History

Our History

Today's modern, multi-story Quality Inn & Suites Garden of the Gulf , started out in business life in 1938. David's grandfather Vaughn, now deceased, started the Groom family's hospitality holdings with early roadside cabins. Cabins became a motel and later grew to become a resort themed-inn. Vaughn's innovative thinking lead to joining the Choice Hotel network 61 years ago.

Vaughn saw an opportunity to bring potential new business to PEI and his location. As a result, Summerside's Quality Inn & Suites is Canada's oldest Choice location. It is also one of the oldest in the US based, now global hotel flag chain. Initially, the Choice network linked independent accommodation owners along the then new I-95 corridor to Florida, from Canada.

Today, Vaughn’s son Alfred, and David’s father, is a spritely 80 years of age, and a former Canadian record holding pole vaulter. Alfred still looks in on David's progress in building the family's innovation legacy. So too does David's uncle Don, who continues to deliver Dinner Theatre productions for David’s Dinner Theatre venue.