The Bahamas Hotel Association started as a social club among half a dozen or so hoteliers in the late 1940s. For two to three years it was just a social club but in 1952, seven of the hoteliers decided to form an association.
The Chief architect of the Bahamas Hotel Association (BHA) was Reginald G. Nefzger, then general manager of the British Colonial Hotel. Nefzger had a vision of uniting hoteliers, a union he believed would yield long term benefits for business owners, the industry and the country as a whole. He constituted the BHA in 1952. The founding members included:
- British Colonial Hotel
- Carlton House
- Cumberland House
- Montagu Hotel
- Prince George Hotel
- Royal Victoria, and
- Windsor Hotel.
The first set of objectives by the association were mainly designed to look at the problems they were having, seek to promote the hotels and work with the Bahamas Tourism Development Board.
