Red Carnation Hotels founder and president, Bea Tollman, a legendary figure in hospitality, has received the prestigious ‘best in the industry’ Corporate Hotelier of the World award from the premier US hotel industry magazine, HOTELS, “for her dedication, endless energy and creation of an admired hotel portfolio”.
The Tollman family’s engagement with the hospitality industry dates from August 1920, when Solomon Tollman, father of Bea’s husband, Stanley, opened a small hotel in Paternoster on the West Coast. Solomon had been smuggled out of the Russian Empire at the age of 14 to escape military service under the Czar, with nothing but a few gold roubles stitched into his clothing. As a result of Solomon’s hard work and personal oversight, The Paternoster rose to fame and, from this beginning, the Tollman name became a legend in hospitality, in South Africa, and the world.
Today, Bea (now in her 80s) and 90-year-old Stanley, own and operate a collection of 20 luxury hotels in the UK and Europe, South Africa (including The Oyster Box, where the couple had their first date), the US and Botswana.
