New hotel booming with business

By Billy Bruce

VALDOSTA — A six-story, full service hotel is not only on the city’s horizon. It’s open for business and already drawing conventions and tourists.

The new 160-room Valdosta Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center opened April 5, just in time to get some business from the South Georgia Classic PGA Tour event at Kinderlou Forest. A weekend gathering by the Georgia Army National Guard drew 100 guests to the hotel for events that included an outdoor barbecue with a live band to a black tie formal event in the hotel’s Magnolia Ballroom, according to Katrina Moon, director of sales for the new Holiday Inn.

“I think one thing the guests like is that we have everything under one roof and they don’t have to go far to do things,” Moon said. “This is a very versatile facility.”

Moon and Kim Goolsby, who is manager of the facility’s restaurant and lounge, both were among a dozen or so employees who worked at the old Holiday Inn an exit north on North St. Augustine Road at I-75.

The former Holiday Inn, which Williams Investment Co. didn’t own, and the hotel beside it has been vacant for some time. The property has been bought by a company that wants to develop a Drury Inn. A Holiday Inn Express is planned for the former Howard Johnson’s property on the same exit, CEO John L. Williams said.

Meanwhile, the Williams Investment Co., owners of the new Holiday Inn, already are scoping out the future of the 51-acre parcel where the hotel is located at 1805 W. Hill Ave. near I-75. The Adel-based company won the franchise for the new Holiday Inn from some very tough competitors, company officials said during a recent tour of the complex.

Williams Investment Co. bought the property 17 years ago from CSX and already owns the adjacent Days Inn, Super 8 Hotel and the International House of Pancakes Restaurant on West Hill. Plans for remaining outparcels on the acreage are for more restaurants and another quality lodging facility.

“We’re real proud of this facility and where it’s heading,” said son Rick Williams, who along with his father John L. and brothers Mike and Steve Williams, and brother-in-law Paul McNeal, are co-owners of the Holiday Inn and run the Williams Investment Co. The firm is celebrating its 44th year of developing properties on I-75 and in South Georgia, and currently operates or is opening 12 lodging facilities in the region.

That a local firm was able to win the franchise from the Holiday Inn corporation for the new hotel was a big win for local contractors and other businesses that were hired by the Williams Investment Co. to do everything from complete architectural plans to paint the walls and hang art in the rooms, John L. Williams said.

“We are a local company with four children who own the company,” he said. “My wife and I live in Adel. Three of the children live in Valdosta and one lives in Adel. We’re about as local as you can get. We strongly believe in supporting the local community by giving business to local suppliers, construction companies and other service providers. The majority of people who were involved in the construction of this hotel were local people. And we’re a clean enough company that local banks handled the construction and permit financing.”

The owners already are dubbing the facility as Valdosta’s premier, full service lodging facility. A recent review by Triple AAA Auto Club earned the facility a solid 3-diamond score. Rick Williams was ecstatic about earning such a high score when the hotel is so new.

“They don’t have any 4 diamond hotels south of Atlanta, so we feel very good to have already gotten a high 3 at this stage,” he said.

“We say with confidence that we are Valdosta’s premier hotel.”

The new Holiday Inn boasts some exciting features, like large flat screen, high definition TVs in every room, a large outdoor heated swimming pool and Jacuzzi, indoor fitness center, pre-registration check-in desk separate from regular registration at the front desk, an inner corridor for service employees so public elevators are kept clear for guests, a computer-equipped business center, complimentary wireless and wired high speed Internet service, and conference, banquet and meeting facilities for up to 200 guests.

A huge, open outdoor patio area by the swimming pool is complemented by two covered gazebos that can be used for live entertainment or wet bars. The owners say the area also can be used as a wedding garden where locals could hold wedding receptions or other such social gatherings.

Guests have a variety of options for rooms. There are five rooms equipped with in-room Jacuzzis. There are four “family” suites equipped with bunk beds for children in a split floor plan that gives the parents a private bedroom and a large shared bathroom. Approximately 110 rooms have queen-sized beds, and the remaining 50 or so rooms have king-sized beds.

The local business community is invited to utilize the hotel’s meeting facilities. CEO John L. Williams stressed that hotel staff are geared for quick response to local needs.

“If you’re sitting in your office at 3 p.m. and suddenly realize that you need a breakfast meeting room for 20 people in the morning, we can do it,” Williams said.

The hotel’s Azalea Restaurant and Lounge will soon have a lunch buffet open for business, and guests in rooms can utilize reliable room service if they prefer to dine in, he said.

The hotel’s banquet facilities aren’t meant to be competitive with the James H. Rainwater Conference Center, Williams said. “They can handle the larger gatherings. Together we all work to meet the community’s needs,” he said.

Overall, the addition of a high quality 160-room hotel and conference center is something the city can celebrate as a sign of a strong, growing economy, the owners said.

“This is something Valdosta definitely needed,” Moon said. “Other than the Rainwater conference center, there’s not a lot of meeting space in Valdosta.”



Holiday Inn and Conference Center

1805 W. Hill Ave.

I-75 (Exit 16) and U.S. 84

Phone: 229-244-1111

Fax: 229-244-6900

E-mail: sales@hivaldosta.com

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