How the Pew Family Built La Quinta Motor Inns on Consistency

Family Business Stories with Fexingo: Succession, Legacy, and Multi-Generational Companies · Jul 13, 2026 · 10m · transcript

In the late 1960s, Sam Barshop and his family turned a single motel in San Antonio into La Quinta Motor Inns, a chain that redefined mid-tier lodging by betting on predictable locations and lean operations. This episode drills into the specific financial logic — 65 percent occupancy breakeven versus the industry 75 percent — and how the Pew family's quiet capital backed a formula that competitors ignored. We walk through the 1987 leveraged buyout that took the company private, the public spat with a hostile shareholder, and what the Pews' decision to stay in the background says…