Drury Hotels Company, LLC is an American hospitality company that operates a chain of mid-scale limited service hotels[1] under the brands Drury Inn and Suites (its flagship brand), Drury Inn, Drury Suites, Drury Plaza Hotel, and Pear Tree Inn.[3] As of 2022, the chain operates more than 150 locations in 26 states.[4] It is wholly owned by the Drury family and is headquartered in metropolitan St. Louis, Missouri.
Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Hospitality |
Founded | 1973 |
Headquarters | Creve Coeur, Missouri, U.S.[1] |
Key people | Charles L. Drury, Jr. (CEO)[2] |
Products | Hotels |
Revenue | $540 million (2016)[3] |
Number of employees | 5,000 (2017)[3] |
Website | www |
The company was founded by the sons of Lambert Drury, a farmer who lost his farm during the Great Depression, and then founded a plastering company.[5] The Drury Development Corporation was founded in 1959. The Drury family built its first hotel, a Holiday Inn, in 1962 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The family started Drury Hotels in 1973 and built its first Drury Inn in Sikeston, Missouri.[5] The Drury Hotels company operates non-Drury hotels as well.[6] In the 1990s, the chain introduced a third brand, Thrifty Inn.[7]
Co-founder Charles Drury died on September 7, 2020, in St. Louis; his death was acknowledged by Governor of Missouri Mike Parson.[8] Two other co-founders, James and Robert, died in 2008 and 2013, respectively.[9][5][10]
In 2021, Drury Hotels earned its 16th-straight J.D. Power award for highest guest satisfaction in upper midscale hotels, the longest-running streak in the category.[11]
Drury Hotels is expected to open three Drury Plaza Hotels in 2024; Tallahassee, Florida, Savannah, Georgia, and Arlington, Texas.
The chain has purchased several historic buildings for renovation as hotels.[12][13] Historic buildings that the chain has renovated into hotels include the Union Market in St. Louis (originally built in 1925),[14] the former Cleveland Board of Education building in Cleveland (originally built in 1931)[15] the former City Public Service Building (originally built in 1921)[16] and the former Alamo National Bank building (originally built in 1929)[17] in San Antonio; a hotel in Wichita, Kansas originally built in 1922[18] a former Sisters of Charity dormitory and hospital in Santa Fe, originally built in 1910 and the early 1950s;[19] and three St. Louis properties originally built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[4] The former Federal Reserve building in Pittsburgh was renovated into a 207-room hotel and opened in late 2016.[20][21] At the Pittsburgh hotel, a former firing range was converted into an indoor pool, and former bank vaults were turned into meeting spaces.[22] It also plans to renovate the former First Financial Centre building in Milwaukee[23] and the former Indianapolis Business Journal building in Indianapolis, which dates to 1924.[24]