[lg policy] Texas: The Whitten Way: successful hotel operator -- and controversial

[Harold Schiffman]

The Whitten Way: successful hotel operator -- and controversial

By Jaime Adame

Larry Whitten rode the bus alone from North Carolina. “I had $24 when
I landed in Abilene, Texas, to my name,” said Whitten, recalling his
arrival in 1985 to manage a flagging Ramada Inn. To hear Whitten talk,
the place was corrupt. Income had been falsified, and the payroll
included imaginary housekeepers. He had second thoughts about taking
the job. Or, as Whitten put it, “Me and the good Lord had a talk.” His
resolve would harden. “I didn’t come here to fail, I came here to
win,” Whitten said.

Now 64, much has changed for Whitten, owner of two hotels in Abilene,
one in South Carolina and one in New Mexico. In recent weeks, however,
Whitten has come to be known for his troubles in Taos, N.M., not his
success in Abilene. Even in a life marked by conflict and challenges,
his most recent hotel acquisition has mushroomed into a firestorm
unlike any other Whitten has faced. “Of course, I wish I had never
seen Taos,” Whitten said.

Claims of racism

He’s been called a racist for his policies at the Taos hotel, a charge
Whitten vehemently denies. After intense media coverage, he’s now
known nationally as the boss who demanded that some of his New Mexico
employees shorten their names. Doing so, some said, caused them to
lose part of their Spanish identity. In the dining room of his Whitten
Inn on East Highway 80, Whitten sat down Wednesday for what would be
the first of several conversations with a reporter. While the ring
tone on his cell phone may play the Marines’ Hymn, his square glasses
and Southern drawl actually convey more of a grandfatherly image than
the “tough-talking ex-Marine” description proffered by at least one
writer. Whitten served six years in the Marines before finding his
niche in the hotel business.

Being called a bigot is simply the worst thing he could think of being
called, he said.After a few minutes of conversation, he leaps up and
jogs away, whistling upon his return. He wants a reporter to see more
than a half-dozen letters written by minority employees who support
their boss. In Taos, “I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody’s culture,” he
said, adding that he was surprised by the reaction to his policies. He
has carried the name-shortening policy with him from hotel to hotel
for employees who spoke to guests over the phone, and there were never
with any problems, he said. Once, an “Axel” became “Jay,” he said,
while other Spanish names have been simple enough for Whitten to
remain unchanged.

“I’m not real educated,” Whitten said. “I’ll be dead before I learn
Spanish.” And while he ordered employees to stop speaking Spanish in
his presence, he never forbid them from speaking Spanish elsewhere on
the property, he said. The language policy was unusual for Whitten,
but he wanted to keep better tabs on employees, some of whom he
suspected of offering free rooms to friends or other transgressions.
Whitten said protesters have lied and exaggerated what he did, and he
offers harsh words for ex-employees.
No longer whistling or smiling, he turned serious later in the
interview. Now, he said, there have been physical threats against him,
and he’s worried about his safety and the safety of his family. He
doesn’t hold back his feelings toward the protesters who gather in
front of his Taos hotel. “I pray a car runs over all of them,” he
said.

Legal troubles

Before Taos, Whitten had already displayed an outsize personality that
seems to match the Whitten Inn roadside billboards picturing him and
his wife of 25 years, Mary Ann.

Earlier this year, he publicized his experience with the Texas
Employment Commission. After Whitten set up a housekeeper suspected of
stealing by placing money in a Bible, the commission said he was wrong
to fire the employee after the money turned up missing. “Your
government at work,” Whitten wrote in a letter to this newspaper that
outlined the basics of the dispute. The commission later reversed its
decision.

Two other disagreements led to misdemeanor criminal charges against
Whitten. In one 2001 case, later dismissed, an employee received a
phone message described in court documents as Whitten threatening to
“kick his ass.” The other charge, in 2002, stemmed from a competitor
who reported wanting the return of 18 chairs accidentally dropped off
at one of Whitten’s hotels.

He is dismissive of a question about what the two mild run-ins with
the law say about him.

“You would have to ask a psychologist what it means about my
personality; it’s just me,” Whitten said. He acknowledged leaving the
threatening phone message because the worker failed to show for night
duty, though he said he was never serious about going to the man’s
home and harming him.

And, while the man quit, Whitten said the worker’s wife is still a
Whitten Inn employee.

“His wife and I don’t talk about it,” Whitten said.

He said he didn’t remember the chair incident, though court records
state that Whitten refused to return the chairs based on an unrelated
civil dispute. Court records show he pleaded no contest to a
misdemeanor theft charge, and, through deferred adjudication, had the
charge dismissed after paying a few hundred dollars in fees.

It may be one side of Whitten, but Rochelle Johnson, general manager
of the Taylor County Expo Center, described the Whitten she knows as
“very civic-minded,” noting that he donated 30 rooms during this
year’s West Texas Fair & Rodeo, a key event for the Expo Center.

Jennilee Latimer, conventions sales director for the Abilene
Convention and Visitors Bureau, said simply, “He runs a good ship.”

“His hotels are definitely always clean and his guests are treated
very, very well,” said Latimer, adding that Whitten’s relationship
with the bureau “has always been good.”

Joe Crawford, president of Abilene Aero, a charter service, said he
sometimes refers pilots and other clients to Whitten’s hotels.

“We just get rave reviews,” Crawford said about Whitten’s hotels.

‘I’m a simple person’

Whitten grew up in Virginia, where he quit school after the seventh grade.

“I was very interested in money and not interested in school,” he
said. In his teens, he managed a fast-food restaurant and a pool hall.

After time in the Marines, he landed his first hotel job. Whitten said
he worked 18 to 20 hours a day as a desk clerk at a 1,200-room Hilton
hotel in Washington, D.C.

“I had to overcome my lack of education by working hard and being
better,” Whitten said.

He said he borrowed his philosophy from the title of hotelier Conrad
Hilton’s book, “Be My Guest.”

“I took it to heart because I’m a simple person,” Whitten said.

He moved frequently while managing hotels. Two marriages didn’t last.

“The main reasons for divorce was me working too much,” he said.

For a few years, Whitten managed hotels in Virginia for Louis
Salomonsky, whose wife would later sue Whitten over a loan and win a
judgment in 1992 for $30,000.

As a manager, “he did an awesome, awesome job for us,” said
Salomonsky, remembering Whitten as “just a driven, intense person.”

“He’s very much a perfectionist,” said Salomonsky, describing the
lawsuit as a dispute typical of many business disagreements. “I don’t
harbor him any ill will.”

While Salomonsky said he hadn’t spoken with Whitten in decades, he
doubted that racism was behind any of Whitten’s management decisions.

“I’m a very, very socially liberal person. But I’ve never even
remotely detected any prejudice on the part of Larry,” said
Salomonsky, adding that, while it’s possible Whitten may have changed,
“I don’t think he would have been mean-spirited.”

‘Getting dangerous’

Thursday morning, the day after a 90-minute sit-down interview with a
reporter, Whitten called before 9 a.m., asking to drop by the
Reporter-News offices for a second meeting.

It was already late morning for Whitten, an early riser who said he
often wakes up before 5 a.m., though he adds that the stress from Taos
has affected his sleep.

He arrived after fueling his truck and a trip to the store. A plastic
Whitten Inn name tag was pinned to his shirt.

“I was not supposed to talk to you,” he said, adding, “this is getting
dangerous.”

His lawyer has warned him to ease up on some of his comments.

“I know better,” Whitten said. “I get so emotional.”

He wants to apologize for the language he used during his talk the day
before, which had been peppered with a few curses.

“I don’t usually talk like that,” Whitten said.

But he continued to talk about Taos. He described a confrontation with
a protester who he said entered his lobby and wouldn’t leave,
thrusting a finger at Whitten’s face. Whitten said he responded by
threatening to break the man’s arm. Then, he punched the much taller
and younger man.

“There ought to be a sign at the entrance to Taos. White people not
welcome, black people not welcome, Mexicans especially not welcome,”
Whitten said.

He talked about how he was baffled by the response of one worker,
Martin, who sniped at Whitten after being called Mexican. Martin (who
pronounces his name Mar-TEEN and was one of the workers at the center
of the controversy) wanted him to know he was of Spanish ancestry,
Whitten said, adding that he just didn’t understand why his comment
would draw such a heated response.

‘Looking for perfection’

Whitten does understand that his policies are unlike those of any
other hotel manager.

He has insisted that pens at the front desk for guest use are laid
down at a slant, from left to right, to make things slightly easier
for right-handed guests.

“That’s pretty stupid. That’s the way I am,” he said.

Yet he likens his policies and procedures to the many checks performed
by an aircraft pilot.

“There’s a reason why we have so few crashes,” Whitten said. So, too,
he believes, his procedures ensure customer satisfaction, and
name-shortening is just another item on that list.

“Again, I’m looking for perfection,” he said.

Friday morning, Whitten called a reporter one more time.

His wife, he said, is worried about details of his life being
reported, like his divorces and two personal bankruptcies.

He offered his own counter-argument to a reporter.

“I have nothing to hide I’m not telling any lies,” he said.

He then explained how he doesn’t want to offer up “no comment” to
reporters who ask about Taos. To do so would suggest he had something
to hide.

“The more the story was told, I think I’m gaining more respect and
gaining more support,” he said.

He admits that right after the controversy in Taos broke, “at first if
you would have given me my money, I would have left town.”

Now, remodeling work is going well, and there are about 10 workers
from Abilene in Taos. He wants a reporter to know how one worker,
Benito, has been getting compliments from the few guests staying at
his hotel.

Whitten said he’s committed to Taos, at least in the near term.

“Things have, I just think, in one sense, for hotel purposes, guest
purposes, have just gotten better.”

http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/nov/07/hotel-controversy-n-larry-whitten-under-fire-for/
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