AMERICAN HOTEL REGISTER COMPANY AND
ITS HISTORY OF COMMITMENT TO THE
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

With roots that date back to the Civil War, American Hotel Register Company has been in a unique position to participate in the dramatic evolution of the hospitality industry. The history of the industry and our company's heritage provide a revealing look at how life in this country has changed. In our more than 140 years in business, our company has continually adapted to the changing times and offered our customers the products and services they have needed to provide superior service to their guests.

Founded in 1865 as a publisher of hotel travel directories and railroad maps, our company incorporated in 1896 under its current name as a manufacturer of patented hotel registers.

In the early 1900s, traveling Americans used passenger trains. The typical hotel in the early 1900s was a multi-story building located downtown, close to the railroad station. There were no chain properties, so each hotel's floor plans, furnishings, and room layouts were entirely unique. As hard as it may be to believe today, each floor shared a common bathroom. The floors were generally hardwood, with no carpeting. Guests entering or leaving the building had to pass through the front lobby. Transactions were in cash only, and records were kept by hand.

By the 1950s, America's postwar prosperity was changing the way people traveled. Automobiles, interstate highways, and air travel led to the building of hotels and motels at highway exits, intersections, and airports. Private bathrooms, televisions, telephones, and air conditioning were still uncommon, and properties that boasted these luxuries were sure to advertise them. Because automobile air conditioning was rare, many new properties were built in U-shapes around swimming pools to attract families that had driven in the heat all day. These new hotels and motels were low, sprawling buildings, constructed on inexpensive open land. Generally, hotels and motels still did business in cash. During this time, American Hotel Register Company shifted its emphasis from advertising to printing and mail order, greatly expanding its product offerings. The company specialized in hotel supplies: printed forms, key tags, key and card racks, and registration pads.

During the decades that followed, the hospitality industry continued to expand and diversify. Hotel chains became the norm, and travelers soon learned exactly what to expect when staying at a certain chain property. Floor plans, furnishings, and amenities for a given chain were the same from coast to coast. Increased guest expectations led to more and more in-room amenities. Today, the "luxuries" of the 1950s are taken for granted. Hotels now offer spas, high-speed Internet access, on-demand entertainment, in-room coffee supplies, hair dryers, microwaves, and mini-bars - and the list keeps growing!

American Hotel Register Company has always tried to ensure that hotels had what the changing times demanded. In fact, our company's catalog now has 2,000+ pages! American Hotel Register Company's business emphasis is still mail order, augmented by distribution to better meet our customers' evolving needs. Today's focus is on national customer programs to enable vendor consolidation, compliance to the chain's brand image, sales and service teams built around each customer's needs, and increased buying power.

The campus of our international headquarters in Vernon Hills, Illinois, houses one of nine distribution centers. The company has a fleet of delivery trucks, an outside sales force, an import department, a department that specializes in locating hard-to-find products, and government, health care, and international divisions.

Technological advances continue to change the way we do business. American Hotel Register Company anticipated its own growing needs by investing in a state-of-the-art centralized computer system to offer the reporting detail and consistent national programs, pricing, products, and operational excellence that customers demand. Through our website, www.americanhotel.com, and with the support of other e-procurement platforms, the company helps customers remove many of the silent costs from their purchasing processes.

Technology, business processes, and management techniques may change, but the need for trust, commitment, and consistency remains the same. When Thomas F. Leahy acquired the business at the turn of the century, he pledged to serve the needs of the hospitality industry. He was succeeded by his son, James F. Leahy, in 1932. Now guided by the third generation of Leahys, James and Thomas, American Hotel Register Company's drive to meet those needs is just as strong today as it was more than 140 years ago.