In August 1952, Kemmons Wilson, a home builder in Memphis, Tennessee, drove to and from Washington, D.C., to attend meetings at the National Association of Home Builders. Joining him for those long drives were his wife and their five young children.
While the family visit to our nation’s capital was an enjoyable experience, the overnight motel stops between Memphis and Washington were not.
As was the case with many roadside motels of that era, they provided relatively small and shabby rooms, few if any amenities, and were little more than shelter from the weather and other outside elements. Most aggravating to Wilson were additional charges for each of his children.
On the drive back to Memphis, Wilson told his wife there had to be a better way. That observation reflected Wilson’s lifelong guiding principle that everyday needs always provide opportunities for improvement.
Wilson had a vision of a motel where kids stayed free in comfortably sized, clean rooms with amenities such as television, air conditioning, ice machines, a pool, an onsite restaurant providing good food at reasonable prices, and kennels for pet dogs. He knew travelers wanted, but were not getting, quality, reliability, predictability, and a fair fixed price for motel rooms.
With that vision in hand, he approached several Memphis banks for loans to finance his model of a better roadside motel. Every bank gave him the same response: no. They told him his idea was impractical, would never succeed, and was not worthy of a loan.
Wilson was never deterred by difficulties, including a rough start to life. Born in Osceola, Arkansas, his father died when Kemmons was only nine months old. His mother moved with him to Memphis, where she lost her job during the Great Depression. An only child, Kemmons dropped out of school at age 17 to help support his mother and himself.
The entrepreneurial spirit that became the hallmark of his life started with a $50 loan from a friend. He used that loan to buy a popcorn machine that he strategically placed in front of a movie theater.
Within three years, he had saved $1,700 from popcorn sales, an extraordinary amount of money in the middle of the Great Depression.
Eventually, the theater owner purchased Kemmons’ lucrative popcorn venture and ran it himself inside the theater.
As an adult, Kemmons became a home builder, an industry historically characterized by high risks and high returns. He did well and became relatively wealthy by age 40.
After being rejected by the banks for his motel vision, he decided that, as a home builder with a range of subcontractors at his disposal, he could and would self-fund construction of his motel.
He proceeded to build his first Holiday Inn in Memphis in 1952. The name came from a friend who told him about the classic and still-popular 1942 Christmas movie Holiday Inn. Wilson liked the name and adopted it for his new motel. He also went on to design the familiar, ubiquitous, and welcoming green-and-gold Holiday Inn logo.
In 1957, Wilson decided to make Holiday Inn franchises available. It was a shrewd move that was met with immediate and widespread success.
Five years after opening his first Holiday Inn, there were 30 more, and by the end of the decade there were 100.
It affirmed his belief that a traveler’s “known quantity” in lodging options mattered as much as location.
Holiday Inn went international in 1960, further affirming the foresight and wisdom of Wilson’s early franchising and growth strategy.
By 1975, there were 1,700 franchised Holiday Inn hotels with more than 365,000 rooms around the world. Holiday Inn rightfully branded itself as “The World’s Innkeeper.”
True to his lifelong belief that everyday needs provide opportunities for improvement, Wilson built “Holidomes” at select Holiday Inns. They were indoor, climate-controlled recreation spaces with year-round access to swimming pools, arcade games, mini golf, tiki bars, shuffleboard, and seating areas for guest parties and get-togethers.
He was also responsible for pioneering the concept of the standardized, franchised hotel system that is used today around the world and includes lodging chains across every price level.
He was an early adopter and leader in using technology. He launched the “Holidex” reservation system, which made it easy for customers to get accurate and timely information on the availability of rooms wherever there was a Holiday Inn.
Kemmons Wilson’s lasting legacy is about more than being a successful entrepreneur and businessman. His legacy is his personal and enduring commitment to fully understand, respect, and meet the expectations of every guest at every Holiday Inn.
His vision of a better kind of motel started after a family vacation and with the construction of one Holiday Inn. Ultimately, that better way became the norm, rather than the exception, for lodging around the world.
A personal observation: As Executive Director of the Home Builders Association of Memphis, I had the privilege of meeting and getting to know Kemmons. He was a founder, past president, and active member of that organization. He is one of the most interesting and finest individuals I have ever known.
