John Q. Hammons

Who was John Q. Hammons?

Ol' John Q. Hammons was an American businessman and one of the nation's premier developers of upscale luxury hotels and resorts. With over 50 years of experience in the hotel industry, John Q. Hammons has built and developed nearly two hundred hotels. While many of the early hotels were Holiday Inns, today's portfolio of hotels include Marriott brands, Hilton brands, and several independent properties including those named University Plazas and the award-winning Chateau on the Lake Resort and Conference Center in Branson, Missouri. He avoided big-city locations in favor of properties in college towns and state capitals. Hammons once said, "The kids will always go to school, and you can't fire the damn politicians." His unique understanding of the evolving needs of the convention industry in the 1980s and 1990s resulted in the development of a number of hotel/convention center combos that revolutionized the meetings industry by providing an alternative to convention centers that required attendees to be shuttled to and from their hotels.