Hospitality Insights – Winter 2018
Introducing Merrill’s to the New Bedford Waterfront | We’ve got Plymouth Covered | Hotel Transformations Celebrations | Lafrance Adopts a Highway | Food For Tots Recap
Tribute to Rita Lafrance, Lafrance Hospitality acquires Holiday Inn Express Middletown, RI hotel, Marriott GM conference, Lafrance rebranding with new website and logo, Courtyard Littleton, MA hotel wins Best New Opening Award from Marriott International, Lafrance Hospitality awarded 5th consecutive WeddingWire award
Lafrance Hospitality acquires Residence Inn North Conway, NH hotel, Courtyard by Marriott Littleton, MA, and Fairfield Inn & Suites, Plymouth, NH hotels open, Boston Business Journal names Lafrance Hospitality #3 largest veteran-owned company in Massachusetts and more!
Making History in New Bedford! The Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott, of New Bedford is open! The beautiful 106 room hotel, 28 of which are suites, offers incredible views of the waterfront on one side and the historic city on the other. This Marriott Hotel is just a wonderful addition to our Hilton & Choice Hotel properties. Additionally, the Waypoint Event Center, adjacent to the hotel, opened just a few weeks ago. The Event Center boasts meeting rooms on the first floor and a large function room on the second. The function room is accessible by elevator, as well as stairs. This brings to four, the number of function facilities owned by the company. Put that together with an exceptional catering company – Christian’s Catering, and we can bring our special brand of hospitable, friendly service of fine food, anywhere in the area!
Construction is moving right along on the Marriott Fairfield Inn & Suites. We are all hoping for the June 1 opening date, which has been the goal from the beginning. All of New Bedford is excited to have the hotel property in town, after 40 years! Be sure to stay tuned!
The Family Business Association announced that the Massachusetts Family Business Awards’ highly prestigious “Community Excellence Award” for 2009, goes to the Lafrance Family of Lafrance Hospitality! The award for the philanthropic/community business of the year was presented to the family at the annual awards dinner on October 15th, in Boston, MA. The family prides itself that family and non-family member of the company are community minded, serving on upwards of 30 community boards; and have chaired United Way and other community based capital campaigns, served as presidents of service clubs such as Rotary, Lions and Exchange and annually volunteer hundreds of hours to community projects.
We firmly believe that one of the reasons that Lafrance Hospitality continues to succeed is that we keep up with the times. In recognition that our customers and friends travel the world wide web, Hospitality Insights will in the future, be a web based publication. We are all excited about this and the plan to publish four times a year, rather than the usual two. Please be sure to complete our request for your email address, if you have not already given it to us, so that we may include you in the Hospitality Insights distribution. Visit www.LafranceHospitality.com and join our FishBowl eClub for special promotions, birthday gifts, news and more!
The beautiful Homewood Suites of Dover, New Hampshire, opened for business right on schedule! The result was due to the hard work of a lot of people. In particular, Richard Lafrance (who had the vision), Sean Lafrance (who oversaw the construction from the LHC side), Tim Burkhardt (who coordinated the New Hampshire hotel group) and of course Angie Randall (who worked diligently with General Manager, Dave Paleno to order the soft goods necessary to operate a hotel). This property is a partnership with Lafrance Bowden Hospitality. Also, right next door is a brand new Margaritas Mexican Restaurant! Besides serving incredible Mexican food, the restaurant is a colorful gallery of unique Mexican art. So be sure to stop in when your visiting!
Tremendous progress has been made on our newest hotel venture, the Comfort Inn & suites of Wilton/Farmington, Maine. the hotel is located in the Western Mountain and Lakes region of Maine. the area boasts summer and winter recreational activities to please everyone in the family. the hotel will have all of the amenities that we look for in a limited service facility – indoor pool and spa, fitness center, hot Comfort sunshine Breakfast, wireless internet, and many other amenities. We originally expected May, but now anticipate June 1. We can’t wait!
Lafrance Hospitality continues to be an energetic, growing company. Our Dover, NH Hampton Inn (below) is right on target, with a projected opening in August, 2007. The hotel is adjacent to our Dover Comfort Inn & Suites and will offer Hilton HHonors® members a fine choice of accommodations…
This is the tenth season for the LHC Community Cares Cards. The card was the brainchild of Richard Lafrance as a way to increase charitable giving in our community. For those not familiar with the card, LHC spearheads the production of the card, which is then distributed to worthy groups…
As our 50th anniversary celebration comes to a close – officially Easter Sunday, April 16th – my family and I look back in wonder at all that has brought us here. We are grateful to Aime’s dream, and the ability to build on that dream with talented family members who serve in leadership positions throughout our company…
Lafrance Hospitality is a New England based hotel & restaurant company providing expertise in hotel and restaurant management and development. Established in 1955 as a nine stool diner in Fall River, MA, our portfolio has expanded to New Hampshire, Maine and Florida and includes 14 hotels, 4 fine dining establishments, 5 function facilities and a catering company.
Our family owned and operated company delivers impressive financial results, and a commitment to manage our clients’ assets as if they were our own. Our small size affords our team the opportunity to focus on each hotel’s individual markets and needs, and apply our core principles; hiring, training and retaining the best team members, exceeding guest expectations, and maintaining streamlined, efficient operations.
Our vision is to be the PREMIER Hospitality Company by employing the VERY BEST PEOPLE, trained and empowered, to deliver a QUALITY product with SENSATIONAL service to every guest, every time.