NASHVILLE— Upon hearing the name of the company and the owner’s name, one might wonder how Johnny Walker came to be involved in the hospitality industry. “There is no affiliation to the famous scotch,” said Johnny Walker, president of Johnny Walker Hospitality Group, which is based here in Nashville. Walker began his hospitality career as a front desk clerk during college. From there, he joined Holiday Inn and worked his way through various management training programs. He was subsequently appointed food and beverage manager, and was then promoted to general manager, a position he held for eight years at various properties in Nashville, Memphis and Decatur, AL. After leaving Holiday Inn, Walker went into business for himself to develop hotels in the Nashville area. “I don’t know anything but hotels,” he said, noting that his only deviation from the hospitality industry has been his sightseeing business, Johnny Walker Tours, which operates eight buses that tour Nashville and other parts of Tennessee. During his 30 years in the lodging industry, Walker has owned a total of approximately 30 hotels. The company’s current portfolio consists of seven hotels, ranging in size from 86 to 125 rooms, with flags such as Comfort, Holiday Inn Express, Red Roof, Ramada and the Fiddler’s Inn. The properties are located in Nashville; Eufaula, AL; Camden, AR; and San Antonio. The Johnny Walker Hospitality Group is a relatively small company with 300 employees. But being small doesn’t stop the staff from doing everything internally. The company develops, owns and manages its hotels because “it is easier and more cost efficient,” said Walker. Walker noted that the two full-service Ramada properties in the portfolio are under a mandate to have high-speed Internet access in all guest-rooms by the end of 2001. As far as high-speed Internet access at the other hotels, Walker said that he will “try to see how it goes from development to demand and acceptance by the guest. In Nashville, we’re more tourism than corporate travel; there isn’t that much of a demand.” Although Johnny Walker Hospitality doesn’t have aggressive growth plans, Walker said, “We don’t plan on going to the retirement home. We will look at opportunities as they arise.” Walker said that the company has looked at several projects recently but he is not ready to comment on them. He added that “most of the markets that we want to be in are overbuilt.” These markets are located in the Southeast, specifically in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee. Walker anticipates that there will be “some good acquisitions in the future,” as can happen with overbuilt markets. He does not see expanding beyond these markets, as long as his company remains small. “We need to keep our travel concentrated in one area since our travel time consumes our management time,” he said.
