When Jimmy Buffett’s song “Margaritaville” came out in 1977, its message was clear: find paradise and relax. It’s this notion that propelled Buffett, with the help of John Cohlan, to turn Margaritaville into a hospitality powerhouse centered on a laidback lifestyle.
The brand’s first restaurant under Buffett and Cohlan’s partnership was in Orlando and spawned its own hospitality universe, with more restaurants, all-inclusive resorts, timeshares (a partnership with Travel + Leisure), RV resorts, real estate, vacation homes, boutique properties with Compass Hotels, next-generation housing with Latitude Margaritaville, and cruise ships.

The iconic flip flop sculpture takes centerstage on the Islander ship, designed by the McBride Company, which handles the interiors for the brand
Cohlan, who now serves as CEO of Margaritaville Holdings, and Buffett (who died in 2023) struck up a friendship nearly 30 years ago, when Cohlan had to move to Florida for work, at a conglomerate with interests in fast-food chains like Arby’s.
Cohlan had a light bulb moment when he saw Buffett perform for 100,000 people at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. What Buffett had was unique, Cohlan thought—a rabid following of people dedicated to the Parrot Head lifestyle.
In 2015, the first ground-up Margaritaville property opened in Hollywood, Florida, the handiwork of designer Pat McBride of the McBride Company, who continues to collaborate with the brand today. Now, under Cohlan’s leadership, Margaritaville continues to build a network of leisure outposts where authenticity reigns.
How did you get into hospitality?
John Cohlan: It was serendipitous. I went to law school, but I never practiced law. I did a few different things. I found myself working in private equity with Nelson Peltz, and we bought a conglomerate called DWG that owned a range of businesses, including Arby’s and RC Cola. We were based in New York and Nelson wanted to live in Palm Beach, Florida. I was 38 years old and single, and the last place in the world I wanted to live was Palm Beach. But he twisted our arms, so we moved the corporate office [there]. It lasted nine months before we moved back to New York.
During that time, I met Jimmy Buffett, and he invited me to something I’d never heard of growing up in New York called [the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival]. I was standing on the side of the stage as Jimmy’s guest looking out at 100,000 people. He still holds the record for the most people at the main stage. I told him that he had something special here.

The 349-room Margaritaville Hollywood Beach Resort in Florida, which opened its doors in 2015
What led you and Buffett to turn Margaritaville into a brand?
JC: Edgar Bronfman was an executive at Universal, and the company was building Islands of Adventure at CityWalk, which is a retail entertainment district [in Orlando] that you pass through before going to the parks. They wanted to license the Margaritaville name to build a 30,000-square-foot restaurant at the entrance. Jimmy was an intuitive guy. He called me up and said, ‘I’m not sure about licensing my name to Universal. There could be a real brand here. I can’t pay you, but you can wear shorts and flip flops.’ It’s a story he loved to tell. I left [DWG] to do that. He and I started this, and it evolved into something neither of us could have imagined.
What was your initial vision for the Margaritaville restaurants?
JC: We were trying to create what we are today but on a smaller scale—a lifestyle environment where people come to relax and escape the daily grind. We wanted to celebrate the idea that when you work hard, you should have time off. It came from Jimmy’s creative life, which has to do with the idea of relaxing, being social—that vacation state of mind. We describe ourselves not as a hotel business, but a lodging business. We have 150 restaurants today with over 40 lodging locations. Our main business is lodging, where we provide an opportunity for you to enjoy that lifestyle.
What is the common denominator found throughout Margaritaville properties?
JC: Everything we do is about emotion. One of the advantages we have is that Margaritaville is well known. The song was written in 1977, and it elicits an emotion. You’re introducing that feeling and experience to them in different forms, and it starts with people walking into something that’s organic and authentic.
When did you decide to move into hotels?
JC: It happened organically after about 10 years. It was always clear this was the business we wanted to be in, but it was a question of being able to get there. Our first big resort was in Hollywood, Florida [which opened in 2015] and people were having so much fun being there. The biggest evolution was taking that resort experience at Hollywood and bringing it into all these other lodging formats.
Why do you think Margaritaville has been so successful in each segment?
JC: The average tenure of our team is 20-plus years. It’s a fun place to work. That’s a big part of our culture. We spend a lot of time ensuring that everybody who works at Margaritaville is having as good of a time as they should. The background of our team is F&B, which is an important part of the hotel experience, and that’s a real advantage. As we’ve evolved and expanded our hotel business, we’ve continued to improve the application of F&B.

Colorful poolside cabanas at Margaritaville Hotel San Diego Gaslamp Quarter
How are you redefining boutique hotels with Compass, which counts properties in Florida, Oregon, South Carolina?
JC: We are in the resort world, but there were markets where a big resort didn’t make sense. We wanted to provide people [in those locations] the opportunity to have that experience, and that led to Compass. We spent about a year studying what people were looking for. There’s an indoor-outdoor focus with pools and firepits. We have our Five O’clock Somewhere bar with a high-quality bar menu. There’s often entertainment, which isn’t typically what people think of when they think of boutique or select service.
The idea is a leisure state of mind. When you’re traveling on business, you ought to be able to go to the lobby and have a drink and grab a burger and know it’s going to be a good burger and a good drink. It is very design driven because it’s about an environment. When we started this 26 years ago, [designer] Pat McBride told me that people have an expectation when they walk into a Margaritaville. They’re ready to engage in the emotion that Margaritaville represents. But we better deliver. It’s a way to create that same emotion in a smaller footprint.
What part of the process do you love the most?
JC: I love [designing the properties]. Everybody in our company weighs in on it. When we opened Hollywood, Pat McBride was at the Wynn Las Vegas, and we saw Popeye by [artist] Jeff Koons. Steve Wynn does hotels better than anyone, and I thought we should explore that. So, we came up with this idea of an oversized flip flop. We were installing it in the lobby in Hollywood, and it was intended to be in the corner. But we moved it to the middle of the lobby, and it became an iconic part of what we do. It stands for what all of this is.
How do you see technology, and AI specifically, impacting the industry?
JC: Generative AI is not going to replace the human connection people feel when they travel. Technology can make things more efficient, but people will always look to travel to have fun and meet new people. What keeps me up at night is the bigger we get, the more opportunities there are to stumble. Brands inherently are fragile. We’re only as strong as our weakest link, especially when you do as many things as we do.
Speaking of, you’re also expanding into cruising with Margaritaville at Sea.
JC: We launched the first one two years ago—a two-night cruise from West Palm to Grand Bahama and back. It’s a smaller ship. This new one is a four-to-seven night cruise—a larger ship that we renovated. It’s a great way to make a lot of people happy.

The Islander, the newest flagship cruise by Margaritaville at Sea
How has your consumer changed?
JC: It has skewed a lot younger. We have over 20 million people a year visiting our [properties]. We’ve been growing dramatically, but it’s been part of the culture for a long time.
Why do you think Margaritaville has resonated with so many people?
JC: The reason Margaritaville has worked is because of the quality of everyone who’s been a part of it and how much they care about the experience. People often ask me, given that we do so many different things, what’s our real business? My answer is that we’re in the training business. If you don’t do that properly, then that authentic experience isn’t going to happen.
What did you learn from working with someone as legendary as Jimmy Buffett?
JC: I am a lucky person to have been Jimmy’s business partner and good friend for close to 30 years. Jimmy is exactly the person you’d want him to be. We never had an argument. I can’t think of a time I spoke with him that I didn’t laugh at least three times. He brought more joy to more people than any other person you could think of, and this business is about bringing happiness to people.
Jimmy was one of the most exceptional human beings and artists, and he loved every minute of it. He was asked once, ‘Do you ever get sick of playing Margaritaville?’ He grew up in Pascagoula, Mississippi, so New Orleans was his town. He said, ‘Every time I play that song, I feel like I’m on [a Mardi Gras] float.’ I feel like I’m on that float, and I’m throwing out the beads. Why would you ever get sick of doing that? And that’s what this business is. It’s why it’s so much fun. We’re throwing beads out and trying to extend fun in everyone’s life.

Ocean blue hues punctuate the expansive atrium at the Margaritaville Resort Lake Tahoe in California
This article originally appeared in HD’s July 2024 issue.