cite any sources . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . october 2008 learn how and when to remove this template message winegardner and hammons hotel group llc logo type private founded 1961 headquarters cincinnati oh key people j. erik kamfjord chairman emeritus mike conway ceo kent bruggeman cfo brien perkins coo terry dammeyer ccdo private company industry hospitality website www.whihotels.com winegardner and hammons is a full service hotel management and development company established in 1961 roy e. winegardner and john q. hammons . it is one of the original franchisers of holiday inn . company history edit in 1957 winegardner bought his first holiday inn franchise in lexington kentucky . hammons joined winegardner in 1958 and they created a private independent hotel management company . they entered into an agreement with holiday inn to develop their hotels . the company incorporated in 1961 and during the 1960s built nearly three dozen holiday inn hotels . in the following years the company diversified adding third party management of hotels as well as other hotel brands . the most notable expansion added accounting and financial services for the hospitality industry . whi emerges as one of the first franchises to be selected to grow the full service marriott brand in 1994 . in 1996 the company opened its first full service marriott hotel . it continues to expand into development of upscale full service lifestyle select service and conference center hotels . awards edit 2003 john hammons named corporate hotelier of the world sponsored by hotels magazine 2004 roy winegardner and john hammons inducted into the hospitality industry hall of honor 2005 2014 gallup great workplace winner nine time consecutive recipient 2000 2014 marriott international partnership circle awards 2011 2014 marriott international service excellence award 2011 2014 marriott international food and beverage excellence award external links edit winegardner and hammons hotel group this article about a hotel or resort in the united states is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title winegardner and hammons & oldid 743395680 categories hospitality companies of the united statescompanies established in 1961companies based in cincinnatiunited states hotel stubshidden categories articles lacking sources from october 2008all articles lacking sourcesall stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 13 11 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view