Indiana hoteliers: the brands may be national, but the developers and operators are local.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Hotels & Resorts

AT FIRST GLANCE, THE hotel business seems much like a lot of other American industries. Many of the best-known brand names are controlled by a few consolidated megaplayers.

Under that surface, however, is a different reality Those major players may control and franchise the brand names, but they're not the ones developing and operating the hotels. Interestingly, the development and operation side is anything but consolidated. Countless small to medium-sized players are in this part of the business, and these players have been relatively stable, not nearly as prone to gobbling up one another as are companies in other industries.

Following are some of the key names on the Indiana hotel-development scene.

Dora Brothers. The Dora family has its name all over the Indiana hotel industry, covering two generations and spanning four decades. Dora Brothers Hospitality Corp., based in Fishers, was launched in 1986 by second-generation brothers, Tim and Bob Dora, whose first property was a Holiday Inn in Anderson.

Dora Brothers is one of the state's more active groups when it comes to ongoing development. Partner Bob Dora says the company operates 13 properties in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, with more than 1,200 rooms in all. Indiana hotels are in Anderson, Carmel, Columbus, Fishers, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Plainfield and Shelbyville. "We are under construction in Fishers with a Hilton Garden Inn, and we opened one earlier this year in Carmel. We will follow that up with a Staybridge Suites hotel in Plainfield."

Other brands in the Doras' lineup include Hampton Inn, Best Western, Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Ramada Inn. Like many others in the business, the brothers are strong believers in the wisdom of grouping together different properties with common ownership. In Fishers, for example, Dora Brothers has a Holiday Inn and Ramada Inn nearly adjacent to the 110-room Hilton Garden that's due to open next summer.

Though the entire hospitality industry suffered following the terrorist attacks of 2001, Dora Brothers chose not to retrench. "We did not stop building hotels during that period," Bob Dora says. "Most markets nationwide are currently seeing a rebound."

As an active developer, Dora Brothers likes to keep a stable of expertise handy, he says. "We operate our own construction company, Prestige Building Co., which builds the hotels."

For Dora Brothers, the future holds ongoing development of limited-service hotels, he adds. "We expect to continue to do what we're doing for the foreseeable future."

Dunn Hospitality Group

Evansville-based Dunn Hospitality Group continues to grow, but is altering its approach as it does. "We're transitioning the company to a management company rather than an ownership company," says president and CEO John Dunn. "We just sold a bunch of hotels. We now have 16 hotels under management, seven of which we wholly own."

The company's focus is southern Indiana, with some elsewhere in the state as well as in Kentucky. Its first hotel in 1978 was the 109-room Williamsburg Inn in Evansville, which has since been renovated into a Home Life Studios & Suites property.

Dunn Hospitality now has five other Evansville hotels along with a pair near the Toyota plant in Princeton, hotels in Columbus, Bloomington, Terre Haute, Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, and Kentucky properties in Louisville and near Mammoth Cave. Brands include Residence Inn, Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn, Comfort Inn...