About Bennett Hospitality
Bennett Hospitality, founded in 1983, is a multi-faced full-service real estate and development company, as well as a hospitality and asset management company. It is now one of the largest locally owned development companies in Charleston, South Carolina.
Many projects are developed, constructed and managed in this framework and range from award winning resort developments to the redesign and redevelopment of two city blocks, including 7 restaurants, a music hall, a golf course, and over 20 hotels ranging in locations from Charleston to Georgia to Montana.
These projects are developed with his small team of devoted and hardworking employees and family.
Michael R. Bennett
I'm a working man.
I started my business career buying and renovating old buildings in downtown Charleston in 1978, at the age of 22, however, my true work started much earlier.
Before I was buying and renovating old buildings in Charleston, SC-and later opening hotels-I had gotten my entrepreneurial start at a much earlier age. It all began back in my childhood neighborhood, collecting bottles and returning them for a $.02 refund. As I grew, so did my entrepreneurial efforts. At the age of 8 I started mowing lawns for $2.50-$5.00 per lawn. During that time I also began building and selling wooden go carts that the kids in my neighborhood would race. In the 8th grade I started working at the tomato sheds sorting and boxing tomatoes grown on the nearby farms. In the 9th grade I worked for Southeastern Freight Lines. Looking back I was always working; I worked on weekends during the school year and full time during the summer from 11p to 7am so I could play sports during the day. From checking tire pressures to greasing fittings on large trucks to checking the lights on 40ft trailers, I was always working.
Following my graduation from high school in 1974, during my college summers, I again found myself working. I worked at my father's truck repair and alignment shop. My father, much like myself, was an entrepreneur. On occasion I would help my dad and my two bothers raise sunken boats with truck inner tubes. We would swim down to the sunken boat and tie inner tubes all around the boat and then inflate them with an air hose. Slowly the sunken boat would rise to the surface. It was then that we put large pumps into the boat and pump out the water. After that we would tow the boat back to the marina where we would have it hauled out, properly repaired and later sold. After 2.5 years of college I was ready to go to work full time. Not sure what I wanted to do, I got a job working for the College of Charleston renovating old buildings that were built in the 1800's into offices and small classrooms. Ironically my "real" education and future career I received from the College of Charleston was working at the college not attending the college. Coming home from work one day I saw the biggest boat in my life, a 200' cruise ship that traveled the East Coast of America. I got a job on the boat as a deck hand and set sail. All of the small coastal towns were beautiful and had many restaurants, bars, hotels and moped/bicycle rental stores.
I had found my future job; a moped and bicycle rental entrepreneur. I opened a shop in downtown Charleston and started renting mopeds and bicycles. It was a big hit! I opened multiple stores in Myrtle Beach and other South Carolina locations. I worked all day, 7 days a week and made money. I was off and running. After 2 years I sold the business and bought a building in downtown Charleston, renovated it and rented out 4 apartments. That was 38 years ago and I still own that building. Another trademark of my career, don't sell your real estate. I have continued that to this day. To wrap it up, I have been working since I was 6 years old. I've loved it all. And though I may work on larger projects today it is all the same to me.
I'm a working man.
Mr. Michael R. Bennett,
Owner and Founder, Bennett Hospitality