Local entrepreneur recognized in "Travel Pulse’s" 'What It’s Like to be a Black Female Hotel Owner.'

In 2018, businesses owned by women of color grew faster than other female-owned businesses, which led Choice Hotels International, Inc. to award six franchise agreements for hotel developments in the U.S. and the Caribbean to organizations led by African-American women.

A recent Travel Pulse story interviewed three of the women who joined the top fold of the hospitality industry thanks to these agreements, including Kristin Kitchen, owner of Sojourn Heritage Accommodations. She started with Six Acres Bed and Breakfast in College Hill, which was the home of Zebulon Strong, an abolitionist and Quaker, and his home was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Kitchen attended her high school graduation on this property before it fell into ruin, and was inspired to “restore the house so that the house could restore the people.”