Three major figures behind the rise of 20th Century hotel-keeping died in the space of a calendar week this January.

On Jan. 4, Gordon Stewart, known as Butch, and founder of Sandals Resorts International; on Jan. 10, David Barclay, owner of the Ritz London; and on Jan. 11, Sheldon Adelson, founder, CEO and chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corporation.

All three had obituaries in The New York Times, and all three came with a bag full of controversy.

Perhaps it is difficult to reach the heights all three did without courting some?

Strictly from a hotel industry perspective, they added noticeably to three distinct sectors — Stewart to all-inclusive resorts, Barclay to independent luxury and Adelson to casino-hotels, especially to those that came along with mega-convention spaces.

All-inclusive resorts and hotel-casinos are not the main core of Hotel News Now’s coverage, but these types of assets obviously contain hundreds of thousands of rooms, just in Las Vegas alone.

I do not know if you all have been to the Las Vegas Sands Convention Center, but in some of its spaces it seems impossible to see from one side to the other.

Adelson's Sands Macao was the first U.S.-style hotel-casino in China. Although when planning permission was first given, Macao had more autonomy than it does today.

His obituaries, though, tended to highlight his political donations.

Barclay set up his business enterprises, which involved many outside the hotel industry, with his identical twin brother Frederick Barclay.

David Barclay's obituaries tended to highlight his recent, bitter family dispute over the Ritz London, which was sold in April for 800 million British pounds ($1.1 billion) to a Qatari buyer, and for a price that fueled further family arguments, apparently, even if some state it was jettisoned at the highest per-room cost of all time.

The Barclay twins own the Channel Islands island of Brecqhou, which remains one of the last feudally run spots on Earth, and more controversy loomed large there, too. The Barclays are among the few “tenants” in their relationships with their “seigneurs,” feudal overlords.

Stewart, who also founded the Breezes chain of all-inclusive resorts, at one point owned the Jamaican national airline.

His New York Times obituary seemed not to have anything controversial in it, unless any controversy is hidden in the quote from one source that said, “the man is a ferocious competitor.”

I once met him for dinner aboard his yacht when it was moored in New York Harbor.

One interesting thing about Stewart and Adelson is that they both started their careers at the age of 12, the former selling fresh seafood to Jamaican hotels, the latter selling newspapers, with a bona fide license, in Boston.

Some of what they offered, some of what they did, might not have appealed to everyone, but that is how the world works if there is to be enough space for everyone to go on vacation. However, they all certainly helped shake up an industry and offer many people what they considered their dream holiday in exotic and heralded destinations around the world.

Feel free to contact me anytime at tbaker@hotelnewsnow.com. Find me on Twitter at @terencebakerhnn and on LinkedIn.

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