The Modern Hotelier#348: How Kohler Built a Luxury Resort Empire: Innovation Meets Tradition | with Stephen Beaumont
Stephen is President and COO of Kohler Hospitality — the division behind Whistling Straits, The Old Course Hotel at St Andrews, and Lodge Kohler.
In this episode of The Modern Hotelier, hosts David Millili and Steve Carran sit down with him for a conversation that starts with jazz piano and ends with an AI booking engine.
He started out wanting to be a musician. He talks honestly about keeping music as a passion instead of a career, and how that advice shaped the way he built everything after it.
Then there's the career: apprenticeship with The Savoy Hotel Company on day release at Westminster College, leadership roles across the British Virgin Islands and Montana, a multimedia company he built with his wife, and a chocolate business he taught himself during the pandemic — with his basement certified as a commercial kitchen.
Now at Kohler, Stephen walks through how the company grew hospitality organically out of a plumbing manufacturer, and why they treat guest experience holistically instead of judging each outlet on its own P&L. If you run hotel operations or you're studying hotel management, the section on dynamic packages is the one to steal.
On AI, he's specific. Current agent call times average 25 minutes. He wants a booking engine that queries lodging, golf, spa and dining inventories in real time and returns one personalized package at one price.
His line on storytelling is the one worth writing down: find a story, tell that story, leverage that story, and keep it authentic.
Curiosity is king. Our business is a people business. Time is very precious for everybody.
In this episode you'll learn:
Why Stephen kept piano as a passion instead of a career, and how that advice shaped every business after
What a Savoy apprenticeship teaches that hotel school can't
How a plumbing manufacturer grew a hospitality division, and runs golf, spa, dining and retail as one experience, not separate P&Ls
The AI booking engine he's building: one real-time query across every inventory, one personalized package, one price
Watch the FULL EPISODE on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sGDtv1fv5Bw
Links:
Stephen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjbeaumont/
Kohler Hospitality: https://www.kohlerwisconsin.com/
For full show notes head to: https://themodernhotelier.com/episode/348
Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-..
Join the conversation on today's episode on The Modern Hotelier LinkedIn page
Connect with Steve and David:
Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E...
David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mil.
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