Distinguished Hotelier Tom LaTour Earns Lifetime Achievement Award from Hospitality Design Magazine

SAN FRANCISCO (March 27, 2008) – Tom LaTour established Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants as the leader in the boutique hotel segment, growing the chain to 40 hotels and restaurants in 17 cities in the U.S. and Canada. Now, the former Kimpton chairman and CEO and founding principal of LaTour Signature Group, has earned a Platinum Circle lifetime achievement award from Hospitality Design Magazine – recognizing LaTour’s lustrous 20-year career with the hotel giant.

LaTour is now taking his vast hospitality experience and placing his signature touch on the booming shared-ownership vacation home market with his latest enterprise, LaTour Signature Group.

“I found it irresistible not to retire,” said LaTour, an accomplished vintner and restaurateur, also named one of the “26 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs” by Inc. magazine in 2005. “I couldn’t stop thinking about ways to wine and dine luxury resort guests. So I found a niche that hadn’t been filled yet – the very upscale 50 to 150-unit fractional resorts.”

Launched in 2007, LaTour Signature Group is a joint-venture consulting and management company with ResortCom Elite, created to transform luxury vacation experiences at select five-star fractional resort properties throughout North America and Mexico. The company will manage all resort operations – including the training and supervising of staff, reservation coordination and concierge services, as well as sales and marketing of fractional rentals.

The first LaTour Signature Group property, “Olamar” in Cabo San Lucas, marks the company’s foray into Mexico’s flourishing shared vacation ownership industry. Currently under construction on the secluded Monuments Beach, Olamar will feature elegant, fully furnished three- and four-bedroom beachfront residences are now selling from the mid $300,000s for one-eighth interest, and whole ownership of oceanfront villas from $2 million. Visit www.olamarliving.com.

“Our objective is to provide a relationship-based, amenity-rich experience for high-end vacationers at exquisite properties,” said La Tour. “We will offer much more than a room in a high rise on the beach.”


About LaTour Signature Group

By delivering management services that are unprecedented in the industry, LaTour Signature Group is committed to becoming the ultimate brand for private residence clubs and luxury fractional properties through superior service, distinctive amenities, chef-driven restaurants and culinary activities and obsessive attention to detail.

LaTour Signature Group will deliver hand-picked and exceptionally trained resort staff, highly personalized concierge services and world-class leisure, recreational and health and wellness programs, as well as privately stocked wine cellars and other one-of-a-kind culinary experiences from cooking classes to excursions to local farmers markets.

When brought in on the ground floor, LaTour Signature Group can effectively lend its expertise and direction to the resort’s conceptual design and operational functionality and provide referrals and recommendations for other key partner alliances, such as real estate sales and marketing.

For more information about LaTour Signature Group, visit www.latoursignaturegroup.com, or call 415-568-2210.