NABHOOD

The group further decided that the industry did not have a good record for including African Americans and other minorities in many of the top executive positions nor was there a lot of business being done with minority vendors. It was agreed that the association would work toward educating the industry on how they can improve the current situation and at the same time, use the resources of the association to help the industry. At that time, there were no major franchised African American hotels of any consequence in the U.S. In the early seventies, eighties and nineties there were only three hotels in the United States that were franchised and part of a major hotel chain. The first was a Holiday Inn in Tuskegee, AL that opened in the early seventies and later became the Tuskegee Inn before going out of business. The second was opened by Mabra Holeyfield and Frank Banks as the Benchmark Hotel in 1983 and became the Days Inn in 1988. That hotel was sold in 2008 to NABHOOD’s then Chairman, Mike Roberts and was converted to a Clarion Collection. The third was the 105 room Travelodge Hotel when an investment group led by Charlotte, North Carolina’s first African American mayor and businessman Harvey Gantt, who purchased a bankrupt hotel and cafeteria in the heart of Charlotte’s African American community. After a two million dollar renovation, the hotel opened in July 1998. There were also few flagstones with small hotels like the first Black owned hotel in the nation’s capital, Howard Inn, that opened as the Humbree House in the early eighties and the 120 room Paschal’s Motor Hotel in Atlanta, GA that opened in 1967. This new group that had formed at the Multicultural Tourism Summit & Trade Show in Fort Lauderdale, Florida used the rational that African Americans were the largest group of minority travelers in the industry and spending twenty-five billion dollars annually at that time. After much debate and discussion, The National Association of Black Hotel Owners, Operators & Developers (NABHOOD) was incorporated in 2001. Andy Ingraham is the Founder and President/CEO of the organization. NABHOOD held its first board meeting at former Baltimore Ravens/Indianapolis Colts defensive end Donnell Thompson’s Sleep Inn, then located in Peachtree City outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Donnell Thompson was elected as the first Chairman and Andy Ingraham became the President. Attending that first meeting was the new Chairman & President, along with Carroll Warfield of Thayer lodging, Don Rose of Accor, Jay Patel of Lodging Hospitality Systems and James Kimble of Boersma Travel. Andy had already begun working with the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) and one of the first things NABHOOD did was to form a strategic alliance with them. A seat on NABHOOD’s board was created so that the current AAHOA chairman can serve as an ex officio board member. NABHOOD has since established itself as the only association of its kind and a major force in the hospitality industry.