Peer Perspective: Twenty Years, One Team

Before the commemorative room keys, anniversary gifts, specialty menus, and celebrations, there was an opening team preparing to welcome its very first guests.

For weeks, the new team at Hilton Garden Inn Columbia/Harbison learned the hotel, prepared the property, and worked toward opening day. Francis Williamson remembers the feeling more than any single detail.

“What I remember most was the incredible sense of unity,” she shared. “We spent weeks preparing, and when the first guests arrived, it was so exciting to see all of our hard work come together.”

Twenty years later, Francis and Barbara Phillips are still part of the team they helped establish. Francis, known around the hotel as Fran, has served in housekeeping throughout those two decades. Barbara has worked the overnight shift as the hotel’s night auditor since the beginning.

Their tenure gives this anniversary a meaning that reaches far beyond the age of the building.

“What an honor,” said General Manager Jamie West. “Twenty years is a very long time to have the privilege of serving the Columbia and Irmo communities. This team has produced amazing hospitality and cultivated lasting partnerships with loyal guests from across the country.”

During those years, the hotel has witnessed changing technology, evolving guest expectations, new teammates, returning colleagues, and countless arrivals and departures. Francis remembers when much of the work was completed on paper. Today, nearly everything is managed through a computer.

The systems may have changed, but the heart of the hotel has not.

For Francis, it has always been about people, belonging, and making guests feel welcome. What has kept her at the hotel is the connection she feels to the work and those around her.

That commitment is also reflected in Barbara’s story.

Before the hotel opened, a former colleague invited Barbara to interview with the opening General Manager. She began by working a combination of morning and overnight shifts, then moved into night audit full time. She has remained on that same shift ever since.

Working overnight requires independence, resilience, and tremendous reliability. Barbara has seen other night auditors come and go, and she has helped train many of them.

“This hotel needed someone it could depend on,” she said. “Someone it knew would show up no matter what.”

For Barbara, the hotel has also become what she calls her “quiet place.” When she arrives for work, she sets aside everything else and focuses on caring for the hotel and the people inside it.

That care has created relationships extending well beyond a single stay.

Barbara still remembers a frequent guest named Ms. Lewis. Whenever Ms. Lewis returned, the two looked for one another. They talked, laughed, and shared life’s highs and lows. When Barbara’s granddaughter, Yoko, was born 11 years ago, Ms. Lewis gave the baby a pink blanket. Yoko still has it today.

The story captures something Barbara has learned during two decades of service: guests may arrive as strangers, but genuine care can turn routine encounters into lasting relationships.

“Without our guests, we cannot function. They are the seed that grows this hotel,” she said. “Never take a guest’s concern personally, because you do not know what that person may be going through. Talk to them. Get to know them. Listen and hear them. Have empathy, so you can understand what they need.”

Over the years, Barbara has developed similar bonds with teammates. Some she calls her daughters or sons. Others return to visit long after leaving the hotel. One former colleague Barbara trained still stops by several times a week simply to say hello and check on her.

She is especially grateful to have shared the entire journey with Francis.

“Fran is a true teammate, very friendly and one of Hilton’s hardest workers,” Barbara said. “I thank her for walking this journey with me.”

Francis has also found purpose in helping new team members grow. She remembers training a young colleague who was nervous on the first day, then watching that person become increasingly capable and confident. Seeing a new hospitality professional find a place on the team remains one of her most rewarding experiences.

Her advice to someone entering the industry today is simple and enduring.

“Kindness is a choice you make every morning,” Francis said. “The work can be hard, but a positive attitude helps.”

That spirit has carried Hilton Garden Inn Columbia/Harbison through two decades of weddings, family reunions, funerals, corporate travel, celebrations, and ordinary nights that became meaningful because someone cared.

For Director of Sales Spencer, the hotel’s longevity is fundamentally a story about trust.

“The hotel has had the opportunity to be part of so many different occasions,” he said. “Throughout that time, we have continued earning the trust of guests who return and the community partners who refer them to us.”

Those long-standing relationships have made the hotel part of guests’ travel routines and given it a foundation that goes beyond room nights and transactions.

The 20th anniversary celebration was designed to recognize those relationships while honoring the team members who made them possible. The hotel created commemorative cups for Hilton Honors members, custom anniversary room keys, Hilton Garden Inn Columbia/Harbison gifts, and a specialty restaurant menu. Guests were invited to add their thoughts to an interactive word board describing what the hotel means to them.

The team also brought the celebration into the community through the Irmo Food and Wine Festival and a neighboring Texas Roadhouse “Trunk or Treat” event.

“We are not only celebrating the hotel’s success,” Spencer explained. “We are celebrating the people who made that success possible.”

That includes Francis and Barbara, but it also extends across a team with many long-serving employees who genuinely care about the experience they provide.

When team members were asked what makes Hilton Garden Inn Columbia/Harbison special, their answers were nearly unanimous:

The team.

Many used another word:

Family.

Barbara describes today’s team as young, smart, and driven. Francis is proud to watch a new generation of hospitality professionals step forward and take their place. Jamie sees the same “One Team” spirit that has allowed the hotel to lead its market consistently and represent itself proudly within the community.

The anniversary honors everything that has changed across 20 years, but it also celebrates what has remained constant: people who show up, relationships built over time, guests who return, and teammates who care for one another.

As the hotel enters its next chapter, Jamie’s vision is clear.

“Continuing our motto of Living Hospitality for 20 more years.”

Twenty years ago, the team welcomed its first guests. Today, Hilton Garden Inn Columbia/Harbison celebrates the trust of a community, the loyalty of its people, and the remarkable impact of one team choosing, day after day, to make others feel at home.