1674-10 Charles S. Krom \ 11
Port 7;ashington, L. I.
July 28, 1927
Mr. Irving A_ Col lin s
Hotel Stewart
San Francisco, Illinois
Dear Irv: -
I have just had a long talk with G- .rge Krom.
George is running a big hotel up at West Point and it is not
doing so very well . In flact, hotels all over he country
are having a hard time this season on account . f the weather
conditions .
Now our situation at the Nautilus is We have
at least a thousand people who wan job of man: . ng the
thing. Krom has had several year exptience and while he
does not have the personality op harles ,he is undoubtedly
a good hotel manager. Perhaps the p he has run the
hotel at some extra loss to us i tryin o make the name
Nautilus and the Bay Shore Comp- 'uH - al. This has cost us
perhaps , considerable money; but ih , e other hand it may be
a blessing in disguise.
If Krom has ' • done a ' hing ;Ise , he has brought
me in very close tout.. ith Mr. K ler, one of our best sub-
stantial guests at th- Nautilus wh comes every year and stays
through the season. 'r' sold Mr. K tier the other day a home-
site at Montauk for $5 000. and w did not have to pay Mr.
Krom or anybody else a mmissio .n this deal except to
Gayness. Undoube.d .Y, , fiom i e entitled to the com-
mission on t ea-1' thanT ess ; at least he is entitled to
half of it.
can get a iw mana ger who does not know anybody
in our org ization and ,e might have all our troubles to go
over again.\ We do know $rom is honest : we don 't have towatch
him from any\ gle except to see that he does not spend too
much money inNmaking-jhe hotel the last word in food and
accommodatiors.` Kr m told me today he could get plenty
positions at a larger salary than he gets at the Nautilus , and
I believe this is true because there will be a thousand hotels
that are struggling to get anything that will pull them out
of a hole.
I returned last night from Montauk after spending two
days with Mr. Statler, who is the biggest
4'
,
Err. Irving A. Collins. '
July 28, 1927.
Page 2,
inditidual manager of hotels in the world. He showed me
the reports of some fifteen hotels, :'orae hotels are making
money, others losing money, idth all his otels, he is not
doing much better than we are, except at , o i'en sylvania. .
The reason he is doing so well with the l'= sylvania is that
he has the Pennsylvania Railway Company ba of him and they
have more than a billion dollars invcated d they are back
of ter. 3tatler. I may not be able to do a hirg with him
i
for the h tel layout at Montauk; c qm . annot do any-
thing with him at Miami ache thinks Miami is ty per cent
over-built, and I have an idea almost cos: t , t in his
estiate.
31ow I au perfect ,willing -o do anything neces-
sary or that the majority s ide up« with the 1:autilus. I
am satisfied that building •oo immediately will be a
big thing for the Nautilus, a a=ioua to go ahead.
If everybody apse wants a_Dhangc A the management, I will
do so, but having as .,3 - es ' • this program as I
• have at this time I .nnot co . lent . . sly say it would be
brise to change the , nagetment. certainly have not seen
any other manager , cantly I wo id care to trust with the
'nautilus as easily . s I can tru= ► George Krom, I think
from his past expo =nee he has inally got to a point
where he is willing ' • whittl: : oser to the bone than he
ever did befor, and .; r • a f we would give George
another tri ai tinter t c:►ould be good policy. Also I
believe t Or if the utiluc does not make money this
winter u ' er George ; om, it would :lot make money unser
any othr- , manager we .uld possibly select.
Let me "he a from you.
�. Yours,.
Copy to ltr. Xohlhepp, :.
I