general manager, The Olivia Collection
Third Quarter 2012
story by ANNE BROCKHOFF
photos by STEVEN HERTZOG
Standing with Nancy Longhurst on the ninth floor terrace of The Oread, taking in the nearly 360-degree view of Lawrence, you know this is exactly where she wants to be.
Longhurst’s spent much of her career in hospitality management, and she’s now general manager of The Olivia Collection. The group includes The Oread, The Eldridge and The Eldridge Extended, and allows her to do what she likes best—take care of guests.
Nancy on game day at The Oread.
“I enjoyed my other jobs, but my passion is the hotel industry,” says Longhurst, 55.
She discovered that passion early on, when she took an office job at the Holiday Inn Holidome while attending the University of Kansas. Longhurst eventually became its director of sales, before leaving to help renovate The Eldridge in the early 1980s.
The building was at the time an apartment complex. Longhurst helped transform it into an historic hotel and became its first general manager. But the work was demanding and the hours long, so when another opportunity came, she took it.
“I think at that point I just needed a break,” Longhurst says.
She worked in the computer industry for seven years, and then became executive director for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Lawrence program in 1999. Longhurst loved it, but she missed hospitality.
In 2005, The Eldridge’s new owners asked Longhurst to return as general manager. She then oversaw design of The Oread’s operations systems during its construction. Longhurst took her current position when that hotel opened in 2010.
Her schedule is still grueling—often 12-hour days, plus Saturday nights and catching up on emails during her off-hours—but Longhurst actually sees more of her family than ever.
David Longhurst, her husband, is assistant general manager of The Eldridge. Her son, Harrison, works at The Eldridge’s front desk and as a bellman. Her daughter, Natalie, recently began a job in the banquet department and spends one day a week in the office.
Longhurst sees their involvement as a way to impart her own work ethic to her kids. After all, it’s how she grew up.
“We were raised to work and work hard. It’s just what you did,” says Longhurst, who grew up in Shawnee, Kan., and spent weekends at her grandparents’ farm near Smithville, Mo., helping with the gardening, canning and other chores.
It’s still what Longhurst does. She arrives at her office—an open desk next to reception at The Oread—around 7 a.m., and then spends days meeting with staff from all three properties, booking entertainment, inspecting everything from ballrooms to store rooms and overseeing all other operations.
Together, the properties have 155 rooms, 320 employees and dozens of meeting rooms, event spaces and restaurants. The sheer scale means Longhurst can no longer handle every detail herself.
“Now we’re too big,” she says. “I’ve learned you can’t do everything yourself. Your team is vital to your success.”
Sundays are Longhurst’s home days, and she loves getting away to places near, like Missouri’s Grand Lake or Lake of the Ozarks, and far, such as St. Maarten in the Caribbean.
Longhurst continues her community involvement, although she tries to limit it to one board membership at a time. Currently, she’s on the Cottonwood Foundation Board of Trustees. Why? Because it’s just what you do, Longhurst says.
“Any good business person wants to give back to their community, because they’re the ones who make you thrive and grow,” she says.
29 Comments
I appreciate you sharing this blog. Fantastic.
Hello, after reading this amazing piece of writing i am too cheerful to share my know-how here with colleagues.
Hi to every , since I am in fact eager of reading this
web site’s post to be updated daily. It consists of pleasant information.
Next time I read a blog, I hope that it does not fail me just as much as this particular one. After all, Yes, it was my choice to read through, however I really thought you would have something useful to talk about. All I hear is a bunch of complaining about something that you could fix if you were not too busy looking for attention.
I enjoy reading a post that will make people think. Also, thank you for allowing me to comment!
I wanted to thank you for this very good read!! I definitely enjoyed every bit of it. I’ve got you book marked to check out new things you post…
Pretty! This has been an extremely wonderful article. Thank you for supplying this info.
Hello there! This blog post couldn’t be written any better! Looking at this post reminds me of my previous roommate! He constantly kept talking about this. I’ll forward this article to him. Fairly certain he will have a very good read. Many thanks for sharing!
I know this web site offers quality dependent articles and other material, is
there any other website which presents these stuff in quality?
Oh my goodness! Impressive article dude! Many thanks, However I am going through problems with your RSS. I don’t understand the reason why I am unable to join it. Is there anybody else getting the same RSS issues? Anyone who knows the solution can you kindly respond? Thanx!!
Great post. I am experiencing a few of these issues as well..
I was able to find good info from your content.
This website truly has all the information I wanted concerning this subject and didn’t know who to ask.
Hey there I am so grateful I found your weblog, I really found you by accident, while I was researching on Bing for
something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would
just like to say thanks a lot for a fantastic
post and a all round entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design),
I don’t have time to go through it all at the moment but
I have bookmarked it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will
be back to read more, Please do keep up the superb work.
What’s up, I log on to your new stuff regularly.
Your writing style is awesome, keep it up!
What i don’t realize is in reality how you’re now not really much more well-favored than you might be right now.
You’re very intelligent. You realize thus considerably in the case of this topic, made me for my part believe it from so many
varied angles. Its like men and women aren’t fascinated until it is something to accomplish
with Girl gaga! Your personal stuffs great. All the time handle it up!
This is the perfect blog for anybody who wants to understand this topic.
You understand a whole lot its almost tough to argue with you (not that
I actually will need to…HaHa). You definitely put a fresh
spin on a topic that has been discussed for decades. Wonderful stuff,
just great!
Good day! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but
after reading through some of the post I realized it’s
new to me. Anyhow, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be
bookmarking and checking back frequently!
Very shortly this web site will be famous amid all blog visitors, due to it’s pleasant
content
Howdy! This blog post couldn’t be written much better!
Going through this article reminds me of my previous roommate!
He constantly kept preaching about this. I most certainly will send
this post to him. Fairly certain he’ll have a great read.
Many thanks for sharing!
Hi there would you mind letting me know which hosting company you’re
using? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different internet browsers and I must
say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you suggest a good
web hosting provider at a fair price? Thanks, I appreciate it!
Woah! I’m really loving the template/theme of this site.
It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s difficult to get that “perfect balance” between user friendliness and visual appeal.
I must say you have done a very good job with this.
In addition, the blog loads very fast for me on Internet explorer.
Superb Blog!
This is a topic that is near to my heart… Cheers! Exactly where are your contact details though?
magnificent points altogether, you simply received a new reader.
What could you recommend about your post that you made some days ago?
Any positive?
This is a topic that’s close to my heart… Take care! Exactly where are your contact details though?
After looking at a few of the articles on your web site, I honestly appreciate your technique of writing a blog. I book marked it to my bookmark site list and will be checking back in the near future. Please check out my web site as well and let me know your opinion.
Hello there, I found your site by means of Google whilst looking for a similar matter, your site got here up, it seems good.
I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
Hello there, simply become alert to your blog thru Google,
and found that it is really informative. I’m going to be careful for brussels.
I’ll appreciate for those who continue this in future.
Numerous other folks shall be benefited out of your writing.
Cheers!
An impressive share! I’ve just forwarded this onto a coworker who was conducting a little homework on this.
And he in fact ordered me lunch due to the fact that I discovered it for
him… lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thank YOU for the meal!!
But yeah, thanx for spending time to discuss this issue here on your web page.
Hello! Quick question that’s completely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly?
My weblog looks weird when browsing from my iphone4.
I’m trying to find a theme or plugin that might be able to fix this issue.
If you have any recommendations, please share.
Appreciate it!