It’s about making those emotional connections,” he says. “That was my ‘ah-ha’ moment, when I truly realized what hospitality was all about. He could focus on creating an experience, at properties that were small and uniquely outfitted, with amenities that aimed to delight - and make a hotel stay feel more like a stay in the stylish home of a dear friend. “Joining Kimpton Hotels marked my departure from 1700-room hotels to much smaller 100-room hotels, where I could interact with every employee and every guest, every day,” LaTour says. Bill Kimpton, a hotelier who had just opened the first-ever “boutique hotel” in San Francisco, brought LaTour on as president of Kimpton Hotels and together, they began to fill this very specific niche. It was the early 1980s, after nearly two decades of work for enormous hotel and food service brands affiliated with the airline and railway industries, when LaTour finally had his chance. Later, as a student in The Broad College of Business’ School of Hospitality Business, LaTour picked up on a certain emotional aspect to working in the Kellogg Center. “It was a very rich environment, which rewarded curious minds and people who wanted to work hard.” “At that very early age, I was introduced to hospitality business in its most optimal format: a continuing education hotel,” LaTour says.
HOTEL MOGUL HELP FULL
Growing up in Lansing, where MSU’s campus was as familiar and welcoming a place as his own backyard, Tom LaTour was exposed to enough experiences that his future could’ve taken off in any number of directions.īut it was his first job, as a dishwasher at MSU’s Kellogg Center at the age of 14, which captured his full attention and steered him in the direction of hospitality business. Tom LaTour, Chairman and Director of Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group LLC, created the LaTour Family Endowment Fund for Student Travel in The School of Hospitality Business
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