Joe Van Why, Entrepreneur & Hotelier: From Hotel Laundry Room to Industry Leader

Welcome to season three of Bed and Butter, the podcast where passion meets profession in the world of hospitality. In partnership with Southern Maine Community College, we're back with fresh energy and even bigger conversations. This season, we're talking with culinary innovators, a brewery entrepreneur, hotel and industry leaders, a TED Talk speaker and influencer with a purpose-driven message, as well as one of the top tourism execs in the country, all sharing insights that will inspire and elevate your journey.

So whether you're just starting out or aiming for the top, Bed and Butter is your go-to guide. Let's dive in. Today's guest is someone who's built more than hotels. He's built a legacy in hospitality across Maine and beyond.

Joe Van Wye is a visionary developer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist whose name now graces the Joe Van Wye School of Hospitality at Southern Maine Community College. Joe's journey is anything but traditional. He didn't go to college, yet he went out on his own and developed iconic hospitality properties from Maine to across the country. In today's conversation, Joe shares the lessons he's learned from decades in the industry, the mindset that helped him succeed, and why giving back is the most rewarding investment of all.

So whether you're dreaming of running your own hotel, managing a restaurant or resort, or redefining guest experiences, this episode is for you. Let's dive in. Well, I'm really excited today to be able to have a good friend of mine, a Maine hospitality man, who's actually been around the country. And we're really, really excited to have Joe Van Wynne.

Thank you for joining us, Joe. Thank you for inviting me, Sean. It's nice to be here. You know, I think Joe and I met many years ago.

He was at the, you were at the Eastland. That was a long time ago. Or Sinesta, whatever it was during the time when you had. But it was.

Sinesta, when I bought it in 1992, I bought that hotel. Wow. Yeah, that's gone through some things, some changes. But yeah, so that's the first time.

But then we've got a little bit more, you know, close since you started working with Southern Maine Community College and your program. And I think that's exciting, too. And we'll get into that a little bit later. But, you know, the hospitality program is given the name, Joe Van Wy, School of Hotel Management.

But I think you have a passion for the students. You have a passion for our industry. And that's kind of why we have this podcast. So thank you so much for being here.

And let's dig into you a little bit about hospitality. So we get, we're back to 92. Was there any hospitality in your world before then? There was.

I started working in a hotel when I was 12 years old. My mother was a housekeeper at it. And back then they didn't have daycare. So the school bus would drop you off, you know, and I'd have to wait for her to get off work.

And I eventually was just sitting around and I always wanted to work and make money. So I asked the owners if I could have a job and they put me in the laundry and I started working there. And over time, I worked my way through that, you know, hotel to their front desk. I was about 15, 16 years old.

And it was a big resort in the Poconos. in Pennsylvania. And it was what really got me into everything. And, you know, when I started there, I saw it as an avenue for me to break my cycle that I was growing up in to be able to get out and introduce me to the world.

It gave me an opportunity to be exposed to different personalities and people, which is what our hotel business does. It definitely, you know, took a hillbilly from the Appalachian Mountains and moved me along, you know. But when I was 18, I was at the hotel, and I had an idea to build an amusement park on their property. And the owners looked at me and kind of took my little business plan and cleaned it up.

And they gave me like a little one for a set, but they financed it. The damn thing took off. We just were very successful. We were an hour out of New York City, an hour and a half north of Philadelphia.

And that just was a lift for us. There was a lot of land there, so we got into timesharing. We got into developing a smaller hotel in it also. But then we expanded.

And we formed a major company at the time in the early 1980s. And this went on to develop into many different avenues. We got into campgrounds. We got into amusement parks.

We got into more hotels and time sharing. And we used to say at one point as we moved on, we recreated people. I'm using the word recreate as a verb. You know, when people say, what do you do?

I said, I recreate people, you know, because we had, before there was a hotel or a campground or the amusement parks or whatever we were doing, it was so diverse. and so loud and crazy. And we were just fortunate where we were at at the time and the economy and all that too. And the thing took off.

We sold it all back in 1988 to an organization called the Rank Organization of the United Kingdom. They bought everything in one swoop. They came into the United States. We had about 26, 28 hotels at the time on top of everything else they bought.

So at that time, I was only 25 years old. And when we sold that company, we did what's called holding paper. We held some of the mortgage for it. So they had to put me on their board.

Suddenly they had this 25-year-old yank on their board from the United States, which they did not know what to do with. And they were huge. They own the rights to Xerox. They have a right to Rank Film Studios, which is the Universal Studios of Europe.

And it was very diverse and also crazy too. But the reason I'm going into all that depth is that they also required me, because I was the youth, I was the energy, I was the one running around, doing everything back then for everybody in our company at the time. They made me sign what's called a non-compete, where I would not own anything in certain areas of the United States, because they didn't want me taking the employees from my other hotels and putting them in new ones and turning right around and hurting them and such.

So while I was on that non-compete, Bill Johnson started the Ritz-Carlton hotel chain. He bought the rights to that, and he asked me to join the board. And so I was able to get on the board of the Ritz-Carlton chain and on the opening board. And that was a lot of fun, because now I got to spend somebody else's money for what's rather than mine and living that game.

Bill is a very unique individual. I've actually sold out to Marriott and such like that. But back then, when we were opening these properties around the world, this hillbilly from Pennsylvania comes along and, you know, and, you know, we're having to do things that we were creating an image. We were creating a lifestyle, a brand style, a name style.

And, you know, if we flew anywhere, we had to fly first class. No problem. I'm, sign me up for that. And, you know, when we entertain, we entertain first class in the cities, when we open the hotels and such, and because we had to set a stage.

The stage was that we were ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen and that's an industry name that is used by so many companies now and such like that but it comes from that time yeah but it truly you know opened my eyes to the world you know and to everything in our industry and where we got to go meanwhile back at rank as i'm going back and forth on this damn plane, it was easier for me to always go there to london versus them you know certainly coming here and stuff and again sign me up so i got to have this great go to london every other month on the concord and this many people don't know what the concord is anymore but you know again the hillbilly from pennsylvania walks in and gets on the plane they're like mr van weyer get your diet dr pepper they're holding the plane and everybody's looking like who is this kid and i was like okay you can go that is what being in the hotel industry gets you to do you know you you start to suddenly get exposed to so many different things and so many different levels and so many different times there is no black or white.

We're not mechanics. We're not making widgets. We're not selling logs. We are a box of chocolates every day when we wake up and get out there and go into our hotels or our businesses and say, what's today going to hold?

You talk about getting out and talking to a lot of people. I think that's one of the things that I've loved about my career is that I've formed relationships with people all over the country, all over the world. And with that comes a lot of other experiences that you can gain from. Was there someone along the way that maybe impacted you somehow, you know, that you met him, Bill, like maybe one, maybe, but anyone else that really kind of helped you, I go back to the original star, the two senior brothers who owned the resort at the time that I was working at, and their partner, business partner, a gentleman by the name of Harry Lee.

Harry was an attorney. He approached it from a different viewpoint. You know, at Stanford, went to Stanford and, you know, from also from Pennsylvania, he got out and broke his cycle from Wilkes-Barre and, you know, and off he went and came back and joined with them and such. But Harry taught me so many different things.

He always, there was a meeting, I would walk into it and people kind of look at me why I was there and they realized, well, if Harry's putting me out of chair, they had to listen to me too, kind of a thing. And it was that that taught me to never underestimate, you know, somebody else that's in my company working for me to always give them a chance to talk and to let them, you know, be a part of it too. And later in life, he explained, he goes, yeah, he goes, I kind of need the energy to show you what to do because it got me reinvigorated into it also.

And, you know, I've had a couple people that have worked for me. I think, you know, one of them from a hotel that owns 70 different properties and such like that. He started as a bellman for me and I put him into a management program, because you see something in an employee, in the hospitality industry, you can't teach us hospitality. You have to feel it, know it, and go with it, you know?

And when you see that in somebody, you run with it, and you grab them, and you hope that they can help you get reinvigorated into your day, too. Well, I think what's interesting about that relationship with Kevin is that... You guys have had lifelong friends. I mean, that was what, 30 years ago maybe?

Oh, yeah. No, yeah. So, yeah, 33, 35 years, sure. And a friendship and a relationship.

And it goes back to that whole thing in relationships. And I think a lot of our listeners will think, okay, I'm going to learn this. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do this.

But a lot of times what you do is you hook yourself to a ladder, the Joe Van Wye ladder, the Sean Riley ladder, or the Kevin's ladder. You get the relationships and you're going to learn from everybody, but you're also, now you can help others. And I think that's where the stage of life that you and I are at. We're doing this podcast for students and young professionals.

And that's really to give them an idea of how we did it. So I kind of look at you. You're a hotelier, there's no question. And you're a hospitality guy, but you're an entrepreneur.

I mean, you kind of talked about your early parts of the entrepreneurship. But here in Maine, I mean, you know, the Eastland, the Doubletree and the True and the Saco Hampton and other things along the way. How do you get into all that stuff? how did you do that?

I mean, you were a 25-year-old kid then, but not much more than that, probably. So. No, and this is kind of an important thing, if there's our students paying attention to this or not, but, you know, you're focusing on the age. Age has nothing to do with it.

You, and it's the part that always frustrated me a little bit. I knew I could do this. I knew I could, you know, I wanted to do this kind of thing. And people would kind of look upon me and they put that, he's just a kid look at me.

And I went back later and bought their bank and fired them. That's what I did. Because yeah don't pay attention people but never underestimate your ability you know and back then i was too young and naive to know you could fail yeah i didn't i'm sure i'll sign that mortgage i'll do this i didn't know that now i'm older and while you're in a little more chicken i might not do that so fast but you know just go with it and don't ever say no to yourself that was the important thing was that i didn't know that you couldn't do this and i just never accepted that And so I recently had dinner with my goddaughter.

She's 24, and she's about to get married. And this conversation came up. They're doing something like they were nervous about. And I just looked at her and said, just ask them.

All they can do is say no. And that seemed, just ask. They were getting ready to go to a bank to present what they want to do for their business and such like that, that they want to start. And I'm there.

Let them say no. They'll go to the next guy. These guys are also in business to do business. Remember that.

I think we can communicate it. just never be intimidated. Yeah. And I think, you know, you've done that.

And I mean, I think I love the, what the way the whole mall area was developed. I mean, it was, you bought the coffee cans. You know, at the time, but you turned it into a mega complex, which I think you still have pieces of that left, right? When I say the mega, Kansas.

You still own the land under the Chipotle. I call that Romeo money, which is retired old men eating out. I get checks for the land I own. They just send me checks.

But that, you know, had to be developed. It had to be taken under. But one of the more successful stories of that whole project was the true property, true by Hilton. We were, I was number six to open in the world for that because they came to us with this idea and we're all kind of like are you sure are we just kind of copying the hampton in a little bit like what's going to be the difference how the guests know and but that wasn't the case at all it was a completely it is a completely different product and it is a you know whatever i think our original demographics were targeted at one group and we ended up with a whole other group at the end but it's a success and you know and the whole brand to go up there are now 330 i think at this time we have we have a true as well And it is a unique brand.

People say it's a young person's, you know, it's really normal. But I agree. I love the room. The room is just right.

You don't have to, I mean, you can, you know, hang up stuff differently. And I mean, just great. I mean, you can sit in your bed and hang stuff up. But it really is an efficient room.

The room's a little small and the TV's a little big. You get a suntan from that TV being a 55-inch TV turned on as you're right up against it. But it's a great bathroom. It's a great clean product.

It's new. I'm getting my breakfast. I'm out the door. That's all I need when I'm traveling for one night somewhere, usually, or two nights or three nights.

Well, taking it back, I don't want to leave this without saying that during the time you had that whole development there. I mean, you've got the Chipotle's there, Cracker Barrels, the Car Place. CarMax wasn't mine. That wasn't it.

But you had that whole development. You really kind of turned that whole section around. And it was early on that that happened. And you took the hotel, the Doubletree, that really had gone through lots of different faces and names, turned that into a success story.

So those were all great. But then you sold them. And I think one of the things, you know, obviously when you sell stuff, you know, you decide what you do. How do you recycle your money?

How do you do things? But you chose to do something a little bigger than that. And that's why I don't want to leave this without saying, because you have made a real impact in the hospitality industry through your affiliation with this school. And from what I understand, other schools, but for this school, SMCC.

Tell us why you did that, what you did, and what you'd like to see to come out of it. The Joe Van Wye School of Hotel Management. They mentioned the cell. Well, the sale of the Doubletree and True occurred with a package of other properties that I had also.

So there were seven properties and five in other states, too, that were all sold at the same time. And suddenly I had this moment where I was like, I don't own a hotel for the first time in my life. I own a bunch of other little things, restaurants and street malls, things like that and stuff. And I kind of wanted to figure out what to do next.

And it was at a time in the economy in 2022 when interest rates were starting to go up. We were just all in the middle of them coming out of COVID and employee hiring and such like that. I said, you know, I don't think I want to do anything for a year. I said, I just kind of want to relax and try to evaluate where this planet of ours is going.

And I took a step back, but I said, there's one thing I would like to be involved with. And that was in Maine. I was trying to do something to get back to Maine. Maine treated me wonderfully.

I mean, Eastland was extremely successful, turned into West End. And, you know, the Doubletree, the original one I bought it was a property that needed renovation. And I flipped the name over to Hilton and that became a success. True became a success.

Hampton R. Success and two other problems I had up in the blue pit. I mean, everything was always wonderful. And although I'm not a son of Maine, I always felt like I was for some reason because I just felt so welcome there.

A hillbilly of Pennsylvania to a hick from Maine. Yeah, well, that's okay. Now I sit on the ocean on an island up there in the summer, which is great. But I wanted to do something to help to get back, but also to help fellow hoteliers up there, too, to say, we need people.

We need employees. We need the youth to come, or not even necessarily the youth, we just need people to come to work. You know, and I feel trade schools, a two-year program is a great introduction for anybody to come into this business to say, OK, you know, before I go all the way here, let me see, you know, what I'm going to get from this kind of experience. And I asked myself, why did I want a 17-year-old or a 20-year-old or a 30-year-old coming back to school to get out of this after two years?

And, you know, I want them to be able to leave the program knowing whether or not hopefully they'll get into an internship. I think that's the biggest part I favor, is seeing that they're actually in the industry working and they get exposed to being able to, okay, is this where I want to go? And they can decide, do I want to be a supervisor? You're not going to walk out and become a general manager the next day.

You have to work your way up. We all did. But you're certainly going to leg up by having the education, and you're then going to get in there and be able to make a decision which side of the house you come up on, food and beverage, front of the house, the back of the house, or wherever you're going, and then you're just doing on that. So I wanted them to be able to do that.

So I wanted the funds to be used for additional marketing ability to get more students in. I wanted to be available for when we do get more students in to have the tools that they need so that they're not running around trying to raise money for a new system to teach from or something like that. Well, that's great. I think it is so refreshing to have someone step out of the industry, but wanting to give back and wanting to not just promote, not just help kids.

You're helping kids, but you're also helping a lot of businesses. And you're helping the school, which in turn is going to provide more students. Now, you're never going to get a student out of that, nor maybe me, but there's going to be people at will, and that's going to help our industry and make our industry, which is what we both grew up in, better. So I want to thank you personally, Joe.

That was amazing to have you do that. And I thank you from the students that are going to be listening to this and from our industry because you're helping our industry. Well, we thank you for what you're doing with this, you know, the podcast and keeping things out there. And you're being humble.

You give back a lot also to that state and also to the people too. And thank you for what you do up there. So, well, I think maybe you could end it with something. Okay, you've got an audience now.

You can get on your soapbox. What do you want to say to someone that's interested in our industry that might be moving into our industry? What kind of advice can you give them? You gave a little already, but is it something else?

It's, you know, I just keep coming back to the old adage. I've never given up. You know, you're going to be told no a lot of times in life and don't listen to it. Just keep my own going, but just go right through it.

You know, they can say no 10 times and then maybe you listen, but you just keep going at it. And that's the people that get through that, you know, don't get intimidated and, you know, you just keep going. But when you're getting into our guests, the thing I feel that everybody really needs to get a touch of right now is that our industry is changing a little bit, but our guests are changing dramatically. You know, I go back to when, like, 1990, whenever Hampton Inn started, around that time frame.

You know, prior to Hampton Inns out there, when you went to a hotel, you'd check in. They didn't have hair dryers. They didn't have irons. You would have called out, hey, you got a hair dryer.

An hour later, somebody would show up with a hair dryer and you're standing there trying to get them to a meeting or iron your shirt or whatever. And so anyway, Longhams Hampton at that time. Then they offer all this stuff in the rooms, free local phone calls, which was unheard of. We used to make phone revenue.

Not everybody had cell phones and iWatches and Zooms and crap. The whole amenities in the rooms changed and everything slowly. And now they're just norm. You and I were talking offline earlier about emails.

I remember a sudden when emails started. I'm that old now. Not many students are going to be able to say that, but we watched the industry change. We watched what became the expected of travelers and what they wanted.

When I was a kid growing up, if you were in a hockey group and your mom and dad had to take you to a hockey game, you got stuck into a car with 10 other people illegally, and you drove seven hours to that silly match, and you drove home that night. You didn't get put up at a Hampton Inn or a Holiday Inn or a Ritz-Carlton. There was no hotels. So that evolved to when the traveler changed.

And then travelers got into, I think we went through a period in our industry where everybody wanted the four-star hire mentality. Ritz-Carlton, we drove that mentality out there and we got it and see it everywhere. Then people took a step back saying, you know, I'm going to get a pretty good stay here at this other brand. I don't want to use names here because people listen to this thing.

And I've owned Marriott's. I've owned Hilton's. I've owned whatever. You know, but people started, they liked the three-star mentality in field and then two-star.

But they wanted the product and they got their new levels going. So I think that's evolved into that now. But I think the guest has changed. The guest is now 60 is the new 40.

I'm 63. So I don't feel like I'm 60 at all, but I know I look at it. But we're doing things adventurous. I just got back from Greenland.

I was up there for two weeks because I wanted to go up and see Northern Lights. And there's not a hotel there around a ship going up there. And that's what you do now. My father at 63 was in a lazy boy chair with a TV tray in front of watching TV.

He wasn't out there doing this stuff. And so I think our guests are doing that. You go on a cruise ship now, and the cruise ship mentality of the days of wearing tuxedos and suits is all gone. People are now resort casual, even on six-star ships and such, because the guests just change.

We need to change with our guests at all times. That's the important thing to remember, is that you can't make them go into your facility expecting them to be one way. They're going to be themselves, so you've got to be ready to become them. I think that's great.

I think just even one step further is the same thing with our associates. They're needing different things. They're expecting different things. So I think, you know, a couple of old guys sitting here talking about, you know, but what we're saying is we've got to stay relevant, relevant to our guests, relevant to our associates.

And I think this has been great. So, Joe, thank you so much again. And thank you again for what you've done for our industry and for the school, SMCC, but also for me, your buddy. I really appreciate it, Joe.

Thank you so much. Thanks, Sean. Have a great day. Thank you for joining us for another episode of Bed and Butter, the hospitality podcast produced in partnership with Southern Maine Community College.

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