HALF A CENTURY ago, Myra Starnes was a waitress during the summer seasons at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. She noticed the city, like most tourist destinations, became a ghost town.
When she moved to the city permanently in 1974 with her college degree in art design, she decided to do something about that.
“I was trying to figure out how we could bring more people in,” she said. “So I came up with a tour company.”
That experience would eventually lead her to begin the Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Supply Show of The Southeast, which will run for its 50th year on Jan. 27 to 29 at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. Starnes said she plans to mark the occasion by awarding $10,000 to an attendee.
‘The same blooming towel’
Starnes’ inspiration for creating HMRSS came from her efforts to promote her tour company at Myrtle Beach hotels. One owner showed her a set of towels he’d bought for $5 apiece, then another showed her towels they had gotten for $4 apiece.
“That just got my curiosity up and I realized it was the same blooming towels,” Starnes said.
That disparity of costs between hotels had several causes, she said, and the vendors were just as dissatisfied with how things were.
“A lot of people did not have franchises either so they didn't know where to buy or what to do,” Starnes said. “On the other side of the coin, I would meet people that were trying to sell to them, and they would complain, because they would go in to talk to them, and they were supposed to have a meeting, but the maids didn't show up or the general manager couldn't stop what he was doing.”
She’d seen how trade shows had worked for other industries, so she began drumming up support for what would become HMRSS. It took some convincing.
“They thought I was crazy, did not know what I was doing,” Starnes said. “I did it. It really worked.”
About 500 to 600 people attended the first show. Today, thousands attend, including vendors, hotel and restaurant owners and representatives from related industries.
“One of the ways we've always been different than other shows, I have never, from day one, ever charged a buyer to come in the door,” Starnes said.
The show must go on
By the third year of the show, Indian American hoteliers began attending the trade show. Starnes said that did lead to some initial conflicts.
“When you start mixing cultures, sometimes it's a little hard,” Starnes said.
For one thing, she said, the Indian-American owners preferred to negotiate prices while the local vendors at the show did not. At one point, some of the vendors began shouting at the owners and Starnes had to step in.
“I just had enough, so I took my great big checkbook and I went over to five vendors that were horses asses and gave them back their money to pack up and leave if they could not be nice to people, and I would even pay for their hotel room that they stayed in,” she said.
The locals also were initially upset when Starnes brought in a caterer to provide Indian food.
“The American born were turning their nose up at the food, but then they tasted it,” Starnes said. “That caterer was making such money, the city wouldn't let me bring them in anymore.”
Today, AAHOA maintains a presence at the show and holds a townhall meeting after it. Registration for the 2026 AAHOA Convention & Trade Show, to be held in Philadelphia from April 8 to 10, opened in December.
HMRSS even continued during the COVID pandemic.
“I had vendors that were crying. I had people in the hospitality industry that needed stuff, and their supply chains had broken down, and everybody was crying,” Starnes said. “I had to get permission from the governor. I had to get the city to go along. I had to get the convention center to go along. I had to get the vendors to go along. I had to get the attendees to go along. We climbed the mountain with no moon, no stars, no pass, but we got to the top and we made it.”
How to win $10,000
Despite the pandemic being over, Starnes said she came up with this year’s cash prize as incentive to bring people together.
“I see people at shows in different places, they're still scared, they're still frozen,” Starnes said. “At the end of the day, how do you get people out and get them to go. If you can get them in a mall, you can sell them something, but you have to get them there.”
The $10,000 check will go to one buyer attendee and only owners or managers qualify. They must scan the QR code on their badges at a kiosk on the floor of the show to enter, and the can scan their code once a day for each day of the show.
“We've got these blocks that have numbers on them, and we're going to live stream the drawing so people can see it's real,” she said. “They don't have to be there to win.”
