work,...
How Kemmons Wilson Transformed Lodging
On August 17, 1968, Kemmons Wilson, the founder of Holiday Inn, opened the chain’s 1,000th location in San Antonio, Texas. In the 16 years since Wilson launched the brand with his first property in...
The First Hilton Renaissance
Financially successful and expanding, in 1949 Hilton Hotels was a company on the rise in an industry still struggling from the bleak days of the Great Depression. Founder Conrad Hilton was on the verge...