As of early 2022, the facility had joined Hilton's Curio Collection, a portfolio of 100 unique hotels around the world curated by the company, and it is rated a Four Diamond resort by AAA, said Kelly McCourt, director of marketing for The Woodlands Resort as well as for The Westin at The Woodlands and Embassy Suites The Woodlands at Hughes Landing.
"We originally started as The Woodlands Inn, then became The Woodlands Inn and Golf Club ... most recently, we became part of the Hilton Curio Collection. We are the only Curio Collection resort in all of Texas for Hilton ... and with that, we started doing a lot of renovations," McCourt said.
In recent years, the Resort saw the $26 million renovation of spaces in 2023 including adding the restaurant Harrison's, its Spruce Market shop and Lobby Bar as well as conference space and rooms. It also introduced the restaurant the Back Table and Bar in 2021, which features regular live music offerings.
How we got here
When it opened, the facility had 268 rooms located in several lodges on the property. When one lodge closed, the facility stayed at 218 rooms for a while, McCourt said, but it gradually expanded again to the more than 400 rooms now available.
Among the many firsts that occurred at the property, the facility was home to the first restaurant in The Woodlands, The Glass Menagerie, and the Resort was also the site of the township's ice rink, McCourt said. The hotel underwent several expansions and changes in the following decades as it adapted to demand from a growing community and business center, she said.
In 1989, the facility became The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center. A major expansion shortly thereafter included the development of the Shell Learning Center in 1996, a space which included 35,000 square feet for the use of the Shell Oil Company for meetings and events.
In 2002, a $27.5 million renovation added the Forest Oasis Waterpark featuring a double helix slide and splash pad, to which a 1,005-foot lazy river was added in the $75 million expansion from 2013-15. That renovation added 184 guest rooms among other amenities.
A closer look
Some employees have been at the Resort through many of its incarnations and expansions, such as Charline Ekenseair, who started working at the Resort in 1979 as a PBX, or phone system operator, and in 2024 she is still with the hotel as director of revenue management.
Along the way, she met her husband—he was a bellman when they met—and they were even married at the Resort, she said. Over the years, technologies also changed as the hotel adapted to new processes.
"They would answer the phones ... and they'd have to take the message by hand," Ekenseair said. "And they'd open the door and hand us the message and then we're throw it in the pigeonhole and turn on their light."
Among other changes over the years, retail stores used to be located along the corridor where The Woodlands Ballroom is now located. In addition to the first restaurant, other firsts at the Resort include Jamail's Family Grocery, the first grocery store in The Woodlands. The name for the area that included retail shopping and an ice rink was The Wharf, and that is memorialized in an outdoor event space.
A radio station, KMUV AM 1140, was also located at the Resort, and that area has been converted to meeting space.
Stay tuned
The recent renovations helped to provide a new look and offerings as the Resort hits its milestone 50th anniversary this fall, McCourt said. It continues to offer two golf courses and a Golf Center as well as tennis courts. The Resort now has five different food and beverage venues on the property, McCourt said.
Some of the original restaurant's recipes were discovered, McCourt said, and the Resort will be rolling some of those out onto its menus, such as the Bananas Foster, which she said has been very popular.
The restaurants and Spruce Market at the location also work with local artisans and producers of food and drink, such as Wild Stallion Vineyards, based in Spring. It also has bee hives on the property where honey is harvested and used in dishes at the restaurant, and can also be purchased on-site. Hats and clothing items are also available from local makers in the Spruce Market which was added in 2023.
"We try to pull in a lot of local options," McCourt said.
2301 N. Millbend Drive, The Woodlands
www.woodlandsresort.com
