South Carolina 50 Fastest Growing Companies: No. 2, Hotel Hartness

(Photo by Greenville Headshots)

Sean Hartness spent his teen years in the house that is now the luxury hotel that bears his family’s name.

Hotel Hartness, which opened three years ago, was once the family home on Greenville’s Eastside, built by Sean Hartness’ father Pat in 1980.

“Every project has a story,” Hartness said recently, chatting in the Hotel Hartness conference room. “The Hotel Hartness story is the property and the house you’re in is the home I grew up in, the home that my father built in 1980. So the authenticity of the story is tied to the fact that we own the property. … We took the home, and we transitioned it from our home to a home for others, for folks to come in and host events and stay here.”

The 73-room hotel, which also has two restaurants and a spa, is decorated with works by artists with ties to the Upstate, including the late Carl Blair, a longtime member of the art faculty at Bob Jones University.

Hotel Hartness was ranked No. 2 on this year’s 50 Fastest Growing Companies in South Carolina list.

The luxury resort has seen overwhelming success in just a few years, which Hartness said has been a great experience and perhaps a bit surprising, especially considered that the hotel isn’t backed by a nationally known and.

“We really looked at the marketplace and what was available. There are some great hotels downtown (but) that’s a different experience, and we really wanted to create a resort-quality experience, a four- or five-star experience on this side of town.”

There isn’t another resort-style hotel on Greenville’s Eastside that isn’t affiliated with a national brand, Hartness said.

“We wanted to build a unique asset in Greenville that was a resort quality of hotel, spa, and restaurant experience for the leisure guests as well as the group corporate folks,” Hartness said.

In transforming the property from a family home into a hotel, the goal was not really about replicating the feel of the place where Sean Hartness grew up. The current conference room, for example, was the family living room in the home’s earlier incarnation.

The plans for the hotel began to take shape just as the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Hartness recalled, so it was part challenge, part labor of love to create the hotel.

“You’ve got to have a vision, and you’ve got to have a passion to want to do something like this versus something that’s more cookie-cutter,” he said.

The response to Hotel Hartness has been “gratifying,” Hartness said, and in the past three years, it has become a popular venue for weddings and other special events, which helps set Hotel Hartness apart from other hotels in the area, he said.

And Hartness envisions adding more amenities, including expanding the spa offerings, in the coming years.

One thing that sets Hotel Hartness apart from other properties, he said, is “we have a story to tell, and we have something special and unique. … (Hotel guests) desire to connect with the place where they’re staying.”