Drury Hotels

Drury Hotels, LLC is a family-owned and operated Creve Coeur, Missouri (a St. Louis, Missouri suburb)-based corporation. The chain operates under the names Drury Inn, Drury Inn and Suites, Drury Suites, Drury Plaza Hotel, and Pear Tree Inn. The chain operates 120 locations in 21 states in 2015.

History

The Drury Development Corporation was founded in 1959. The family built its first hotel in 1962 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It was a 108-room Holiday Inn. Drury Hotels was founded in 1973 by the owner of a plastering company. The first Drury hotel was located in Sikeston, Missouri. The Drury Hotels company operates non-Drury hotels as well. In the 1990s, the chain introduced a third brand, Thrifty Inn.

One of the founders, James Drury, died on March 17, 2008, in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. A second founder, Robert Drury, died on November 28, 2013, in San Antonio.

On November 10 2015, American Civil Liberties Union lawyers sued on behalf of Meagan Taylor, a transwoman of colour who had stayed at a Drury Inn in West Des Moines, Iowa on July 13, 2015. Hotel staff alleged to police that she was engaged in prostitution because she and a travel companion were "men dressed like women." All charges were later dropped. As of 2015, the matter is before the Iowa Civil Rights Commission as profiling based on race and gender identity is illegal.