Mr. and Mrs. R.D. Musser, Jr.

We are so pleased to announce that the Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association voted unanimously this past week to rename their “Hotelier of the Year Award” the “R.D. Musser Hotelier of the Year Award.”

In addition, the Board also voted to devote all future MLTA Workplace Scholarships to the name and memory of a man who was a lodging and tourism visionary. These scholarships are presented to further the careers of creative, talented, and hardworking employees who may lack a diploma, but are equal in potential, value and stature to any college graduate.

The scholarships are offered to assist in covering the costs of certification programs or seminars offered by the AH&LA Educational Institute. In 2013, all R.D. Musser Workplace Scholarships will be awarded at the discretion and direction of Dan Musser III and his management staff, exclusively to current employees of Grand Hotel. Moving forward, those scholarships will be made available to employees in MLTA member properties across Michigan.

President of the MLTA, Steve Yencich interviewed Mr. Musser for a past edition of “Michigan Lodging” and below is an exerpt from this interview.

A conversation with R.D. “Dan” Musser

Dan Musser joined the staff of the Grand Hotel in 1951 and was appointed its president in 1960. Musser and wife Amelia began the redesign of the hotel’s interior and exterior with the help of architect Richard Bos in 1970 and decorator Carleton Varney in 1976. Three year’s later he bought the property from his uncle, W. Stewart Woodfill.

Michigan Lodging: Mr. Musser, when did your hospitality career begin and how has the business changed since then?

I started working for my uncle, W. Stewart Woodfill in Mackinac in 1951. My uncle was sort of my godfather; actually much more than that. My dad died when I was fourteen, and suddenly my Mom was a widow. My uncle sent me to college; which was a great help. I went to college and majored in economics … and drinking beer. (smiling)

Business sure has changed. Back then chain business was pretty much non-existent. It was mostly individual entrepreneurs who owned and operated their properties. That’s not the case nowadays. We’re kind of a freak today. I bet as you look at your membership list today you have a whole lot of chain and corporately-owned properties.

So it’s a different industry. But in the end, it’s still got to be about selling beds and food. That part doesn’t change much. You still have to run a clean place, have a “smiler” who knows how to make people feel at home, and put good food on the table. Those things never change.

ML: What stands out as the most challenging years for Grand Hotel?

I don’t understand how we made it from 1932 until 46. We went from the depression, right into World War II. To give you an example, we used to do a lot of college sorority and fraternity business, national fraternities and sororities, which were, oh…about 400-500 kids or people. That all changed in 1930. I remember coming across files which showed that we booked business in the 30’s for $3.50 a head, with breakfast, lunch and dinner included. We probably didn’t make any money, but it kept us going. And that’s the key. We all struggle from time to time; the trick is to do the things that keep you going.

ML: Let’s talk a little bit about some of the things that have changed since you began…

When I started we had some guests that stayed a month. They could all afford to stay a month. In our place today, that’s over. It’s kind of out of your hands, society has changed; work and vacations have changed with it. Now, a stay is little over two days, so that’s an enormous change. We’ve had to figure out how to change rooms, handle the daily turnover of inventory while maintaining high standards; and nowadays every place else has to make itself unique. Everyone has to react to such changes. The Association has changed just about as much.

ML: How so?

Well, my uncle was Chairman of the Association in the late 1930’s. I saw a copy of a newspaper with front page coverage of the Association’s annual meeting. The newspaper reported there were 600 people there celebrating the end of the tourist season. There was a picture of my uncle, and some of the great operators of that time, and it was all front page information. I can’t envision a hotel meeting today of that size in the state of Michigan, or that kind of press coverage.

And then you go from there to 1968, and if we had 35 to 40 people at our annual meeting, that was unusual. We had some bad years. When I was Chairman, the Association was still dominated by independents. We had a lot of properties that paid one year if they were having a good year; and if not they’d drop the Association. I bet there were some years that there were five or ten of us that paid dues. I understand the economics, but when things are bad; that’s when you need an association.

ML: Why did you support the Association so consistently?

Somewhere early on I realized the Association is not the building, or the equipment or your newsletter; it’s the lobbying, you, your staff, and some of the administrative things. Remember, we’ve made association business a mainstay. So I’ve watched how good associations operate and saw how they benefited their industries. We wanted to help contribute to that happening here. Associations represent people and their livelihoods. I don’t think that will ever change; it never has changed in my fifty years around it.

ML: What do you consider our industry’s greatest asset and biggest weakness?

I don’t know if I ever really thought about that, but I suppose it’s one in the same. I think our biggest assets are service, facilities, and quality. And I think our biggest deficit is the lack thereof. We do some things very well in every property you can think of. All of us do things not as well as we’d like to, and it only takes one bad experience with a staff person to determine a guest’s lasting memory of a property. There’s one requirement in our business, and that’s to put heads in the beds. And that will always take a clean property, good food and good customer service.

ML: What do you consider your biggest strategic decision over the expanse of your career?

For us it was my uncle’s decision to get into convention sales, and our decision to build on it. It was a totally new approach for a resort property like ours; to serve both leisure travel and trade association business. So, that was a dramatic change when we got into that business. That and our decision to extend our season earlier into spring and later into fall have served us well over the years.

But we’ve seen other people make strategic decisions that totally changed things. Take guys like Everett Kircher. He was so farsighted. He built a ski hill up there in 1950, before anyone really skied. He brought business to North Michigan that we were unable to bring. I’m sure we brought some that he wasn’t able to bring. He was a visionary that doesn’t come along very often. Paul Nine in Grand Traverse Resort was another. He had some tough financial times, but he certainly was a visionary to build that complex, and its future looks pretty solid now.

But there’s that kind of people at all levels in this business, regardless of the size of the property. People who think ahead of their times, position their property to survive and grow. That’s been the key to this industry’s future, and always has been in my opinion.