Kent Olson

Director of Property Design

Leisure Hotels & Resorts

Kent E. Olson, Director of Property Design of the Leisure Hotel Group, has a diverse hotel background spanning 35 years.  Kent comes from a family of Hotel Entrepreneurs and is a second generation Hotelier.  His strong background and experience affords him the foresight required to successfully develop and manage the design process of a wide variety of lodging products. He has considerable expertise in administering, opening, from concept to completion, a wide range of luxury and upper mid-scale hotels and resorts as well as repositioning existing hotel products.

Kent Olson received his BS degrees in both Business and Hotel / Restaurant Management from the University of Wisconsin – Stout and upon graduation joined the Brock Hotel Corporation and entered its Executive Management Training Program. 

He has held General Manager Positions at Holiday Inns, Sheratons, Hiltons and a variety of large upscale hotels, including the Chicago Landmark Congress Hotel where he was mentored in first class hotel service and property renovation for three years by Claudio D’Angelo of the New York Plaza Hotel. 

After three exceptionally inspiring years at the Congress Kent was recruited by Harbaugh Hotels to manage the world famous 1200 room Diplomat Resort and Country Club located in Hollywood, Florida.   where he, once again, was put in charge of all aspects of the Diplomat’s $35 million dollar renovation.  After successfully managing and organizing the process of renovating these properties Kent found that his talents and passionate interest in Hotel and Restaurant Design would take him to the next level in the hospitality industry. Having spent the last 35 years in varying and ever-increasing leadership roles in hotel and resort management, Kent brings outstanding industry perspective and expertise to Leisure Hotels and Resorts as the new Director of Property Design.  In the first quarter of 2007 Kent will be involved in seven projects, approx. $43 million, ranging from the renovation of The Grand Victorian Hotel in Branson, Missouri to the conversion of three Staybridge Suite Hotels and the construction of the New Chase Resort and Spa in northern Minnesota.